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Kevin,

In regards to, “Who wants a job?”

I do and I know designers from Stanfords Masters in Product Design Program that need jobs too.

The uselessness of the network is that the network itself is static. It is a wealth of information but if no one knows what people are looking for and also knows who is in the network then phooey. Versus having a keyword search what ever happened to a person who would be the network hub where people would come who have jobs and others come to look for jobs? It seems to be a job website the only thing is that getting a job seems to be more about who you know.

Linkin seems to be trying to make money off of the website by making it difficult for people to contact each other through friends of friends. Hiding email addresses and charging for introductions or to contact people directly.

What is your reason for being able to choose whether or not to forward these opportunities?

Posted by Michael on 9 March 2007 @ 11pm

Kevin -

We’ve got a couple ways on LinkedIn that allow you to connect people looking to hire with people seeking jobs.

We’ve got a free feature called Tell Your Network, which allows you to write a job description and send it both to people you’re connected to on LinkedIn as well as people you’re not.

The recipient of the Job Posting can then forward it to others.

The easiest way to reach this page is going to your LinkedIn Inbox, and in the upper left hand corner there’s a button to ‘Send Message’. Select ‘Send Job Notification’
http://www.linkedin.com/hiring?tellNetwork

Also on people’s profile there’s a link that says ‘Forward’, which allows you to forward that profile to connections on LinkedIn, as well as people whose e-mail address you have.

Also if someone in your network has paid to post a job on LinkedIn, there’s a a module on your homepage which reads: People in your network are hiring. On the job description page, you can forward that job.

Feel free to e-mail if you have any more specific ideas on what you’re thinking.

Posted by mike on 14 March 2007 @ 9pm

Michael: Networks are about quality. People trust my judgment when I refer someone and sometimes, I want to add a note o indicate how much I endorse an individual. Also, not everyone has been diligent about keeping the quality of whom they accept high. Some have felt the social awkwardness of not accepting an invite from someone outweighed the need to keep a high quality network (and it also implied you felt they weren’t “quality” if you didn’t accept). So for these people, it’s important to be able to filter.

In the end, it’s that one extra step that makes it a personal referral rather than spam. Which brings me to …

Mike: I’m aware of both the features you mentioned. The fact is these are barely higher than spam level in my book. Or at best, they’re not an improvement on the person telling me in person they’re looking for someone because I tend to just forget. Here’s how I see the feature playing out:

Job Provider: posts a job through your system much the way you have it now, with keywords to help with the matching.

Job Seeker: sets some flag to show they are actively looking. This part has some issues as many people on an individual’s linkedin includes their current employer so maybe there’s privacy settings on who won’t see this flag.

Whenever matches are found where I am a potential mediator between the two, inform me (or have a dashboard and/or feed I can check). Each one requires an active action on my part which could be as simple as clicking a button to open the gate but optionally allows me to endorse the candidate in more detail (or endorse the job).

Job hunting is like matchmaking or online personals. The ideal case of online personals, as John Abrhams put it when he realized Friendster wasn’t doing anything, is that you are meeting your friend’s friends. The likelihood of successful matches in such situations is much greater. And so it is with jobs, it’s a different field, same problem.

“New web 2.0 startup with rounded corners seeking a designer who has equal passion for rounded corners and loves walks on the beach with sexy drop shadows from the setting sun.”

If any of this doesn’t make sense or my motivations for needing such a thing don’t make sense, let me know. I’ll be happy to elaborate. And thanks for writing, Mike!

Posted by Kevin Cheng on 15 March 2007 @ 9pm

Seriously, great post and great responses.

Know any web developer peeps in LA?

Posted by :: jozjozjoz :: on 25 March 2007 @ 8pm

My sister might be needing to look for a new job soon, and it’s hard for some of us to help because she’s not a programmer, not a designer, not the usual tech geek. And being in the Silicon Valley where tech geeks are glorified behind all hell, she feels weird about going out looking for a content management or associate project management job amidst all these CS degrees and designer-types. How do we help her, you know? ~ang*e

Posted by Angie Chang on 6 April 2007 @ 11am