I don't think anyone's said it better than Joel Spolsky in his 2006 article on why bad developers are over-represented on the job market:

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/09/06/finding-great-deve...

I wonder this too. As a relatively young professional, I regularly have folks add me who are my age or younger (mid 20's), and have a portfolio of experience that reads as if they are a Fortune 500 CEO. Combine that with having 5000+ "connections", a slew of unverified and uncorroborated skills, and LinkedIn continues to feel frivolous.

Yet most jobs listing these days require a link to your profile, so it's clear there's some value in having a "complete" profile.

There was an article on HN a few weeks ago about a guy making a game out of LinkedIn. In that he made a fake account, filled it with buzzword skills, degrees, and colleges. Started adding every notable person he could. Then it became a domino affect. Once he had some influential people as connections, other people started adding him, thinking he was then a big shot. Then once he got a ton of influential connections, recruiters from major companies started reaching out to him with job offers and interview requests.

Ultimately LinkedIn does have a good business use, but it can also be gamed pretty hard.

EDIT: Found the link. It didn't originate on HN, but I saw it from a post about it on HN.

https://theoutline.com/post/5495/how-to-beat-linked-in-the-g...

Thank you for sharing, Fun read

No, they don't really, which is why they're always out and about making noise. The good people just keep getting promotions and salary increases and don't spend a lot of their time "networking." When's the last time you got a LinkedIn spam from Jeff Dean looking for a job?

I had to block one because they kept asking me to endorse and recommend them for shit that I don't even know about.

I'm like dude, when did you ever worked on "designing collimation towers" for NASA? You are like 19. Unless you were like a child prodigy, which I doubt, since you are asking me for an endorsement.

Well they do get some jobs, they just don't happen to keep them for very long...

They don't, otherwise they wouldn't have to spam LinkedIn.

Can't the inverse also apply?

If it didn't work they wouldn't spam LinkedIn.