I don't have a LinkedIn account, which some people find to be a bit strange. I'd like to talk a bit about that.
As a software engineer with an awesome job, I really do not need a constant barrage of recruiter spam. Here are the specifics:
- I like my current job, I'm well compensated, and I already have good career advancement opportunities.
- I have a fairly extensive network of professional acquaintances from previous jobs and friends of friends and whatnot.
- If I did want to switch jobs, I'd have a very specific list of criteria about what kind of company I'd want to work at, what their business model would have to be, etc.
My experience with LinkedIn is I'd get a torrential inflow of recruiter spam (i.e. "Join our HOT VC-backed stealth startup!!!") that wasn't useful to me at all.
Worse, I found that some people would "stalk" me on LinkedIn before coming in for job interviews. As in, I'd go in to a job interview, and someone would mention something about my past that they had looked up on LinkedIn. This has happened once with my Twitter account too, which is even creepier.
Since LinkedIn provides no value to me and is yet-another-way-to-track-me, I don't have an account with them. EZPZ.