I knew there was a reason
for my removing myself from Linkedin the day MS bought it.
Microsoft has glued LinkedIn and Office 365's Word together so it can automatically help folks write or update their résumés – and find them new jobs at the same time. Resume Assistant in Office 365 Given Redmond has owned social-network-for-suits LinkedIn since 2016, we're floored it took this long. Specifically, Microsoft …
Do you mean that you only have ONE email address?
I run many. Any address that goes out to uncontrollable sources - and any commercial source is uncontrollable - is an address that I don't mind losing. I regularly cycle them around - as I do my credit card numbers, and various other hooks through which I am connected to the outside world.
That way, I can always disassociate myself from any unpleasantness...
"I've been meaning to delete my account there for a long while. This is a good reminder to actually do it."
and why ???
If this had been put in openoffice or another open source application most of the nay-sayers on here would be applauding it - but Microsoft noooooooooooooooo
Its not on by default, you have to go find it, don't like it, don't look for it - simples
Tedious
If this had been put in openoffice or another open source application most of the nay-sayers on here would be applauding it - but Microsoft noooooooooooooooo
Its not on by default, you have to go find it, don't like it, don't look for it - simples
Doubt it's an issue for me anyway, as the email account that might (might) have access to Awful365 is not the same as the one I use for LinkedIn. So it wouldn't link the two anyway.
But as regards OpenDocument; I'd like it if sites would actually support ODT files (which my resume is formatted in). They're quite happy to use DOCX, even though DOCX is a sketchy, poorly documented, not-quite-open format, yet sites are all set to use it.
>I wouldnt even interview someone without a Linked In profile. Good way of background checking.
I think that's a bit unfair. LinkedIn is the only social media I use, mainly because I still find it useful, once ad-blocking is turned on. I follow most people I meet and connect with for a while. If they post things infrequently, and what they post is useful or interesting I continue to follow them. If they post (or like) any self-help type bollocks or mostly-made-up sob stories then I don't. And if they post any "I just got this pointless certification from Acclaim because I now know how to fill in my corporate time sheet" bollocks then they're off the list because I can't be bothered keeping ublock up to date to hide them. Yeah, IBM people, I'm looking at you. How to get yourself unfollowed in one easy step.
Back to the point - the best way of checking someone's background is by speaking to them. You can bullshit as much on Linkedin as you can on a CV. In fact most people bullshit a lot more on LinkedIn.
Still don't want it integrated in Word though. But given that both are necessary evils it kind of makes sense.
"I think that's a bit unfair."
You can think what you like, but lots of people use it for that. And for hunting for candidates in the first place. Remove yourself from it and you most definitely restrict yourself from some job opportunities.
"Back to the point - the best way of checking someone's background is by speaking to them.!"
No, that takes way more time and synchronising diaries, arranging a call, etc.. I can filter a candidate in outline in a few seconds on Linked In.
"If the information is accurate..."
And again Linked in shows me who they are linked to - I can ask people I know what they think and if they are any good.
"As a background check it is pretty worthless "
It is effective for stage one filtering and minimizing time wasted on calls and interviews.
"If you are not a 'WASP' you might want to avoid it."
That's what we use it for. Firstly we throw away all the CVs with foreign surnames (most of them these days - what is it with Asians and low grade IT jobs?!) , then we WASP check versus Linked In. So we end up just hiring Brits or culturally very similar types. Means no more not being able to go out for a Chinese meal because it's not Halal and no more not being able to hold the morning meeting in the pub because someone's a Muslim, etc. etc. It's great for corporate culture.
"I wouldnt even interview someone without a Linked In profile. Good way of background checking."
If the information is accurate... I have a former colleague whose description was Managing Director and Technical Test Specialist at <big company employing 20,000+ people>. The reality was that, as a former contractor, they were the managing director of their one man company and a cog in the big company. What they wrote was therefore accurate but not true at the same time. Although an extreme example this is one of the problems with LinkedIn - the information is unverified and anyone can say what they like. LinkedIn is just a crappier version of FaceBook but with a 'business slant' where you can boast about your job instead of your pet cat. As a background check it is pretty worthless and I wonder how many competent and outstanding people you've lazily rejected for interview because they're not into business orientated social media boasting?
