I don’t know why I even have the Linkedin app on my phone. Honestly, I hate it. 99% of the posts/interactions/etc are things I do not care about or actively despise. “You just need to follow services and people that you like” - you might say? I don’t like business services, companies, or clients. I only follow and interact with people I’ve worked with, I’m not looking to sell my “brand” or become an influencer (though you wouldn’t know the difference between FB/TW and LI with all the clout chasing, these days). I just want a feed that isn’t either a) non-stop shilling or b) people reacting to obviously fake, completely made up stories where some guy pretends to feel bad about firing a bunch of people or for hiring a minority who had “no experience”. I don’t engage with people who are just looking for attention, and neither should you (but, you do you).
The rule
Since the “jobs” and “my network” tabs are entirely worthless (thanks for putting ads for weird online-only “conferences” in my friends list I guess?), the only feature with actual value is messages. Everyone on the site has had an interaction with a recruiter, and if you haven’t I have no idea why you’re even using it (LI is a service for recruiters). To be a little bit fair, the quality of the recruitment messages has improved over the years. I only got 1 this year asking if I’d like to be a technical writer for some company (I can do technical writing, I am not a technical writer). But that increased courtesy of “reading one’s profile before blindly sending a message” is offset by a significant majority of recruiters who completely ignore you after sending that first message.
I’m fortunate enough to be in a position I’m comfortable with at the moment, so maybe recruiters aren’t used to hearing “no thanks” or “my profile doesn’t list any of those skills at all so I’m going to have to pass”? I’m not asking for much, just an “ok thanks for letting me know” would be fine. Or, when you respond positively “hey can you share more info about this” and they ghost you because the position has been filled and it’s just easier to pretend like you don’t exist than tell you that.
Some people think that you should counter this kind of behaviour with kindness (because their jobs/lives/etc are hard too and we’re all in this togetherrrr heartemoji smileyface.gif) but I’m here to argue the opposite - recruiters are a dime a dozen. You should treat each one with the same courtesy they have shown to you. If they’re kind and understanding, respond in kind. If you’re not interested in the job, just ignore them. Delete the message, leave it on read, whatever floats your boat. You don’t need them anyways!
Hell, maybe if we all ignored them more often they’d find more value in actually building a network and helping people find jobs instead of just using you to get a commission cheque.
The exception
The sole exception to this rule is Amazon. Amazon recruiters can, and should, be told to fuck off. While there are lots of union-busting, employee abusing, privacy eviscerating companies, Amazon holds a special place in my heart for being the worst possible company in terms of it’s products, services, and how it treats customers and employees. I do keep these messages professional (it is a real struggle to not just respond with the middle finger emoji), but I’ve had like 5 Amazon recruiters and “senior managers” for various departments reach out so far this year and I’m pretty fucking sick of it.
How many times do I have to tell you no, not now, not ever, not for literally any amount of money, before you add me to the “do not call” list?