Another reason to hate LinkedIn
I didn’t really need another reason to hate LinkedIn. I hate it sufficiently. So much so, that LinkedIn employees are checking this blog all day long to see if I’ve posted anything else about the service or if readers have left new comments… either of which would likely warrant another comment to the effect of: “I work for LinkedIn and I think it’s awesome!” (No kidding?)
LinkedIn is a largely useless service for the average professional, akin to the most annoying chain letters that don’t ever seem to die. Anyone else get sick of random requests to link from trolls who really aren’t interested in quality connections?
Today fellow blogger on BlogginStocks, Sarah Gilbert, raised an alarming issue with LinkedIn.
She can’t access her own account using her own email address. But a complete stranger named Kristin, is able to access Sarah’s account. Kristin was kind enough to give Sarah her login and password so that Sarah could see Sarah’s own account.
Confused?
Well it’s clear that LinkedIn has its wires crossed, and there’s absolutely no excuse for this. And Sarah does not appear to be an isolated case. Here’s another.
Imagine the damage someone could do if they were able to access your account? Just another reason to hate LinkedIn…
Hi,
I’m writing a story about LinkedIn and it’s spam emails and fraudulent accounts. If you could contact me back that would be great. Also if you knew of a way to contact Sarah Gilbert and possibly others who also had identity-theft/profile-mixes with LinkedIn that would be appreciated!
LINKEDIN IS stupid and can kill your job prospects as you are forced to put in a profile that limits your ability to seek other job types. For example, let us say you were once a publicist and today you are a developer. Given that you publish yourself as a developer, you cannot go after any publicist jobs anymore because a publicist employer will see only your latest gig as a developer. The PROFILE IS A BAD OPTION AND CAN KILL YOUR PROSPECTS. Another example, let us say you are a developer who is doing some management stuff, this management background will kill your future developer job opps. ALL HR SPECIALISTS ADVISE JOBSEEKERS TO TWEAK THEIR RESUME AND WRITE TO THE JOB SPEC. HOW CAN YOU DO THAT IF LINKEDIN HAS PUBLISHED YOUR PROFILE IN ONE SINGLE FORMAT?????
I hate Linkedin because it doesn’t allow you to add new people – to y our contact list so you can contact them. I thought Linkedin was supposed to be a JOB – Career Networking site, yet it only lets you add people if you know them. This is so stupid. The point is to meet and connect with new people. I tried to add a guy in Truro Mass who works on Puppetts for the entertainment industry but it wont let me add him so I can send an email hello and maybe make a connection. This site is so lame.
You should be able to add people even if you dont know them and contact them so you can make connections and network in the field. LinkedIN sucks
I received a spam message from someone at LinkedIn claiming to be a friend of mine, requesting my own email login and password. I did not bite.
I have a buddy that received the same message a week before and unfortunately entered his login and password only to find that someone had hijacked his email account and sent a message from his account to everyone in his phonebook on behalf of LinkedIn.
Golden Rule Reminder – DO NOT GIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION OVER THE INTERNET OR EMAIL
A month ago, a woman created a fraudulent linkedin account for an old friend of ours. Many false allegations were made against our family’s business. Linkedin customer service doesn’t even have a phone number and repeated attempts to have that site removed have fallen on deaf ears.
Meanwhile, our family is being harrassed by this woman.
It seems way to easy for people to hurt others through Linkedin fraudulent accounts.
The same women who did this was kicked off yelp.com and culver’s shooting page where she blogged assuming the name of our friend, and mentioned our family repeatedly.
Can you help?
Thanks.
From India, I hate linked in.
- Many Recruiters look into your Linked Profiles to judge how suitable you are for work, as soon as they get our CV. They count our “connections” and “Recommendations”. If they don”t find us there, they ignore us.
- So to improve my job prospects, I am having to spend time in Linked in asking my co workers to recommend me. (what a shame). I am getting mails from many of my ex-colleges asking me to recommend them too.
- So its just a waste of time for all of us,
- In my office I have seen people spending hours in this stupid website trying to increase their “VALUE”.
Tracy,
Thank you for writing such a thoughtful, insightful post to the discussion on Linked-In. I made the decision to cancel my account. I am not looking back. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Accidentally found this article and can see LinkedIn is actively p*****g people off! I signed on to Linked in some time back but only recently have begun using them with any regularity. Apparently there’s some “attitude” about not having a “complete profile” and I have found myself FLAGGED in the Q&A area on a variety of occasions allegedly for “inappropriate content” and “misrepresentation”. I don’t get it. People are asking questions and I’m answering. There is nothing inappropriate or misrepresentative about anything I’m saying and now it is clear to me that there are a number of so-called “professionals” that simply recognize themselves in my commentary or there are former bosses/co-workers with axes to grind who recognize my profile. I just posted this commentary on their site TODAY and it was INSTANTLY removed. So now it is clear to me that they have made up their mind to remove ANYTHING I say. Obviously the right to free speech doesn’t exist in LinkedIN if somebody just doesn’t like you or you aren’t “politically correct”. Anybody know of a professional website…and I mean truly professional website, i.e. respecting First Amendment rights and all – that is worth joining???? I don’t flame, swear or abuse other members by the way…..and the e-mail listed is correct despite the auto-response to the contrary. Just trying to keep junk to a minimum.