Hey everyone,
Is it just me, or is LinkedIn getting harder and harder to deal with lately? I still use it a lot for sourcing, but between the noise, rising costs, and candidates clearly being overwhelmed with InMails, it’s starting to feel more frustrating than effective.
I’ll spend time crafting outreach, targeting the right profiles, and half the time it just disappears into the void. Response rates are down, inboxes are crowded, and it feels like everyone is fishing in the same pool using the same messages.
I know LinkedIn still “works,” but I’m curious if others are feeling the same fatigue. Are you sticking with it anyway, or have you found alternatives that actually get better engagement? Other platforms, communities, referrals, creative sourcing approaches — anything that’s been working recently.
Genuinely curious how others are approaching this, because I’m ready to shake things up instead of relying on LinkedIn by default.
I've observed similar challenges with LinkedIn's declining effectiveness, particularly the oversaturation of generic outreach that's made candidates increasingly unresponsive. We've had better success pivoting toward industry-specific communities and leveraging employee referral programs, which typically yield higher-quality candidates who are genuinely interested rather than just passively browsing. The key has been diversifying our sourcing strategy rather than defaulting to LinkedIn's increasingly expensive and crowded ecosystem.
Completely agree on the oversaturation issue - we've seen our LinkedIn response rates drop by about 40% over the past year alone. We've had some success with GitHub for technical roles and Stack Overflow's talent platform, though the candidate pools are obviously much smaller than LinkedIn's massive reach.
You're both spot on about the LinkedIn saturation - we're seeing similar drops in engagement across our manufacturing roles, even for specialized positions. We've started investing more heavily in internal referral programs and building relationships with technical schools, which requires more upfront effort but yields higher-quality candidates who actually respond. The challenge is that these alternative approaches take significantly longer to scale, so we're still stuck using LinkedIn as our primary channel while building out these other pipelines.
I'm definitely feeling that LinkedIn fatigue too, especially when trying to fill roles across different regions where response patterns vary so much. We've had some success mixing in more targeted sourcing through industry-specific platforms and leveraging our existing employee networks, but you're right that it takes much longer to build those pipelines. The ROI question becomes tricky when you're weighing LinkedIn's immediate reach against these slower but potentially higher-quality channels.
I've been experiencing the same challenges, particularly with our executive searches where we need very specific skill sets. The volume of recruiters hitting the same senior candidates has definitely made LinkedIn less effective - we're seeing much lower response rates even with highly personalized outreach. We've started investing more time in building relationships through industry events and leveraging our internal referral networks, which takes longer upfront but yields better quality conversations with candidates who aren't already overwhelmed by constant recruiting messages.
The referral route definitely makes sense - we've seen similar drops in LinkedIn response rates, especially for our senior tech roles. I'm curious about the time investment though; are you finding the relationship-building approach scales well when you have multiple urgent positions to fill simultaneously?
I totally feel this frustration - LinkedIn has definitely become more of a grind lately, especially for tech roles where everyone's getting bombarded. The referral approach is solid but you're right about the scaling challenge. I've been experimenting with a hybrid approach where I still use LinkedIn for initial research but then try to connect through GitHub, Stack Overflow, or even company Slack communities where the conversation feels more natural. It's more time-intensive upfront, but I'm seeing better quality conversations when I can engage with candidates around their actual work rather than just another cold InMail.
The scaling challenge with referrals is real, but I've found that building systematic processes around relationship mapping can help - tracking who knows whom and creating structured touchpoints with your network. LinkedIn's noise issue has pushed me toward being much more selective about outreach timing and channels, focusing on quality over volume. The hybrid research approach you mentioned makes sense; I've started using multiple touchpoints to validate interest before investing time in crafting personalized messages.