4 ms·

It's not really up to other firms though, it's up to the employees who see value in the social network.

by arebop 10y ago

mindcrime 10y ago
Strictly speaking that's true. But employers have a fair amount of leverage, especially in terms of recruiting and what-not. I suspect a lot of people are on LI because it serves as a sort of default online resume, and if companies quit recruiting through LinkedIn and switch to something else, I think the users might follow. OTOH, maybe most people only use LI as an online Rolodex and maybe it'll all turn out to be a moot point. But it still seems dodgy to me to have a major industry player like MS owning LinkedIn. I think I'd find it questionable if anybody else had acquired them as well, although Microsoft's history does add some emphasis to the whole thing in my view.
- tracker1 10y ago
  I think this is potentially an "if you build it" situation in the making. I mean, iirc, LI wasn't the "social network for recruiters" but it kind of turned into that... It's still a fairly poor fit, and while some of the posts on message boards are useful, most are spam. A more curated social recruiting site is a pretty big potential if one were built... I keep hoping that Stack Exchange will move their careers stuff more in that direction, as they've been one of the better options imho as a developer, but they just don't have the critical mass even in the niche of IT. Frankly, all the job sites suck... any number of them could make the move to a better UX for all concerned, but part of that really needs to be the empowerment of saying, "Hey, I'm not looking and have been where I am less than a half a year, let me be." That's another thing I wouldn't mind seeing... a place to post your resume, your phone number and email address... A recruiter could put in your email address, or phone number, and it give them your current status, the latest resume and that's it... just an update mechanism to avoid contacting people who'd rather not be bothered. Then they could pay for a hot feed when a resume gets updated, and/or someone marks themselves as passively looking, etc. I think it comes down to more quality engagement on both sides... It gets tiring to get the constant phone calls for 3 months after starting something, and 3-9 months away from your project coming to an end... that doesn't even consider the FTE-types that will stay somewhere for several years before considering a move.

It's not really up to other firms though, it's up to the employees who see value in the social network.

by arebop 10y ago

It's not really up to other firms though, it's up to the employees who see value in the social network.

Strictly speaking that's true. But employers have a fair amount of leverage, especially in terms of recruiting and what-not. I suspect a lot of people are on LI because it serves as a sort of default online resume, and if companies quit recruiting through LinkedIn and switch to something else, I think the users might follow. OTOH, maybe most people only use LI as an online Rolodex and maybe it'll all turn out to be a moot point. But it still seems dodgy to me to have a major industry player like MS owning LinkedIn. I think I'd find it questionable if anybody else had acquired them as well, although Microsoft's history does add some emphasis to the whole thing in my view.

tracker1 10y ago
I think this is potentially an "if you build it" situation in the making. I mean, iirc, LI wasn't the "social network for recruiters" but it kind of turned into that... It's still a fairly poor fit, and while some of the posts on message boards are useful, most are spam. A more curated social recruiting site is a pretty big potential if one were built... I keep hoping that Stack Exchange will move their careers stuff more in that direction, as they've been one of the better options imho as a developer, but they just don't have the critical mass even in the niche of IT. Frankly, all the job sites suck... any number of them could make the move to a better UX for all concerned, but part of that really needs to be the empowerment of saying, "Hey, I'm not looking and have been where I am less than a half a year, let me be." That's another thing I wouldn't mind seeing... a place to post your resume, your phone number and email address... A recruiter could put in your email address, or phone number, and it give them your current status, the latest resume and that's it... just an update mechanism to avoid contacting people who'd rather not be bothered. Then they could pay for a hot feed when a resume gets updated, and/or someone marks themselves as passively looking, etc. I think it comes down to more quality engagement on both sides... It gets tiring to get the constant phone calls for 3 months after starting something, and 3-9 months away from your project coming to an end... that doesn't even consider the FTE-types that will stay somewhere for several years before considering a move.