Hacking a job search with fifty dollars of free LinkedIn credit | Hacker News Reader

Hacking a job search with fifty dollars of free LinkedIn credit

linkedin.com

95 pointsrealYitzi15 comments

I write resumes for a living and coach many of my clients on job search strategy, which often relates to strategies to get people to actually read the resume that I've written for them.

I've never heard of someone doing this, and it's not a bad hack since it's apparently free. My main question would be the effectiveness of an ad like this vs a simple message to the people directly.

As a recruiter (which I was in a different life), would I even notice an ad like this? I'm not sure, but I'd definitely notice a message in my inbox saying "Hey Dave, I found your profile doing some research on $COMPANY ..."

Since he's only targeting 15 companies doing a quick search on LinkedIn for HR/recruiting types at those firms and sending a message like that could probably be done in under an hour, and I'd think it might be a bit more effective than the ad.

It's a clever idea, but I'd question how effective it might be vs a direct message.

> Since he's only targeting 15 companies doing a quick search on LinkedIn for HR/recruiting types at those firms and sending a message like that could probably be done in under an hour, and I'd think it might be a bit more effective than the ad.

If you do several targeted searches like this in a month LinkedIn now blocks the results and says "Looks like you are a power searcher, upgrade to premium to see results". It even blocks the "people also viewed" results on individual profiles. Makes it nearly impossible to actually find a number of specific recruiters.

I believe you, but I have a standard account and run lots of searches (maybe a couple hundred a month?) without running into this issue. I expect by 'several' you must be doing several hundred searches a month to get that issue, or scrolling through lots of profiles (looking at 10 pages of results for each search).

I often do searches as an exercise with clients live, and I use the filters (location, title, etc.) to try and target results so I'm not scrolling through pages of profiles.

Far, far less. Search a company like "Airbnb", view employees, filter the results by geo, job title, whatever, and parse through the pages. Do this a few times with different companies and you get blocked. I don't do this often, certainly less than 20 times per month, and hit the paygate. Perhaps they have different limits for different accounts, but I have never, ever conducted hundreds of searches.

That's interesting. I know I'm well over 20 a month on searches like that. I'd wonder if they base it on other things (like connections). I did have a paid account in the past, but it's been a few years since I opted for the free one.

It’s possible they have an A/B test running to see if limiting searches increases Premium subscription conversion. You’re probably in the control bucket.

Yes but you can do a free trial of Premium which for in-demand professionals is more than long enough to get enough interviews for an offer or two.

Unfortunately, this is not true. I got hit with the paygate while searching for people I used to work with, because I would like to find a job. I was told by LinkedIN that I must be a recruiter, so I would have to signup for premium. So I signed up for the free 30 days of premium, and it still refused to let me search for the people I used to work with. I filed a bug report, and it took more than a day for the LinkedIN staff to admit they were still intentionally blocking me because they really really wanted my money. 30 days free doesn't mean what I think it means. I paid them with a credit card, and my searches worked. I was going to wait until I get hired to blast LinkedIN (and Indeed.com) for their evil patterns, but I could not resist adding a comment to this thread. Suggestion to LinkedIN execs-- if you need my money, just ask. Don't over promise and under deliver.

It's worse than that.

I have a LinkedIn Premium account, and despite that, one month it decided I'm a power searcher who must upgrade to the next level (2.5x more expensive).

My searching is only limited to looking up companies I might want to work for, and browsing what kinds of people work there, or in some cases, looking at people who have already messaged me, and from there their company.

I guess I'm just too curious.

Hi Dave,

How can a regular free user write messages to a non-connection? LinkedIn requires a premium for 'Premium InMail'

It depends on the user's settings.

If it was possible, it's not anymore. I just went through, there's only the option of allowing "InMail"

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/1584 says InMail allows you to directly message another LinkedIn member that you're not connected to.

Note: If you have a Basic (free) account, you can only directly message LinkedIn members that you’re connected to. You must upgrade to a Premium account to use InMail

I just send a friend request accompanied with a short introduction. It worked last October, but I haven't tried since.

Be very careful with "free linkedin credit," and giving them a credit card. Find in the LinkedIn interface where you can set the total spend you want on ads, as LinkedIn has auto-renewed card payments for ads without a notification equivalent to say, the ones you get for trivial things people in your network do.

Also, if you complain, they do communications not by email where you own the records, but via their user interface. I had a ~$300 ad spend balloon to almost $2000 and only caught it when I saw the credit card bill. They had been renewing the spend and charging the card without sending an email or regular account notification, as though to run it up before it was discovered. Their representatives commitment to repay the amount does not seem to have been fulfilled either.

When you are unsatisfied with being ripped off, they try to convince you that they are sympathetic to your incompetence, but they are keeping your money and you should be ok with that.

In short, avoid.

I use privacy.com to get virtual credit cards with controlled limits to avoid surprises like this. Or use prepaid Visa cards.

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