Hacker News Reader

Comment by Finnucane | Hacker News Reader

"I open it out of habit and accept everyone who adds me because I don’t know why I wouldn’t."

If you add contacts you don't know indiscriminately, you're going to have issues. That's just asking for trouble.

But then, I haven't logged into my account in so long I don't even get spam from Linkedin anymore.

Honestly, 99% of the requests I get are recruiters, so I don't see why I would deny those requests. Only ones I turn down are these offering me jobs in another city - not interested in moving. Best case I get offered something good, worst case, what they have to offer at the moment doesn't interest me and I still have a bunch of recruiters I can ping back when I'm job searching.

Recruiters are paying for LinkedIn and can message you whenever they want, why do you need them to be a connection?

I take the exact opposite approach and only exclude recruiters. I figure by doing this my network is my legitimate business connections which I can use to further myself professionally.

> legitimate business connections which I can use to further myself professionally

Legitimately curious, how do you use these connections to further your career? Other than coworkers and people interested in hiring me and/or recruiters, and some bigger names, I didn't really see any other use to LinkedIn yet...

To be fair, I said "can" use them, not necessarily that I do :)

But, I have actually reached out to connections to discuss business opportunities. Since the connections live in the world where I have done business, they are more likely to know and trust that I can deliver on their business needs.

They have a gazillion other connections they'll put you in indirect contact with, making it easier to view their profiles, message them, etc. Unless you're trying to "inbox zero" LinkedIn or really care about curating your feed or are adding really infamous characters I can't see much downside to accepting requests.

Sure, I guess they put you in contact with them, but why would that person talk to you? If they'll talk to random people on the internet, why not just email them or DM them on Twitter or use any other means beyond LinkedIn?

If, however, that person sees that they are connected to you via some other person they know and trust, I think they'll be more likely to take you serious.

How do I know their personal Twitter, if they even have one? LinkedIn is specifically professional, so if I have a professional query for a stranger it seems like a much better venue then tracking down the person on Facebook or Twitter (assuming I even know who, specifically, I'm looking for, and can find them, on these other sites).

Like what? As far as I can tell, the more contacts you have, the more mutuals you'll have, leading to an easier time contacting people you actually want to talk to. I just accept everyone because I see little downside. I'm not there to chat.

Like the only mutual contact being some shady/untrustworthy/cheating individual.

Seems better than nothing. Generally they're just recruiters and anyway they apparently didn't think so lowly of the person as to decline the request.

The only unknown connections I get are either recruiters in geographies or industries I'm not interested in, or random people from India because I have a handful of legitimate Indian connections.

I get a lot of Indian connections despite having no real connection to the place.

How often do people actually get cold-introduced from someone they simply "connected" with on LinkedIn to someone else? What incentive would they have?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com