Hey folks,
I’ve created a LinkedIn group for Lobsters users to help make connections, post about their availability for employment, and find interesting coworkers:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8646069
If you have an account, you are welcome to join and post. Please do kibitz my first draft of the rules:
Job postings must have a company name, work description, location with indication if remote is OK, and salary range. If your post lacks any of these four things, you will be banned. No warnings.
If you log in to LinkedIn weekly or more frequently, please volunteer as a moderator to help approve membership requests and moderate posts.
Finally, yes, everyone knows LinkedIn is very frustrating in a lot of ways. Unfortunately, network effects have made them the de facto official professional networking tool of much of the world. Practical alternatives to helping the Lobsters community find jobs and coworkers are very welcome, especially given that the job tag is almost unused here.
Actually, I’ve quit all other mainstream social media except LinkedIn, and find it a pleasure to use. It’s like the sugar coated optimistic version of the world. There are very very few flamewars or socio-political rants, and people are in general more civil, professional, and upbeat.
Looking forward to meeting fellow crustaceans in this rose-colored virtual utopia.
Interesting, I’ve experienced quite the opposite. Their UI was horrible and they required you to login to view messages you got from other users. Maybe my memory is off but I think they also advertised their premium features wherever they could. I am unsure what makes LinkedIn a pleasure to use or better than staying in touch with other professionals by email or some other form of communication.
UPDATE: I may confused them with Xing, which is the german LinkedIn equivalent. Nonetheless, I don’t like both services.
LinkedIn is also relentless with email marketing: I had to add a rule to block their marketing emails after two attempts to remove myself from their lists (I shouldn’t have been on their list to begin with, as I didn’t sign up). They are one of the worst offenders in this domain, it has to be said.
In my short experience in tech, I haven’t had to use LinkedIn and haven’t been pressured to use it. That may be specific to the tech industry, but I am thankful for it.
I find that barley surprising, considering what kind of a social network it is.
That’s what makes it a bit painful for me. Still, it’s good that there’s at least some corners in the world that are like that.
Pretty heavy handed IMHO
That is extremely harsh. Mistakes happen; I would suggest two strikes, assuming the deficiency in the original posting is rectified immediately.
Given how often people spam bad job postings, and given how basic that information is, I think it is reasonable.
If you put up a sloppy posting, you are wasting the time and being disrespectful to all the people who have to parse through it. If you are unwilling to proof it for those four things, you should be banned.
I’m pretty tired of recruiter shenanigans, but this got upvoted strongly, so I’m rewriting it to say “it will be deleted.” We can reserve banning for repeat offenders, and hopefully it won’t come up.
I think part of the problem is you desire to run this site with an iron fist and that’s really not needed. We’re all mature and have been vetted through the invite process, there is no need to be the über admin. Instead this site needs something akin to a caretaker.
I think this is being unfair to @pushcx. The only “iron fist” thing he did in the past month was ban a person calling for a race war, which IMO was long-overdue. Everything else was quality of life adjustments like merging dupes and removing off topic content, and I for one am glad they’re done.
The invite process isn’t really a vetting process. It means you either 1) knew a person who already had an account, or 2) went on the IRC channel and demonstrated that you know tech stuff (which is how I got an invite). It doesn’t filter for maturity or decency.
I agree.
I’ve occasionally floated semi-public postings over the years when I was not ready to divulge the company name until the req was actually public and in all cases salary was listed as “competitive”.
I’d say that “competitive” really means “negotiable” which can be off-putting and doesn’t bracket it. It was only for junior hires that I had a solid range rather than a floor.
I think the company name is vital because it allows people to look up lots more information.
For salary range, “competitive” is used by everyone but non-profits, so it doesn’t mean anything. And all salaries are negotiable, so again, that doesn’t convey any information.
There are plenty of places you can post those listings and far fewer places where you can escape them. It’s nice for this group to be one of the latter.
I’m comfortable with the rules, but there’s one thing unclear to me: would posting and searching freelancing offers be fine?
