Does it look odd to have a bunch of connections to recruiters? Is it worthwhile?
Recruiters and sales people (guilty!) tend to network exceptionally well, which means by connecting with them, you'd just significantly expanded your 2nd level connections within your own industry.
Winz
But then a recruiter I didn't know wrote me how he heared that people say I'm a real good JavaScript developer. I asked him who says this and his reference was another of these recruiters I didn't know.
This I found rather suspicious...
1) It makes me a 2nd level connection to lots of people I probably do care about. 2) It ups my visible number of connections and makes me look important. People see 500+ connections and assume I'm someone important.
Each time that I was asked, they were on a frenzy and it looked like they were connecting to as many people as they could
As a rule I will accept requests from recruiters unless:
1. They obviously don't know how to do their job properly. For example offers sent out without getting acquainted with my profile or asking me to do their job is a reason for me to drop the recruiter.
2. They can't explain the offer, for example what I would be expected to do, or can't connect me with somebody who can. I understand that recruiters can't have my level of technical knowledge or they would most likely be working as engineers. Nevertheless, they are responsible for communication and if I can't get required information I drop the recruiter altogether.
3. Recruiters who require me to do any work before I can get to know who I would be working for.
4. Recruiters who just outright give me the form to fill in to build their database, including all the information I already included in my CV or Linked In profile.
If a recruiter looks interesting, I try and open a conversation without making them part of my network.
And rules are made to be broken, of course.
Me, I don't accept any recruiter unless I know them in person. I even have it stated clearly in my profile, though most of the recruiters don't even bother reading it.
Some of them will try to connect with you if you have many connections so then they harvest your connections too - I deal with it by making sure nobody can see my connections (you can set this up in privacy section)
I try not to overload my connections with recruiters as they don't provide much network feedback value (i.e. they rarely comment or like anything I post).
I used to dedicate some time to replying to the messages that follow but they became a bit overwhelming.
Perhaps more compelling-- connect with senior executives in roles & companies that you can help. Imagine connecting with CTO/CIO's, VP's of Engineering in your space.
