I had similar experiences. I joined up thinking it may be of some use as I was working freelance at the time, but just kept getting bombed by recruitment agencies trying to get me on their books or promising interviews for salaried positions even though this wasn't what I was looking for at the time. Stopped using it fairly soon after signing up. No idea if it's improved since, as this was quite a few years back.

I've been using linked in since it began and as a freelancer it has been very useful but:

NEVER put your current employer on there as it will be used by spammers to target you and your company who will calculate your email at the company and call the switchboard for cold sales call. Make up a company such as "IT company in Toronto"

I have found it very useful for building up a network of similar professionals in Toronto where I will go.

Hi

I use it as a recruiting tool all the time, works well from my end. I've never been spammed from my profile on there, but I'm not surprised at all that it does happen.

You can always setup a seperate email dedicated to the public online world, use it whenever you sign up for something online.

I use it fairly infrequently. Mostly old colleagues and university classmates on my "connections".

I set mine to say I wasn't looking for job offers and I don't seem to get any nuisance from it. Interesting to log on from time to time and see a few people looking at my profile but beyond that it's purely "informational".

I must be crap at my job.... I've been on it a year and never once had an agency call or a job offer!

I signed up to get in touch with old mates.... (I couldn't bear to do Facebook!!) for that it has worked out really, really well. In fact I met up with a pal I hadn't seen for over 25 years recently. Brill.

I have found so far that Linkedin is a great resource and through it I have made some great connections within my industry in Canada. Also these connections have led to meetings and interviews. I am hopeful through one of these connections that I should be on my way to Canada soon.

I have had the odd bit of spam from UK recruiters, but to be honest I feel the pros outweigh the cons

I found it the single most useful tool when looking for work. I got more networking discussions, interviews and eventually competing job offers out of contacts made through LinkedIn than every other avenue of search put together.

The key, though, is knowing how to use it. In jobseeking mode, it's about connecting with individuals at target companies, doing some detective work to find the hiring manager of a posted opportunity, asking for networking meetings with people who may be able to help connect you to others, and - most importantly - following up in the real world any connections you make on LinkedIn. You can't sit behind your computer and expect the job offers to come flying into your inbox just because you have exchanged a bunch of messages with potential employers.

It's also, obviously, a great resource for recruiters. Again, the key to being visible to recruiters, who will typically run a keyword search to find a candidate pool, is to ensure you have the right keywords in your profile - and that your profile is updated regularly so there's a recent datestamp on there, even if you're just making very minor profile edits every couple of days.

On the other side of the fence, as I am now, I'm finding that the network I built up while looking for work is proving very fruitful in finding promising candidates for an open position. It's a damn sight more cost effective (in terms of both money and time) for a hiring manager with a good network to find likely people through LinkedIn than to go through the rigmarole of a formal search.

this is very strange advice. I've never had a cold call as a result of information on LinkedIn. Or if I have it's easy enough to ignore cold calls anyway. And as for spam - do you not have a filter on your email server?

I think you misunderstood and your skills not in great demand - they are neither using my personal phone nor personal email but they use the company that I am working for and that I have no control over the spam filters. When recruiters continually phone the switchboard or filling your company email with job offers it makes it look like you are planning to leave AND IT INVOLVES OTHER PEOPLE who get fed up with it. You will find most people with in demand skills hide their current employer.

maybe things work differently where you are, but I simply don't acknowledge that that practice exists here. A recruiter who behaved like that would very soon find themselves with a vanishingly small pool of both clients and candidates. And pretty much everyone I'm connected with on LinkedIn acknowledges who they work for: that's part of the point of LinkedIn.

Are you in an industry where contracts are typically short and turnover very high? I see you're in China - perhaps there are cultural differences to take into account too.

Oh, and please don't make snide, disparaging remarks about "my skills not in great demand" - you know nothing about me or what I do for a living.

How would you explain this to your current employer? I accept that it would be possible if all of your contacts were from outside of your occupation but wouldn't this be defeating the object in the first place?

Edit: I see that Oakvillian has made a similar comment

Actually it makes it look like you are completely in demand, and your present company will be considering themselves lucky to have you. As for disrupting the receptionists etc, you can always joke that you're tired of receiving such calls and show some faux frustration. I agree with other posters that Linked In does not make so much sense if you omit your current employer.

Anyone can set up an account on LinkedIn (there are "premium memberships" that cost real money, but the free basic account is all you need unless you're a recruiter fishing for candidates, IMO).

As others have said, though, it's only as useful as the number of useful people you can connect to within your industry. A fair number of people I met through jobseeking networking groups a while ago were getting quite frustrated because they simply couldn't connect with potential employers through LinkedIn the way others of us were doing. Typically, in my circle of acquaintance, these were guys looking for senior technical, plant/operations manager, COO type positions in small engineering or manufacturing companies. The (typically owner-manager) chief bigwigs they needed to talk to simply weren't on LinkedIn so it wasn't productive for generating networking meetings. In those cases, trade associations, chambers of commerce, local chapters of professional bodies, etc, were far more fruitful avenues for getting connected to the right people.

I think you probably more or less nailed it with your question - LinkedIn is more useful for, if not just people in suits, at least office-based (sitting-in-front-of-a-computer-based?) employment.

White & Blue collar.

Good for prospecting as well if you are in Sales.

I worked mainly in the UK and you will find most financial and IT workers in the UK will not put their current employer on linked in especially if you can be recognised as someone responsible for buying. We also got lots of spam from USA recruiter and sales people. I guess it all depends which business you are in. As for it not happening in Canada the contacts I've made in IT have already told me it does. Yes I'm in China now and linked in is used the same way by recruiters and sales people from the west spamming China.

Oh, and as for not making snide remarks, you did say my advice was very strange when you didn't bother to find out why it was given. You kinda put my advice down without qualification.