LinkedIn contacts - does your network really give a ****?

[oliverson]

So, I'm currently looking for contract work and am several months in with just one single interview, a zoom call, that was a waste of time.

My findings is that JobServe is just a black hole into which I fire my CV and occasionally get a response, usually from Lorien, saying my application has been unsuccessful!! I very rarely get to talk to an actual agent these days. Most bizarre.

Given most of my recent contracts have been through LinkedIn or my network, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and send a message on LinkedIn to a number of my contacts that would be the most likely to offer work, or so I thought. I have just shy of seven hundred contacts in my network and I'm actively looking to reduce that, especially when somebody posts a load of tulip on LinkedIn, as if it were Facebook. My strategy was to look at my 20 year contract history and recall the key people I worked with over that time. I entered their details into a spreadsheet and prepared a MS Word mail merge message. Off I go, sending the messages manually. There were 54 of them and it didn't take long really. Now, sat back in glee rubbing my hands, waiting for the offers to come in and.........

No more than 10 responses, half saying there's nothing going at their place. The others were along the lines of they're not sure but will ask around and then nothing further. Even my best contracting buddy I've known since we contracted together on a project back in 2004 and I've stayed in touch with on a daily basis, we even shared two apartments in our London contracting days, said he'd ask around Tuesday/Wednesday this week when back in the office. Seems like he's not even bothered doing that.

So, my takeaway from all this, is that neither my LinkedIn contacts, nor my wider network give much of a **** really. They'll probably drop me a line when they are next looking, and I'll probably still help them, but there you go. Rant over.

[ladymuck]

I wouldn't take it personally. I find that letting select people in my network know I'm free / coming available does very little in the immediate term but things do seem to drip feed in over time. It's like they clock the information but only act on it when something crops up. It's very unlikely that they'll actively go round where they work asking if there's any jobs going.

Something I always do is change the beginning of my tag line to something like "AVAILABLE FROM SEPTEMBER" and then click like on a few posts, make a comment here and there. Someone eventually notices and gets in touch.

[jamesbrown]

I think your expectations are a little out of whack, tbh. A response rate of ~20% is not bad, I reckon. Unless they have something suitable, there isn't much to say. But I think it was worthwhile as they will likely think of you if something comes up.

As you can see from the State of the Market thread, the UK contract market for IT generalists/coders/analysts/managers etc. is pretty crap and has been for a long time. It probably won't turnaround anytime soon. That's your reality.

On the other hand, it sounds like you have a pretty decent network and I think your expectations of it may be a bit high. Ultimately, you cannot expect anyone to give a massive crap about your situation, but they will now think of you if something comes up.

[edison]

How much effort have you put into maintaining contact with those 54 people over say, the last say 12-18 months?

There is an element of the market being poor so many people probably had nothing of note to feed back or were just very busy.

But a network is a two way thing and you have to spend time and effort to maintain it, not just approach out of the blue (if that's what you did.)

It's counter intuitive but for work opportunities, it's often your second degree connections on LinkedIn who may be able to help the most, not your first degree connections.

[Dorkeaux]

How much effort have you put into maintaining contact with those 54 people over say, the last say 12-18 months?

There is an element of the market being poor so many people probably had nothing of note to feed back or were just very busy.

But a network is a two way thing and you have to spend time and effort to maintain it, not just approach out of the blue (if that's what you did.)

It's counter intuitive but for work opportunities, it's often your second degree connections on LinkedIn who may be able to help the most, not your first degree connections.

Edison and the other posters are right, I reckon.
I spend 0 time on my linkedin network, and expect nothing from it except to provide a convenient way to get in touch with the individuals. That has worked out pretty well.

Using it to canvas for work is good try, though.

[willendure]

It's counter intuitive but for work opportunities, it's often your second degree connections on LinkedIn who may be able to help the most, not your first degree connections.

That is an interesting perspective. Makes sense in that the more degrees you go out, the larger the number of connections there are. What do you do to gain the notice of second or third degree contacts? Write and post interesing articles and so on?

[courtg9000]

All I seem to get on LinkedIn these days in terms of invitations to network is Asian recruiters who do not read my headline which says "Retired in health grounds" and who are contacting me with a scam job offer that not even my dead goldfish Flopsy would consider.

With the exception of about 3 of the PE guys I follow who post good stuff that I am interested in and the odd half decent post about something else most of the posts I see are virtue signalling diversity led rubbish (80%) and the rest are contractors who are available at the end of the week owing to "priority changes at the client" or words to that effect (20%). Most of these posted last month or the month before about how they got an extension or a new contract/job. Either that or their mate has got them to share the post saying they are available.
Maybe its just my network?
I am wondering how low LinkedIn will go.

[Ketto]

Haven’t announced my availability via LI since August 2023 so not sure what it is like right now, but last time I did I got two offers from previous clients. Unfortunately both were on my “would rather work in the Argos stock room” list.

[TheDude]

It's a social media platform.

Most people are inactive. Many more are only looking for a wider audience to brag about their running/cycling/gyms PBs or post selfies of themselves. Everyone one else is on the hustle.

[Dorkeaux]

It's a social media platform.

Most people are inactive. Many more are only looking for a wider audience to brag about their running/cycling/gyms PBs or post selfies of themselves. Everyone one else is on the hustle.

Yes, it is. If that's how you use it.

Or, you can _not_ read the idiotic posts and treat it as a place to post your CV/job history/profile and search for roles.
As a side benefit, it allows me to keep track of colleagues and exchange messages with agents.

As a sidebar, describing WhatsApp as a social media app always confused me.
I use it as an encrypted messaging service that also does phone and video calls over WiFi.
Am I using it wrong?