LinkedOut

In an effort to reduce some of the clutter in my life, I have decided to drop my service with LinkedIn. Here are a few reasons why (listed in no particular order):

1. Outdated Information - I’ve noticed that several of my contacts haven’t updated their information in years. To be fair, this isn’t a problem specific to LinkedIn but a common problem with any service that requires upkeep from its clientèle. Even a few of the points below suffer this same fate.
2. Injudicious Connections - I’ve always treated my LinkedIn connections with some discretion. My criteria has been that one must be passionate, exhibit excellent workmanship, trustworthy, dependable, etc. All the qualities that I would want should I want to hire someone or have them represent me. I try to adhere to these values as well since I, in turn, am part of someone else’s network of connections. Not everyone does this and in some cases I wonder if people just add connections to seem important.
3. Unwanted Invites - This is along the same vein as Injudicious Connections, mentioned above, where I receive invites from people who I’ve never met or barely corresponded with. Then are those cases where I’ve met people that are a ton of fun to hang out with, yet their professional behavior is less than desirable. Sorry, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but LinkedIn, is for professional connection and not so much personal ones.
4. Time Consuming Job Searches - Supposedly, one of the features of LinkedIn, is to find job opportunities but it is a bit more personal if you an e-mail directly rather than via LinkedIn. The other issue is that when you want to keep tabs on jobs, you can’t generate a syndicated feed. I’m afraid that I don’t have time to keep logging into my LinkedIn account to check job updates. I’d rather have my feed reader do all the work and there are plenty of services that can make that happen: Google, Authentic Jobs, Simply Hired, Monster, LifeHacker, and Joel on Software to name a few.
5. Lack of Syndication - It would be nice if benefits of LinkedIn were less manual. It would be far more interesting if I could sync contact information with my address book without always having to sign into the service and then copy and paste the data. This would also allow me to be more mobile with my updated contact information should I be traveling with my laptop or phone and when I don’t have an internet connection.

For me, my address book, which is synced between my laptop and my phone, is far more valuable. Not only that but it is immediate and local. No internet connection required. Granted, my address book requires upkeep just like LinkedIn but it easier to use and requires fewer levels of complexity.

Sorry LinkedIn but I have what I need without you.

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