It makes no sense to connect in most cases, especially when there's a "follow" functionality that allows people to follow a person's activity without connecting to them.
I don’t know and I have 100s of these requests. It puts me into existential crisis. What are we all doing here? Why would we connect? What is this all about? Why do have this different professional life? What is it all for?
Same. Especially the folks that try to connect with me when I post a job. They all seem to believe I have time to have “a quick chat” with them as if there aren’t literally hundreds of people asking the same thing of me. 🤦♂️
I feel that LinkedIn encourages these random connection requests. It would be trivial for them to have a filter like "no requests unless we know someone in common/worked in same company/went to same school".
I think it's mostly because people aren't familiar with the "follow" option and are using it to see updates on their timeline from people they think are professionally interesting
It could be that they are really impressed with you and your work and they hope to spark your curiosity about them. Aside from obvious recruiters, it is likely a sign of admiration and respect.
Because you are interested in what that person does and/or wants to send them a message.
LinkedIn sometimes forbids messages from people who are not a connection
idk how later gens look at LinkedIn, for gen Y & back who joined LinkedIn 15+ yrs ago, it was probably a place for mass connections with strangers in hope of (better) jobs. A Tinder for careers so to say.
also these days we gotta pay to send msg unless we connect first. Free features win i guess?
Because no one on LinkedIn seems to care. For fun I did some "drive-by connection requests" to test this theory - most if them have been accepted. 🤷🏼♂️
For recruiters it lets them see your second level network more easily - great people know great people.
I think LinkedIn used to let you send free messages to second level connections maybe? Not sure if it still does. But it was valuable for some dumb transactional reason.
I sent you one last week and you approved, I don’t think you’ve met 😅
I use to be fairly strict with who I add and approve, ‘only people I’ve actually met’. However as time has gone on I’ve realised the people who I’ve made great connections with online I might never meet in person 😢
I’ve done it before for 1:few presentations for analysts, particularly if time ran out in Q&A time or I didn’t have a question on the spot. The format wouldn’t naturally provide self-introductions for attendees.
This context is so narrow that it likely doesn’t carry over into other situations.
For a while I would get requests from low-skill strangers in non-western countries. At the time I figured they were trying to inflate reputation. From a Kevin Bacon perspective it also vastly increases 2nd degree connections for when they might try to introduce themselves to someone they care about.
Comments
LinkedIn sometimes forbids messages from people who are not a connection
also these days we gotta pay to send msg unless we connect first. Free features win i guess?
I think LinkedIn used to let you send free messages to second level connections maybe? Not sure if it still does. But it was valuable for some dumb transactional reason.
I use to be fairly strict with who I add and approve, ‘only people I’ve actually met’. However as time has gone on I’ve realised the people who I’ve made great connections with online I might never meet in person 😢
At least that's what I assume from the ones I receive
This context is so narrow that it likely doesn’t carry over into other situations.