I have been a linkedin user for about 10 years as well. Here are my thoughts:
Useful parts of linkedin (not that many):
- Ability to connect with people you have worked with and keeping in touch with them. Knowing who is doing what profesionally in your circle. This is useful if you know how to use the network to your advantage.
- Decent Job offers from good recruiters once in a while (very rare but it does happen). I call this "Good Recruiter spam"
Things that suck about linkedin:
- Endorsements
- Horrible UI and dark patterns.
- Bad recruiter spam. Basically the generic copy/paste messages or my favorite "I would like to connect with you on linkedin" generic message when trying to connect. Really ? You want to connect with a stranger but cannot bother writing why ?
- Groups (just another way of spam)
- The "App" spam on mobile phones. No linkedin, I don't want to use the App. Let me open linkedin.com ON mobile. there is such a thing right ?
I read a lot about recruiter spam but don't personally receive much of it. Most recruiters who contact me have reviewed my profile and present a job opening that aligns with my skills. Granted, I've never actually taken a job presented by a recruiter, but don't receive so many off-base contacts that I find them any sort of burden.
I'm not longer a developer, however, so I do wonder how much of the spam is concentrated just of filling technology positions. Dev positions are not easy to fill in just about any U.S. market, so it makes sense why they'd be so aggressively sought after.
Useful parts of linkedin (not that many):
- Ability to connect with people you have worked with and keeping in touch with them. Knowing who is doing what profesionally in your circle. This is useful if you know how to use the network to your advantage.
- Decent Job offers from good recruiters once in a while (very rare but it does happen). I call this "Good Recruiter spam"
Things that suck about linkedin:
- Endorsements
- Horrible UI and dark patterns.
- Bad recruiter spam. Basically the generic copy/paste messages or my favorite "I would like to connect with you on linkedin" generic message when trying to connect. Really ? You want to connect with a stranger but cannot bother writing why ?
- Groups (just another way of spam)
- The "App" spam on mobile phones. No linkedin, I don't want to use the App. Let me open linkedin.com ON mobile. there is such a thing right ?