"I wouldnt even interview someone without a Linked In profile. Good way of background checking."
This is actually a good reverse rejection method for applicants:
As others have pointed out the definition of "Good" here is "lazy" as it isn't an accurate way of checking anything, just a quick way to think you have.
I haven't signed up to LinkedIn so that I don't accidentally get employed by someone as lazy and sloppy (or just plain ignorant of accuracy in social media) as this.
> removing myself from Linkedin
I assume you got confirmation that all copies of your profile were deleted, backups and history of changes included?.
Colour me cynical, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of such account deactivations fall in this bucket, and the bucket where your data is actually deleted is a lot harder to get into. From the account deletion page:
Closing your account means permanently deleting your profile and removing access to all your LinkedIn information from our site
Then further down is:
You can reopen your account in most cases if it's been closed less than 20 days, but we're unable to recover the following even if you reopen your account:
Endorsements and recommendations
Ignored or pending invitations
Followings (Influencers, Companies, etc.)
Group memberships
Which effectively states that they are not deleting *any* of your personal data, just not showing it on the interwebs. They still have that data to use for whatever internal purpose they desire - be it training AI to write CVs, or any other research purpose. Add to which they probably store the account history changelog, so it probably doesn't really impact things if you first change all your data to junk like "Professional Human Cannonball" before requesting the account termination.
Local data protection laws may override this behaviour in some jurisdictions - perhaps worth asking them what they have on you now that your account is terminated (assuming they are obliged to answer and can't wriggle out of it by transferring the info to a separate legal entity that's in a different jurisdiction that isn't subject to the same rules by some legal loopholing - IANAL, YMMV, etc...)...
Make a temporary email account you can delete later.
Confirm change at Linkedin via received email.
Change every entry of profile to nonsense.
THEN delete account. Because they don't delete info.
Confirm if any emails received.
Delete temporary email account.
You'll still get spam on a variety of email addresses you use. Make sure on email client that you never acknowledge "read receipts" and "remote content" is disabled.
Do not click "Unsubscribe" on any spam. That simply confirms your email address works.
Don't know... Maybe I'm really old fashioned, but...
When we/ I used to hire people, we used their application to make a selection based on the material they sent us. I know. Silly us. If now, with these kind of things cover letters/ CVs become buzz word, impersonal, ironed smooth, middle-of-the-road spam, the only effective way of properly hiring people will be "improved" to "People, we're looking to fill this spot. Does anybody know anybody good? Got any knowledgable family members maybe? Know people from the pub? There is free beer for the golden tip!"
``This is going to turn in to Facebook. You can definitely see it coming.''
Too late. It already has. It's already here. The default ordering in your "feed" (or whatever LI is calling it these days) is "Top". I.e., "most popular" posts. Oh you can change it to "Recent" but you aren't able to make that your default for sorting your feed.
The feed is now littered with advertisements -- there's really no other word for them -- from people touting their employers loan offerings, come-ons for online classes, and completely random posts that are ``Trending in Chicago'', ``Trending in Linux', etc.'. The stuff that shows up in your feed is almost never related to the topics you told LI you'd like to follow. I'm guessing the writers of those posts paid to get them there. And all of these are accompanied by huge (and often pointless) photos or videos (thankfully not auto-playing).
And my all-time favorite turned-to-crap feature: Being able to see who has looked at your profile. At one time (long ago) this was pretty much always possible to see who visited your profile. Then you started seeing that some profile viewers had chosen to view using `private' mode. Upgrading to a premium membership was supposed to--according to the list of advantages that you'd see in the ``wouldn't you like to become a premium member'' messages--allow you to see who those viewers were and that actually worked for a while. Then, apparently, it became possible for some members to view profiles in ``super-secret private mode'' (for more $$$ undoubtedly) even when viewing profiles of premium members. Nowadays, most all you see are ``Someone in the ABC industry'' or ``Someone with the job title Recruiter''. Marvelous. I immediately discontinued my premium membership upon learning that.
AC Lets face it clippy thought I was writing a letter when I was categorising and listing my mp3 collection so I expect this to be equally useless.
Well, fair enough, it's an understandable mistake if you were cataloguing your Beatles tracks...