In general, what are the rules of searching?
Sounds good, and I’ve added it. I also think a big part of the benefit is to help LinkedIn make connections so people can have get to conversations easier. I’ve added this to the description.
I don’t know what rules there could or should be about searching? If you have ideas, please suggest them.
I’m not sure, probably that you should at least give some indication what is of interest to you. I’m not sure if you should disclose your rate, as you would pre-rig the negotiation game then.
I’d say let’s see what comes and establish rules then.
Too bad, I deleted my linkedin account a few months ago. I think the job tag could afford to be a bit more popular.
I would also love to see more use of the “job” tag. I deleted my LinkedIn account a while back but would be interested in being able to view the postings from folks on this site.
Hello fellow crustaceans, pushcx just added me as a moderator. If have any request, don’t hesitate to send a message on lobsters!
There’s a rule on job postings, but how should be the structure of availability postings?
Whatever would be useful? I’m less worried about individuals being disruptive; I do think it’s inevitable from recruiters. But please do suggest a format if you have a good idea.
Maybe this will convince me to restart my LinkedIn account. It does seem to be a bit of a career hindrance not to have one.
Wait until you start getting all the recruiting emails before you decide what’s more of a hindrance :)
That and LinkedIn’s own un-blockable emails are what led me to delete my account in the first place 🙄
Hi @pushcx, can you possibly update the rule to include indication of any working eligibility for particular countries. The majority of “remote OK” US jobs don’t hire outside the US.
Great idea. How would you phrase this? I don’t feel like I know hiring well enough to use the right phrase to convey this succinctly.
Maybe something like: “location with indication if remote is OK and where it’s OK” would be a good start?
There could be also a few simple examples of a good offer:
I like @hawski’s concision, but a more explicit treatment may be:
Hello! I have also logged in (linkedin@homonculus.net). I’m not currently looking, or, sadly, hiring, but I did get my previous great gig from a fellow lobster, and I’d love the chance to pay that forward.
Thanks for making this! I’ve recently left my job at Intel PTD in order to move back to Austin. I’d love to talk to other lobsters to see what opportunities are out there! I just sent a request to join!
Just sent a request. Looking for a remote opportunity :)
Hey, I just send a request to join. I’m curious what’s going to be posted.
I’m thinking most jobs and people announcing availability for jobs, but I’m not frequent LinkedIn user so whatever’s normal there is also welcome.
ETA: Also, I’m going to automatically approve all requests at least until I start seeing professional recruiters starting to join. If your approval takes a few hours or even days, it’s because I’m running some errands today and I’m not a heavy LinkedIn user.
Am starting to see recruiters trying to join now, FWIW
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I wanted to put way more information on the listing but it turns out it’s effectively just a single line it allows you to post, is this a limitation of LinkedIn or was this a choice for the board to have the actual listings somewhere else?
I’d like to volunteer as a moderator. I’m here: https://linkedin.com/in/zzatkin
Huh, that’s a really strange limitation and I don’t understand it. I’ve reviewed the settings pages and I can’t see anything like that. When I click “Start a conversation” or “Post a job” I’m prompted for a title and body, and the body text takes several hundred words of lorem ipsum without complaint. If you reload and still can’t post more than one line, please message your posting to me (here or on LinkedIn) and I’ll add it.
It was me being silly in the end. It said “Add a link” in the body and I thought it actually was just for adding a link and tried to cram the whole thing into the title, yet another lesson about late night work output. Thanks for letting me sort it out without getting banned.
Unlike my other inboxes on LinkedIn, it has not turned into a steady stream of recruiter spam, so I feel pretty relaxed about the whole thing.
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Sent a join request!
I have asked to join.
Thanks for this. I’ve posted a job opening there.
I just sent a request. Not looking right now, but I love the idea. This community is great.
Sent a request too, might be in the market soon!
Just sent a join request. Thanks.
Also sent a join request, thanks :)
Just sent a request :)
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A group of Lobsters? on LinkedIn, count me in. Just sent a request