Should I accept invitations from recruiters after declining their offers via message?

Question

I recently made a LinkedIn account as suggested in a course I completed. I am not active in it, but added my colleagues into "My Network".

Even though I have stated in my profile I am not interested in any new opportunities, from time to time I get contacted by recruiters via LinkedIn messages. I politely decline their offers and I see they also sent an invitation to join "My Network".

I was wondering whether this is common.

Should I ignore those invitations or should I added them for future connections?

We haven't talked/met or anything like this. I think they hold no value to my network, because the only communication we had is "Do you want work for X?" and "No, thanks, I am not looking for new opportunities at the moment".

Answer 1

Personally, no, I decline all of those. I only connect with people that I have some kind of relationship to - people I went to school with, worked with, met (usually at least two or three times) at professional networking events, or collaborated with (including in online communities where we may not have met face to face). The idea is that my network on LinkedIn is people that I can speak about in a professional capacity and that, ideally, would also be able to speak about me (and have good things to say) - people who could refer me to positions or opportunities in the future. For other things, I do join groups or follow tags on LinkedIn to communicate with people. But often these people are not added to my network.

However, there is the idea of LinkedIn Open Networking, or LION. These are people who far more readily connect with others. I can understand a professional recruiter wanting to expand their network to have easier access to potential candidates in the future.

Do note that as you add people to your network, you get more visibility into 2nd and 3rd level connections on LinkedIn, so this is beneficial to some people, like recruiters.