"Dear Prudence,
I want to tell you,
Another girl,
All you need is love,
And I love her.
Ask me why,
Because.
All my loving,
-Johnny B. Goode.
P.S. I love you."
"MS would love it to be Facebook (which makes money). It won't be though."
No, it's never going to be Facebook. Its for corporate types - and is largely used to find contacts to sell expensive services and stuff. So there is a LOT more money potentially involved than Faceplant. It's perfect for Microsoft.
"Why, do you like being spammed by recruitment agents via every communication medium under the sun?"
Usually what happens when you apply for a job via Reed, Indeed or Monster... that's when the spam really starts. You know - the "jobs in your area" emails which have no bearing whatsoever on any of the recruitment sites you are registered with, and magically start appearing after applying for certain jobs through the mainstream ones.
"outright lies"
Ha, I love Linkedin for this,.... I occasionally look up old colleagues, one has the prefix 'Senior' to every role he's ever had, even his first,..... but when I worked with him we were the same level, and not 'Senior' at all, that wasn't even a job description where we worked. Another was a salesy bullshitter, who now actually works in sales, and his CV was full of how he got so many achievements, and increased this and that, when the truth is the company we worked for nearly went bust.
I've occasionally noticed people I've worked with taking credit for projects that I delivered :)
Don't need LinkedIn for that. Years ago I was working in the SEN dept of a big Secondary school. I did an analysis of progress and results between primary and secondary stages and wrote a report. The next thing I heard was that the Head of Department had claimed it as her work. But then she'd been asked to deliver a talk to the inspectors and the LEA about it. And was in a panic because she couldn't understand it properly. So I had to get her out of trouble by writing a summary of the conclusions, in very short words and not too many numbers.
"In addition to suggesting possible jobs, Microsoft said its Resume Assistant will offer improvements to users' résumés by looking at the LinkedIn profiles of those with similar job titles and examining how they describe themselves and their positions."
AI plagerism, anyone?
Sounds like it's just propagating bullshit...
Fake news, fake resumes next, the next twenty years, human civilisation is going to drown even further in nonsense and bullshit.
That is, if they ever get the resume written for being interrupted with ads for jobs in arsehole, Idaho or Anus, New Delhi.
Thank you El Reg for another two minute hate on MSFT. What a time to be alive.
Two minute ridicule more like...
There,s stupid, there's stupid and annoying, and then further along, there's MS Office with built in LinkedIn job whoring from the service that gave you Top Trumps with business profiles.
If the world works as Microsoft want to to, everyone who uses this tool to BS their way into a job, will get that job over someone who really knows how to do the job. Thus resulting in a world where everyone achieves a position dictated by the Peter Principle and all industries collapse.
What it should do, is check how much management jargon you are using in all you have ever typed, and only if you avoid that jargon, should it help create a CV which gives you a chance of being shortlisted. If it determines you are full of BS, it should send details of your true usefulness, via a secret email, to each prospective employers to whom you write a covering letter to accompany that CV.
Thus resulting in a world where everyone achieves a position dictated by the Peter Principle and all industries collapse.
Which is indeed what has been happening in the word at least since 2005, maybe earlier. - HP, IBM, Carillion, RBS, Brexit, Capita (....) an unrelenting display of one stunning feat of common incompetence and straight-up fraud after another.
Microsoft is only doing what Microsoft does best: Going all into Domination of some shining, new, hot, thing - which to everyone else was new, hot and whatever when Moses was doing his river journey.
It strikes me as a little bit creepy, but the reality is that if a tool exists that allows me to get resumes past the Taleo filter and other content filterers, and into a real interviewer's hands...I'm going to use it. I'm assuming the Resume Assistant is going to genericize your resume to make it as machine-readable as possible.
What I wonder is whether LinkedIn is actually a professional platform anymore. When the UI started morphing into Facebook-style a while back, people started treating it like Facebook. I run in both the techie and management circles because of the nature of my work, and this is absolutely the case. You have people posting vitriolic comments, getting into comment fights, etc. You also have self-help attention seekers posting inspirational quotes, and their followers congratulating them on having such great vision. For a platform that's basically supposed to be an extension of your CV, it has a lot of social stuff that many potential employers might use to filter you right out.
