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As a paid member you can message people without having them as a connection.
Yes, I paid for the 'Premium' account but cancelled it as I found it was a waste of money generally. If the person does not want to add you, then there is no need to message them any way. The only real perk I found of upgrading to the Premium account was that I could look up who exactly looked at my profile (could break it down daily, weekly, monthly).
Overall, I get more benefits using LI in my field than without it. I had some serious job interviews where I have been contacted.
As for people I do not know: I would link with most any college alumni who I did not personally know in the past on LI, however, I generally do not link to people from former companies I had worked at where I do not remember them at all. Meaning, the person on LI who wants to link with me may have been hired after I'd worked there. I prefer to have some sort of connection or knowledge of the people I link to.
I'm slowly approaching 500 connections on LI, so just adding numbers of people does me no use overall. I add people in a calculated manner. If I do not have any idea who they are and they want to link to me, I just ignore the request.
Call me old fashion. I keep getting invitations from college students I've never heard of. Do people honestly believe online social networking with people they've never heard of gives them a better chance at landing a job?
In short? Yes.
Long answer:
A lot of people see LinkedIn as another facebook. Professional networking has become "social networking." I think LinkedIn made a mistake by allowing people to "like" and comment on articles. But have you seen the articles,too? They seem to be written with a sensational purpose behind them. I can barely read half the crap there.
There was a person who tried to add me via LinkedIn. He claimed to go to the same school as myself, in the same program, yet I have never seen him before. I politely declined his invite, and mentioned how I didn't know who he was and don't add people I've never met. Guess what he did? He had the nerve to lecture me on the purpose of social networking and blah blah, like a guilt trip into accepting his invite. How is adding a person on LinkedIn who isn't a recruiter or someone you know supposed to help you get a job? I deleted his email and ignored his request.
This is one of those times where people are entitled.
A lot of people see LinkedIn as another facebook. Professional networking has become "social networking." I think LinkedIn made a mistake by allowing people to "like" and comment on articles. But have you seen the articles,too? They seem to be written with a sensational purpose behind them. I can barely read half the crap there.
There was a person who tried to add me via LinkedIn. He claimed to go to the same school as myself, in the same program, yet I have never seen him before. I politely declined his invite, and mentioned how I didn't know who he was and don't add people I've never met. Guess what he did? He had the nerve to lecture me on the purpose of social networking and blah blah, like a guilt trip into accepting his invite. How is adding a person on LinkedIn who isn't a recruiter or someone you know supposed to help you get a job? I deleted his email and ignored his request.
This is one of those times where people are entitled.
I don't think you understand how social networking works, just from the fact that you "politely declined his invite". You don't have to say anything, just hit the reject button. Telling someone why you declined the invite, IE lecturing someone on why you don't want to network with him, makes you look like a jackass. You cluelessly started an argument with somebody who meant no harm to you.
What I would like to know about LinkedIn is why people give them other people's email addresses. I got a lot of spam from them over the past year saying things like "(Person's name)'s invitation is awaiting your response." Enough spam to make me never want to do business with (person's name) again. I've never been a member of LinkedIn and there is no call for them to spam me like that.
Don't people know how rude it is to give other people's email addresses to spammers? (Person's name) lost me as a customer by giving my email address to LinkedIn and signing me up to receive spam from them.
And of course I'm not going to reply to LinkedIn, which would confirm to them that they're sending the spam to a real person and not just a random email address.
What I would like to know about LinkedIn is why people give them other people's email addresses. I got a lot of spam from them over the past year saying things like "(Person's name)'s invitation is awaiting your response." Enough spam to make me never want to do business with (person's name) again. I've never been a member of LinkedIn and there is no call for them to spam me like that.
Don't people know how rude it is to give other people's email addresses to spammers? (Person's name) lost me as a customer by giving my email address to LinkedIn and signing me up to receive spam from them.
And of course I'm not going to reply to LinkedIn, which would confirm to them that they're sending the spam to a real person and not just a random email address.
LinkedIn can go into a member's email contacts from his/her computer and send out LinkedIn requests. This has happened to me several times. It has to do with the settings. I was embarrassed because the invites went out to everyone in my Outlook address book, and I did not send out any connect requests.
I don't think you understand how social networking works, just from the fact that you "politely declined his invite". You don't have to say anything, just hit the reject button. Telling someone why you declined the invite, IE lecturing someone on why you don't want to network with him, makes you look like a jackass. You cluelessly started an argument with somebody who meant no harm to you.
Really? I did decline without a word to him for a couple weeks and he kept adding me. I asked him who he was, and HE was the one who went into a monologue about what he was looking for and how adding people was going to help him. In fact, other classmates of mine mentioned the same thing and he wouldn't stop adding them. If declining made me a jackass, then I guess I'm a jackass.
I don't like linked in. However, I believe 20 years from now it will probably be the main source of how people find job networking. I'm not saying that because I believe in linked in or the whole social media thing in general. Rather, I'm saying that because kids growing up today have smartphones insides of G.I. Joe and Barbie Dolls. They are being groomed to be internet ninjas by design almost short of parents actively bucking against it. Once these cats are in there mid twenties and 30's bleeding all over the job scenes, it will be a whole new world that will be like Pig Latin to those use to traditional avenues. Maybe not 20 years but 40 years for sure.
I can already see myself cursing out kids walking onto my old man porch because they were too busy to look up from their smartphones....
I think a lot of the problem is that there is a huge disconnect between fact and fiction on what colleges, career counselors and professors are telling their students on how to get their career going. No wonder these people are so confused and feel like no one will give them a chance. All the advice they are given is wrong.
They think if they want to work at a company or learn more about a company that they should connect with someone who works there. In reality, it doesn't quite go that smoothly in the real world. I was reading a thread on here where someone fresh out of college sent his resume to a company and found the company's hiring manager profile on linkeIn and he wanted to send a message there to follow up on the resume. When people were telling him not to do that, he insisted that what we told him goes against everything he was told to do.
These college career counselors need to give the correct tools to these students because they got them out there confused and frustrated. They have them taking courses and networking classes that do not work in reality. I really feel bad.
Give them a pass because they are trying to get a career going the only way they were taught.
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