LinkedIn to recruitment

LinkedIn has been around for a while now, as one of the more established social networking services - and they’ve just launched some new functionality to their existing site, LinkedIn Jobs.

On the face of it, it’s not too dissimilar to many other job boards - you see details of the role, the company, and the person who posted the vacancy. There’s the usual search facilities, and a prominent ‘Apply Now’ button to kick-start the application process.

What LinkedIn does is to add some additional details culled from their database of subscribers. As well as the basic job details, you can see the relationship between yourself and the poster - how many degrees you’re removed from them - as well as how many people have endorsed them. You can also see whether there are ‘inside connections’ to the hiring company - someone who’s listed on Linked In and who works (or worked) there.

It’s a simple enough idea - that the closer the relationship you have with the hirer, the more likely you are to be hired. As a concept, it’s backed up by hard evidence that a significant number of people find their next job through contacts and friends-of-friends rather than simply responding to adverts or job listings. What LinkedIn are attempting to do is to meld networking and job listings together.

It could be a neat way of doing this, as well as being a revenue stream for LinkedIn themselves. Unfortunately it falls down when it comes to situations where the recruitment is being handled by an agency, because rather the details of how well-connected you are to the role are based on the agency, rather than the hiring company. As this is the rule rather than the exception in the UK IT sector - and most agencies take a seemingly perverse delight in keeping the identity of their client secret until the last possible moment - it’s not clear whether LinkedIn will be able to add much value in this situation.

Nevertheless, it’s a good attempt to try to aid the networking elements of the job search process. It’ll be interesting to see how the service develops and whether it’s likely to become a threat to the established job boards.

Filed under Clutter Management, Project Management |