It strike me as a lot creepy.
"if a tool exists that allows me to get resumes past the Taleo filter and other content filterers, and into a real interviewer's hands...I'm going to use it."
Fair enough. Personally, I won't. Companies who use those sorts of filters in the first place are very likely to be companies that I won't enjoy working for (so I guess they're doing their job!)
"I'm assuming the Resume Assistant is going to genericize your resume to make it as machine-readable as possible."
Doubtful. It's most likely going to focus on the kinds of things you do NOT want highlighted in your resume like favoring education over actual experience, or work history over your demonstrable skill set. it's the kind of things that H.R. weenies focus on, which is NOT the kinds of things that IT managers focus on.
How "they" read resumes:
H.R. weenie - it has the right key words and tricky phrases in the right order where I don't have to search for them, with education prominently placed at the top of the list so we can filter on it
IT Manager - this guy knows how to code, understands what a network is, has xx years of experience doing things similar to what we want, and isn't just some new graduate that specialized in "academia" instead of "getting work done on time and under budget"
It's an ongoing problem to find a creative way of getting the hiring manager to look at your resume instead of the typical clueless H.R. weenie that thinks 'networking' is using people you know to get a job. Of course that last part helps, too, but isn't what the job requirements in IT meant...
And it's a fair bet that Microshaft's HR department isn't much better than any OTHER megacorp when it comes to filtering resumes for hiring managers...
The pisser is that a resume written to convey your experience and accomplishments to the hiring manager who actually understands what you've written is not likely to get past the HR weenies who are skimming it for buzzwords (or the ATS crutch they've come to rely on because reading resumes is too hard for them nowadays).
automatically send it off to everyone INCLUDING my current employer?
Not automatically, it's a service :). Of course one has to expect that your employers HR people can subscribe to various "Linked-In Events" regarding people already working with them. Updates and Up-ticks in page reading activity and so on. I'd think that would be a feature since a long time back.
Maybe this is more real-time - They see someone opening a resume during work-hours and they can send Security to black-bag them before it's even done?
Since we are doing salary "negotiations" soon, I shall update my Linked-In profile just to rattle them a bit, I think.
Maybe, but, the reality is that most job-seekers today need an AI to beat the "Search and Selection AI" and win the right to talk to an actual human person. It's a class thing: The more menial the job is, the harder the scrutiny and vetting process will be!
The "right jobs" have analogue interviews in places like the airpower lounge bar or after-hours at conferences. Almost zero scrutiny is applied. Last time I got hired, I didn't show any paperworks.
Devils advocate here, I got my last two jobs through linkedIn both of them steps up in pay and prestige so I'm not against them per se. I just hate having to look over lazy C.V.s that look like they've been ripped straight from their linkedIn profile. Stuffed full of keywords like some early 2000s website attempt at SEO. And this.... Will not help in the slightest.
God? knows how my 5yr out of date email address got on the LI list.
Reading this article and all the comments make me realise how lucky I am to be the hirer instead of the hired.
Not once has it been mentioned not all folks work for someone else.Bless you if its got you a better job.
Its more blessed tho not not to have to answer to some middle manger on self promotional medication.
Wether you survive or fall , depends on your own efforts.
Q: What time is it on LinkedIn?
A: 12:00, 12:00, 12:00, 12:00, ...
LinkedIn - where being endorsed for inexplicable skills in unknown fields by people you've never met is not unexpected.
LinkedIn - for when MiddleMismanagement.com is just not enough.
Does the LinkedIn Store sell bumper stickers marked "I ♡ PIVOT TABLES!!" ?
Where Dilbert hits too close to home, and isn't considered hilarious.
I also deleted my LinkedIn account, though I think I did so just before Microsoft bought it. Though I knew it was never gonna actually be deleted. So first thing I did was change my name to "Deleted Account", and ever since I have been getting emails from LinkedIn that start "Dear Deleted".
I can already see the next step: an "AI" that will "help" HR and headhunters rank incoming CVs. It will be built into the most widely used HR and placement agency systems[*]. Obviously, it will rank those written with the help of the Resume Assistant higher, raising the (forthcoming) licensing revenue potential...
[*] Well, most of those already require CVs to be in .docx. Can't handle PDFs, etc.
