LinkedIn - Sales Calls

How do you guys feel about LinkedIn these days? I’m considering removing info, specifically current employer/job title. Seems like the only people who actively search are sales people looking for cold call business opportunities (well, aside from the guys who want to offer me $12/hour help desk jobs 1000 miles away on a 3 month contract lol). While the Telecom field has always been cut throat its getting crazy of late with people moving away from traditional WAN/Voice technologies. Like they say, if I had a nickel for every one of these guys preaching to save us money I could have retired years ago.

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PCTechLinc

I'm a little torn with LinkedIn. I know it's a place for professionals to connect, and just another vehicle for sales people. Now that they're owned by Microsoft, I'll sit back for a bit and see what it ends up being. It's starting to look a lot like Facebook.

dustervoice

pitviper wrote: »

well, aside from the guys who want to offer me $12/hour help desk jobs 1000 miles away on a 3 month contract lol). While the Telecom field has always been cut throat its getting crazy of late with people moving away from traditional WAN/Voice technologies. .

Seem like he is recruiting world wide for this Helpdesk role.

NetworkNewb

I have people send me interesting job opportunities from time to time. I don't mind it. I just usually block people who try and sell me things.

paul78

I'm a big fan of LinkedIn. Yes - there are sales and recruiting solicitations but that's the nature of a business network. And frankly, there aren't enough of those distractions to outweigh the benefits. I have a broad professional network and it's a much better way that using a paper roledex. Also - I curate my connections - I don't connect to anyone that I have not met or been in ongoing contact.

Before I go into any business meeting, LinkedIn is an invaluable resource to know who I will be meeting and how we may be connected. It's also a great recruiting tool when I am hiring. And I also enjoy the relevant content.

pitviper

I’m not talking about connections/messages through the site – I’m talking more so about people scrubbing information from what’s publically available on LinkedIn and then calling me at my workplace. I have a blackhole of hold music that I automatically route these repeat calls to from the gateway (they can be relentless) – which reminds me, I need to change the music to Justin Bieber or something equally as obnoxious!

MAC_Addy

I took my phone number off there. It was getting a bit silly for me. I just use it to keep track of previous co-workers and a place to add my certifications.

TeKniques

This happens to me on a daily basis. What I've done now is if the phone number on my caller-id is not internal or if I do not recognize it, I don't answer.

gespenstern

I put "undisclosed company" as my current employer, but it's still can be found out by a dedicated person. The phone I put there is my home phone not capable of receiving SMS and the one I never pick up. Sometimes listen to voicemails when expecting something.

Overall I think it is a great tool and was very useful for me as my current gig is a result of linkedin connections.

paul78

pitviper wrote: »

I’m not talking about connections/messages through the site – I’m talking more so about people scrubbing information from what’s publically available on LinkedIn and then calling me at my workplace.

I get solicitations all the time but I doubt it's related to LinkedIn. It's usually because I'm listed in a marketing db - can't seem to get off those

pitviper

"Undisclosed Company" is a good idea in lieu of removing it altogether. I don’t have any phone numbers on there – It’s not hard for someone to find you at work just knowing your company name and title. At least not for the sized company that I work for (with 1 corporate location). I noticed a half of dozen or so of the sales reps calling me out of the blue also accessed my LinkedIn profile (some even sent connection requests).

tmtex

About 6 months ago LinkedIn went down hill. As others have said, I get numerous emails to my Current company email account. I do not ever list my company email on anything other then work purposes. A co worker and I get the same emails. I kinda like the idea of "undisclosed Company".

I should also add if I click on jobs it has restaurant manager, Truck driver, HR and MANY other totally non matching jobs. A year ago the jobs matched me and were IT.

pitviper

Interesting - I would say things started getting bad early last year as well.

I get a lot of [sales] people who I've never spoke to in my life sending actual calendar invites now too. This drives me up the wall for some reason. There must be new guidelines out on how to destroy potential new leads.

thomas_

Hmm, maybe you can turn the tables and send out alendar invites to all of the recruiters. Schedule a conference call/webinar, start it at the designated time without saying anything, and then let all of the people that sent you unwanted calendar invites talk to each other.

PCTechLinc

Haha, that's an awesome idea!

pitviper

@=thomas
hehehe I love this!! I could setup a dial-in bridge to our blackhole extension and let them all hang out and listen to Justin Bieber

That would be hysterical listening to them trying to figure out what was going on - Like waking up in a room in a Saw movie lol

alan2308

Have you considered transferring to Lenny? Lenny would love to talk to them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/

JoJoCal19

ABSOLUTELY hide your CURRENT employer from your public profile. The privacy is granular so there is a checkbox you can select to hide just your current employer from non-connections. I highly recommend it. I kept getting spam sales emails out of nowhere at two of my employers and I couldn't figure out how they were getting my email as I hadn't put that email out anywhere. Then it hit me when it happened right after I started another job early last year and hadn't sent my email anywhere and had just started and updated my LinkedIn. Companies have a specific format they use for their email addresses (jdoe@company.com, johndoe@company.com, john.doe@company.com) and once these marketers and sales people have one email address from that company, they know what the format is and they scrub LinkedIn and see people that work there so they add you to their lists and put your name in that email format and start sending you the sales/spam emails.

So I hide my current employer so that only connections can see it. I review any connection requests and deny any requests from people in sales or marketing positions. So far so good. LinkedIn is invaluable for landing jobs as most of my jobs have been recruiters (internal and external) reaching out to me. I just started an amazing opportunity paying me well into the six figures and it came via a corporate recruiter finding me on LinkedIn.

TechGromit

NetworkNewb wrote: »

I have people send me interesting job opportunities from time to time. I don't mind it. I just usually block people who try and sell me things.

i don't mind emails from recruiters either, easy enough to ignore. What I hate is when I'm on call, I get telemarketing calls on the on-call duty phone. Maybe it's not on the do not call list.

dlvega0030

I am currently trying to expand my network through LinkedIn, most of the new contacts I add are from old jobs or college. But the idea of not showing your current employer is a good one. I shall change it ASAP.
I have never added a phone number to any on-line page (except maybe one or two banks)... am I missing something if i don't add my number?

Trucido

If I get a call and they don't leave a Voicemail, I block them.

paul78

dlvega0030 wrote: »

I have never added a phone number to any on-line page (except maybe one or two banks)... am I missing something if i don't add my number?

I assume you realize that you can control who sees your contact information. I personally have always put my cell-phone number in my LinkedIn contact which I make available to my network only. It's never been a problem.