- 26/09/2017
- Category: Commentaries
In this digital era, we do a lot of things online: shopping, selling, and even looking for a job. One of the online job portals nowadays is LinkedIn, a social network which has a vision to connect professionals around the world. Their mission is also to be a platform to give access to all of its members to connect with each other, including those who are looking for a job.[i]
Ten years after its launch, in 2013, LinkedIn had more than 500 million global members in 200 countries. It was considered as the largest professional network on the internet and also the most successful social network site used by recruiters and job seekers.[ii] In Indonesia, LinkedIn users reached 8 million in numbers[iii]. That sure is a huge number. However, does the high number of users justify that LinkedIn can save ourselves from unemployment?
The Trend of Recruiting through Social Media
In 2013, 94% of companies used or planned to use social media in their recruitment process and 78% of them managed to recruit people using this method.[iv] The three big social media platforms to do the hiring at that time were Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. LinkedIn held the largest percentage, which was 94%. In 2017, LinkedIn still becomes the most popular for recruiters to do the pre-screening phase in employee recruitments.[v] LikedIn is more popular in the recruitment process because it works like detailed online resume and is used explicitly to connect people in a professional manner.[vi]
In conducting recruitment by using social media, 93% of companies are likely to look at the profile of the candidates who are interesting to them to know whether they are the potential candidates or not. Employers review candidates’ experiences, what they post in their social network sites, as well as the grammars in the posts that the candidates make.[vii] This is indeed a little bit scary, though. But these profiles on social media are regarded as the first gate in determining whether the candidates are attractive enough to them because 60% of the recruiters assess the cultural behaviors of the candidates before hiring, and 67% of them consider candidates’ work experiences.[viii]
Are our LinkedIn Profiles Attractive for Future Employers?
Organizational and work experiences, as well as awards we had achieved are the jewelries that we display on our LinkedIn. However, believe it or not, there are three other things that can be noticed from our LinkedIn which can help us in evaluating our profiles.[ix] The First thing is the way we use it. There are two ways you can do with your LinkedIn account; use it actively or passively. If you enjoy writing, sharing articles, or giving comments in a discussion group, it means you are the active user type. If you use LinkedIn to simply get professional information, you are the passive type. However, if you abandon it after you make the account, you lose it because being passive is better as at least you are still making efforts in reading and looking for information.
Secondly, it is about the content you write or share. Being an active user is a good step, but we must also be careful. That is because if our post and comments contain illegal things or profanity, it will reduce our values in the eyes of recruiters and potential employers. Moreover, recruiters can identify candidate’s capability and work preference based on the contents we view.
The third one is the networking. As LinkedIn is a social media based on a professional network, recruiters can find us easily if we are also connected with the same people. Not many people are willing to add strangers to their network, hence, it would be better if people on our network can give us some reference or capability endorsement that will strengthen our LinkedIn profiles.
These three things then can be seen as part of self-presentation[x] or self-branding at which we build a reputation that we are the candidates who have the qualifications they may be looking for.
So, Can LinkedIn save us from being unemployed?
If we look back at the original question addressed at the beginning of this article, ‘Can LinkedIn save you from being unemployed?’ The answer can be yes and no. It will be useful if you can utilize and manage your account sincerely and actively in approaching your dream employers. It will not be useful if you just make it without the intention to manage it. I am also not stating thatpaying attentions to the three things I mentioned above can immediately give you a job, because there are no instant results especially for fresh graduates with less experience. However, the right step you should take is to keep upgrading yourself. You can improve your emotional intelligence and professional experiences by doing some internships or even taking some courses, for example. It will not only enhance your abilities, but also increase your value as a potential employee.
Picture: www.getusecure.com
[i] LinkedIn (2017). ‘About LinkedIn’. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1337/ .[Accessed on September 4th 2017]
[ii] Susan Adams (2013). Forbes (Online). ‘New survey: LinkedIn in More Dominant than Ever Among Job Seekers and Recruiters, But Facebook Poised to Gain’. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/02/05/new-survey-linked-in-more-dominant-than-ever-among-job-seekers-and-recruiters-but-facebook-poised-to-gain/#5a0b8337414b . [Accessed on September 1st 2017]
[iii] Anonim (2017). Tempo (Online). ‘Pengguna LinkedIn di Indonesia Capai 8 Juta’. Available at: https://tekno.tempo.co/read/news/2017/04/26/072869469/pengguna-linkedin-di-indonesia-capai-8-juta . [Accessed on September 1st 2017]
[iv] Jobvite (2013). ’Social Recruiting: Survey Results’. Available at: http://web.jobvite.com/rs/jobvite/images/jobvite_2013_SocialRecruitingSurveyResults.pdf. [Accessed on September 9th 2017]
[v] Jobvite (2016). ‘The Annual Social Recruiting Survey’. Available at: http://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/1423/2016/09/RecruiterNation2016.pdf. [Accessed on September 9th 2017]
[vi] Kluemper cited in Robin Kroeze (2015). ‘Recruitment via Social Media Sites: A Critical Review and Research Agenda’. University of Twente, the Faculty of Behavioural, Management, and Social Sciences
[vii] Op.Cit., Jobvite (2013). Pp. 8
[viii] Op.Cit., Jobvite (2016). Pp. 10
[ix] Sonja Utz (2016). ‘Is LinkedIn Making You More Succesful? The Informational Benefits derived from Public Social Media’. New Media & Society Vol. 18(II) 2685-2702
[x] Johannes Kuo-Huie Chiang, Hung-Yue Suen (2015). ‘Self-presentation and Hiring Recommendations in Online Communities: Lessons from LinkedIn’. Computers in Human Behaviour 48 (2015) 516-524, Science Direct