The best thing that ever happened to me in the world of work was when I found I was getting called because of a recommendation. I make no claims to brilliance or perfection or awesome qualifications but I've always committed myself to the job and, yeah, maybe pulled the occasional rabbit out of the hat once in a while.
When I reached the point that work came by word of mouth, and I no longer had to even think about greedy agencies and trowelling Maybelline onto a CV ... life got better.
The less my life involves LinkedIn or anything else to do with f****** Micro$oft, the happier I am.
... identical. A dystopian future beckons ... where those unable to write a competent CV will have the AI engine write it for them, averaging all existing CVs, and ultimately all CVs will be created the same. The HR droids will lose the filter weapon they enjoy the most.
When will the automaton tip over into mundanity with inadequate differentiation? Can't be long now ...
Some years ago I added the following paragraph to my CV:
"This is largely a work of fiction based on my mental suppression of unfortunate past events. Any resemblance to actual businesses, projects or persons, (living, dead or about to make the transition), is purely coincidental. Inviting me to an interview would however allow me to elaborate on this, and might brighten up, or at least bring some surrealism to, an otherwise dull day."
This has made no difference whatsoever to the number or quality of job offers I receive, but has confirmed my suspicion that nobody reads the thing anyway.
Well I'd heard that machines were going to steal lots of jobs. Maybe I was wrong about how they're going to do it. If they can watch enough humans apply for jobs then perhaps they can beat us at the application stage. Opt out of this - don't help the machines learn to replace us!
towards ?????
Given the level of hostility here towards this move, I have to wonder what MS were smoking when this idea was put on the table. Unless...
In the land of Trump and Musk people actually like LinkedIn and think this is wonderful, brilliant and super???
I am so glad that I (like many) deleted their LinkedIn profile years ago as it was nothing more than a spam generator.
Posting AC as I don't want to tempt fate with MS ressurecting my account.
In the world of salestards, LI is reasonably useful in keeping tabs on where old contacts have gone, and identifying people to cold call (and before anyone moans, the pre-LinkedIn way to identify people was to simply ring up and ask who the IT manager is... all LI does is save a bit of time).
However, extended phone book usage aside, it really is an endless stream of self-promoting shite from self-proclaimed 'influencers';
We've had that Russian chap from the Daily Mail parent for while, but he's now been replaced with Brigitte who has written a book on AI, recruited 4,000 homeless pregnant disabled veterans, and regards the sun rising every day as an event so awe inspiring she has to make some vapid post about it so thousands of time rich halfwits can hit the like button.
The news feed algorithm is totally borked, and a premium account won't save you from promoted/sponsored content.
The supreme mark of it being a Microsoft product though? The fact the site doesn't really work with Explorer.
... and regards the sun rising every day as an event so awe inspiring ....
There is a division head where I work that does a bi-weekly 52-slides epic powerpoint presentation on the glorious achievements of his division. It is never asked, I gather, why he has the time for this work and why the other managers have the patience to sit through that deluge of brightly coloured trivia rather than shooting him in the face five minutes in.
I have got 2 ace jobs because of it. Not sure why people are so vehemently against it tbh. Its just like any other social media tool, there are costs and benefits and if you think the benefits aren't worth it, don't register. I have noticed that people who post 00s of times on this forum seem to hate any form of social media at all
Facebook have terrabytes of useless data: people checking in to restaurants or liking posts to win prices. MS have something much more valuable. I do worry about what they will be able to do with the world's CVs, but for me, the benefits outweigh this
A few data points:
I have gotten all my jobs since 1973 via word of mouth, and dropping a CV directly to the hiring manager. The job in 1970 I got by walking into a shop with a "Help Wanted" sign.
The VP of my most recent job confided that they got their best non-personal-referal candidates from a Craigslist ad. The well-advertised agencies were essentially worthless.
One job, the manager wanted to offer me a job but had to go through HR, who would only accept a CV in Word .doc format. For a diagnostics and Linux Drivers position. (OpenOffice export to the rescue)
As for leaving, I'd do it in a shot if I didn't have to pay for Premium just to message those of my contacts who I would actually want to keep, updating my actual email address. When did the ability to send messages become an extra-cost feature?