LinkedIn unveils 3 features that may be game-changers
They can jump-start your job search and help you earn more
More than 450 million individual professionals use LinkedIn — some to network and stay connected, but many to look for new job opportunities. Fortunately, that number includes plenty of human resources professionals and recruiters seeking not jobs, but job candidates.
“Pretty much every company uses LinkedIn these days,” said Peter Vincent, a New York Citybased human resources executive. In such an enormous pool, how do candidates and companies find each other?
Three recently released Linked In products promise to make it easier to match seekers and recruiters and could upend more than a few professional lives.
As with anything bright, shiny and new, it pays to unpack these new toys carefully to see their true value: LinkedIn Open Candidates, which launched in October, promises to make it easier to find that dream job without your current employer knowing you’re in the market.
By turning on Open Candidates in LinkedIn Career Insights, your profile will be “flagged by the types of jobs you’re interested in,” said Teddy Burriss, a LinkedIn coach and trainer. This includes location, employment level, industry and company. Employers using what’s called a “recruiter license” can see your profile as open to a job change, but recruiters at your current company don’t see that.
Burriss pointed out that few recruiters are currently using the required Recruiter License, but that’s likely to start changing now that 3.8 million members have opted in.
While LinkedIn promises it hides the Open Candidates “signal from recruiters at your company or affiliated recruiters,” the fine print says otherwise. In fact, the company openly admits that while they “take steps not to show your current company that you’re open, (we) can’t guarantee complete privacy.”
Advice: Has great potential, but it’s not yet ready for prime time. Proceed at your own risk.
LinkedIn Salary takes on the strong cultural taboo against talking about money, which makes it challenging to know what a fair salary is for any given job. “With LinkedIn Salary,” says the company’s career expert, Blair Decembrele, “we’ve tapped into our network to provide deep insights into salary, bonus and equity data for specific job titles.”
Also factored in are experience, industry, company size and location. LinkedIn Salary is available only to LinkedIn premium subscribers (monthly fee starts at $29.99) or to those members who share their salary with LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Salary has better privacy protection than Open Candidates since the company says
salary data is encrypted separately from identity. It’s not even added to your LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn says 2 million members have submitted salaries so far. Advice: Use it. It’s most beneficial for common job titles, because — as Vincent points out — the more unusual a role is, the harder it is to amass data.
LinkedIn Profinder is a matchmaking service for the gig economy. According to the company, the number of freelance members has grown by nearly 50% in the past five years. There are now 60,000 freelancers in more than 140 service areas. Profinder connects these providers of professional services with the individuals and small businesses that need them.
Answer a few straightforward questions about your project and within a few hours you’ll receive up to five proposals from Linked In’s curated list of professionals. As usual, it’s important to read the fine print: “Service providers are not affiliated with or endorsed by LinkedIn.” And as Burriss discovered after submitting 10 proposals, this feature requires freelancers to pay a Business premium subscription, which costs $47.99 a month.
Advice: Due diligence is required. If you’re hiring, ask for writing samples or portfolios, and check references. If you’re the freelancer, be specific about payment schedules, and consider asking for a deposit up front.
“Pretty much every company uses LinkedIn these days.” Peter Vincent, a New York City-based human resources executive