On of the things I am looking forward to most about starting a new job is the fact that I will not have to look at job hunting sites anymore (LinkedOut, Maybe, ObscuredDoor).
To be fair, the actual job search process using these engines has been pretty streamlined (although, as a note, not one of the potential offers I had or the offer I accepted came from these sites). They are all to some extent more or less customizable, so it becomes more of a question of simply creating the search parameters and narrowing them to the dates one wants to look (anywhere from "past 24 hours" to "past 3 days").
No, what I will not miss is what the sites are.
Maybe is the easiest site in that regard: there is no news or posts, just jobs. ObscuredDoor is a little worse in that regard in that there are some discussion areas, but those can be easily clicked away from and the search conducted. No, the real issue is LinkedOut.
Opening LinkedOut always brings you to the main screen. Here you will find a combination of one of the following:
- People starting new jobs or being promoted
- People laid off from jobs and looking for work
- People self-promoting
- Companies self promoting
In other words, it is kind of a big promotion fest stylized as the go-to location for business. And to be frank, days of it get tiring.
Social media is slightly different in that on The Book of Face or ProlongedGram, you generally see things posted by friends or things that are of interest to you or sometimes both. People actually share their lives in some form or fashion; humor actually makes an appearance occasionally (to be fair, not always good humor, but humor).
On LinkedOut, not so much. Occasionally someone shares a personal story or an industry appropriate humor comment will appear. But on the whole, it is social media for business: imagine your workplace as a connection sties. That is LinkedOut.
It is, in a word, boring.
Do I have a presence there? Sure; I even updated it for my job search. But I almost never post anything there about anything; given the current business environment it is better to be invisible than to be at all visible. And - hopefully - once I start this job, I can simply forget it exists other than to update my history with my new job information.
It is not that LinkedOut was probably not a good idea at the time it started, a business portal for individuals to connect with other individuals. And it does have its uses: often when I am interviewing with someone or being audited by someone, I will check to see their experience and background. So for reference, it is a great tool.
For anything else, it has become the equivalent of the town billboard, a host of information posted that has almost nothing to do with anything of actual impact to my life.
I can't blame you for not missing that routine! Being in the retired category of persons, I have no reason to use those sites, nor do I know much about them. I do recall years ago, I kept getting emails from an acquaintance inviting me to join LinkedOut. I just deleted them, but they kept coming so I finally contacted her personally and said thanks, but it wasn't something I was interested in. The surprise was that she had no idea such emails were being sent out. Apparently, LinkedOut had helped itself to her email contacts and took it upon themselves to invite them as though it was her. This did not present a good impression!
ReplyDeleteI suspect the development and usefulness of most websites reflects the philosophy and vision of its management. Things change so rapidly, it would be hard to keep up.
Leigh, your life is likely better for the not knowing. They are very much an "employment only" focused function, and I cannot imagine anyone who is not employed or not seeking employment visiting them on a regular basis. Outside of that narrow band of individuals, it offers little to engage larger amounts of interest.
DeleteIt does not surprise me that LinkedOut helpfully tried to send out e-mails; many electronic programs now want to know "Do you want me to invite all your contacts?" when you start them. Hopefully your experience was before sites took such things more seriously.
I will also say that LinkedOut is for a pretty specific segment of the job market, largely white collar industries of medium and high tech. The trades and more low tech jobs are seldom if ever there.
Your last comment reminded me of a joke. Someone was flying in a balloon. They were blown off course and wound up over a fog bank that totally obscured the ground, except for one building sticking up through it. As he floated over it, a guy in a suit opens a window and yells hello. The balloonist yells back, "Hey, where am I?" "You're in a ballon!!!" The balloonist replies, "Which way is the airport?" "Northeast, 4.2 miles!" The balloonist hollers back, "I bet you are in MicroSoft support!" "Hey that's amazing! How did you know that?" the suit guy asks.... The balloonist answered, "Technically accurate information that is useless to my current situation!!!"
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine looking for a career type job these days. I was recruited in college for a job that wasn't at all like what they advertised. I got hired six months later at a place I was volunteering. That worked into a series of fruitful word of mouth job leads. I guess networking is the actual term.
STxAR - That is a wonderful joke - and frightfully true, to be honest.
DeleteMy sincere hope is this is the last career style job that I have to look for. It gets harder every time, and my ability to adapt to the new way of doing things becomes less every time, if for no other reason than I do not have the patience to learn or relearn the system.
I have a 50/50 success rate for jobs with networking - it can help, but is not a guarantee. Sometimes one's strength of CV seems to be the determining factor.
I identify with both of the comments above. Like Leigh, I have no use for LinkedOut, I hope, and I have always deleted invitations. I also love STxAR's joke. I find that true more often than I would like in my day to day life.
ReplyDeleteEd, after this likely I will seldom if ever go back to LinkedOut - industry specific news I can gather from other places, and the career doings of acquaintances is largely off my radar at this point.
DeleteMy last round of redundancy/outsourcing/job searching just predated the rise of these websites, it was down to agencies, trade magazines and better quality newspapers. I feel sorry for anyone, like you, going through this particular mill now especially as so much screening is done automatically, and the recruiters seem to have innumerable boxes to tick.
ReplyDeleteWill, I envy you not having to deal with this. They are tools, and moderately useful - as tools. But the social aspects of them have zero attraction to me. Even at jobs, I tend to find "my people", which is usually a very small subset of my coworkers whom I stay in contact with. While abstractly interested in people's success, it is not top of the list.
DeleteI do suspect as things move forward, more and more of this will be done via AI. Even now, it is pretty easy to screen for two or three key phrases and eliminate anyone that does not have them.
I've ignored my LinkedOut since 2018 or so.
ReplyDeleteJohn, my fervent hope is that after about two weeks, I can do so as well. To be honest, the more I have thought about it over the day, the more I have realized how self-promotional it is and how little I care for that - or it.
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