LinkedIn is 18 years old: What does this application mean today especially during COVID times

LinkedIn is 18 years old: What does this application mean today especially during COVID times

JesciliaKUpdated: Friday, May 07, 2021, 01:03 AM IST
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LinkedIn | Representational image

Starting from last year, everything in the job market was not upbeat. But applications like Linkedin have helped make the whole process of job hunting easier. As the application just completed its 18th birthday, we look at the role of the employment-oriented online service. A platform that started has a networking site offering employment, it has become more than that.


Today, LinkedIn has 756 million members from more than 200 countries and territories worldwide using the platform. There are over 57 million companies listed in this platform offering 15 million jobs. The numbers speaks the evolution of this company that was founded in a small room in December 2002 by Reid Hoffman and founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com. However, its officially launch was much later on May 5, 2003. Today, it is a Microsoft Corporation entity, after LinkedIn was acquired in 2016 by technology company.


Since its inception, it has evolved to become a powerful platform for influencers, professionals, companies and others. The platform offers a free and subscription model for its users. In paid model, it does offer more but in the free model, it still offers no less.


It is not just offering networking opportunities but also tools to understand the trends in various job markets. In April 2017, the company launched the LinkedIn Economic Graph Research Program (EGRP) to understand the global economy, create economic opportunity, and help companies be more productive and successful. This tool is a real game changer and the company has been using this tool in various markets.


How it is empowering job seekers?

It is offering tools free of cost to the job seekers -- be it interns or job seekers at senior level. It is about understanding the tools more carefully and using it when the time is right.

OpenToWork: A job seeker can let the employer know your job status by a simple photo frame ‘Open To Work’.

How to enable that:

Go to your profile and below your picture select ‘Show recruiters you’re open to work’

Add details like location and job type

Select from two options -- if you want the frame to be seen by recruiters or add a badge to your profile that everyone can see.

After you turn on the feature, you can create a post using #opentowork and reach more people.

Interview Preparation: Second option to explore is interview preparation. The platform offers free interview prep tools, including a feature leveraging Microsoft-AI for real-time feedback on your answers. It enables an interactive way to practice answers to the commonly asked interview questions in private. The interview prep tool also gives you the ability to request personal feedback on your practice responses from your connections.

Labor Market Insights: This tool is even more interesting because it helps a job seeker to know which industry is hiring and which type of jobs are working. In India for instance, in the three months ending February 2021, Infosys was the trending employer. This tool will be especially useful for students looking at exploring the job market.

LinkedIn also allows you to share motivation content by influencers that can improve the critical thinking of a job seeker.

It also enables new options for entrepreneurs for instance look at NASA's image below.

During COVID-19 pandemic, when many lost their jobs, they came to the platform to express those thoughts too. Some also came back to the platform to share their experience of being employed.

While LinkedIn has a strong presence in the United States, it gets good attraction from India. According to Alexa, LinkedIn gets some decent traffic from India (in last 90 days) which shows that Indian job seekers and employers value LinkedIn during COVID-19 times as well.

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