LinkedOut and Notworking
Friday 15 August 2014 • 6:03 PM
Part of my process of submitting job applications involves, unsurprisingly, LinkedIn. Normally, I would submit my application and then seek out recruiters and HR reps at the company on LinkedIn. I would amend the note attached to my connection invitation explaining that I had just applied for such-and-such position and was hoping s/he could provide some tips as to how to get my application in front of the right set of eyes. I had about a 40% success rate with this method. Until recently, I thought nothing of it.
The other day, when I attempted to connect with a recruiter at a company to which I had just submitted an application, I was asked to enter the person’s email address. I didn’t know the person, so there was no way for me to have this information. Now normally, when connecting with people on LinkedIn, you are asked to specify how you know the individual: classmate, colleague, friend, etc. ((There’s also an “I don’t know this person” option. If you select it, LinkedIn denies your connection request, explaining that you should only connect with people you know. So why the hell is that even an option? That’s like having a button that says “laser heat” on a microwave that does absolutely nothing when you press it. Or worse, makes the food colder.)) It turns out, when you get a connection request on LinkedIn, there are three options: “Accept,” “Decline,” and “I don’t know this person.” If the invitee selects “Decline” the inviter is, obviously, not connected. However, if more than 5 (different) invitees select “I don’t know this person,” the inviter’s account becomes restricted, essentially crippling the functionality of LinkedIn. This happened to me.
I just finished my Master’s degree. I’m trying to build a network to start my career. There are lots of people I don’t know. How am I supposed to grow my professional network if I have to provide information I have no way of obtaining?
Imagine if this is how cocktail parties worked. Or any real life social interaction. Or even dating websites.
Me: Hello, my name is George.
Stranger: I don’t know you.
(repeat 5 times)
Me: Hello–
Stranger: Before we continue this conversation, please tell me my birthdate or my mother’s maiden name.
I can understand having these safeguards in place. Nobody wants to bombarded with spam, but penalizing people for trying to connect with recruiters flies directly in the face of the purpose of LinkedIn. Hell, when I reach out to recruiters I’m essentially doing their job for them.
This begs the question: why is “I don’t know this person” even an option? What’s wrong with “Accept” and “Decline?” Given the functionality of the “I don’t know this person” button it might as well be renamed the “Fuck you” button.
For full disclosure, LinkedIn offers a (somewhat convoluted and hidden) method of removing this restriction. I stumbled across a forum on LinkedIn that explained this process. Once you find this page, you reaffirm that you understand that you shouldn’t reach out to strangers. Click the “accept” button and your account is returned to normal. However, if your account becomes restricted again (i.e. you get five more “Fuck yous”) you must contact LinkedIn customer support to return your account to an unrestricted state.
But this is all beside the point. LinkedIn shouldn’t even function like this. Or at the very least, its algorithms should be smart enough to tell the difference between Russian connection spammers and an unemployed 27-year-old attempting to connect with HR reps. And it’s not like I’m sending out hundreds of LinkedIn connection requests in the first place. In the last year, I’ve invited fewer than 100 people to connect with me on LinkedIn. That now constitutes spam?
I don’t even like spam. And I’m not the only one.