Thursday, April 24, 2014

7 Critical Issues Regarding LinkedIn (Part 3 of 7) - Functionality


Issue #3: Functionality can be dramatically improved


Utilizing LinkedIn every day and watching it evolve; I get the impression that when LinkedIn creates an aspect of their application, they get it up and running, and walk away from it.  Years later they have done nothing to improve its functionality.  By doing this, its users miss out on many opportunities. 

Several examples where functionality can be improved in the existing app, are: Industry, Location, ZIP/Postal Code, and Function.

Industry

Why are the members of LinkedIn limited to selecting one industry to use on their profile?  Recruiters are torn between choosing “Staffing and Recruiting” and at least one other industry they may recruit in.  Others may be just as limited.

If you work for LinkedIn what is THE industry you are in?  Apparently LinkedIn employees have a difficult time selecting THE industry, as well.  Running a search for current LinkedIn employees in the San Francisco Bay area, the 3,938 profiles are associated with no less than 15 industries!  Here is the list:


Clearly, LinkedIn is aware of the problem.

It is understandable for there to be a limit on the number of industries a person can select for their profile.  Without a limit, some members would list numerous industries and diminish the value of the Industry selection for everyone, but one is not enough.  Job-hunters, especially, need more flexibility.

Location

Similar to “Industry”, each profile is limited to one “Location”.  For many people, perhaps the majority of LinkedIn members, this is adequate.  But what if you just lost your job in St. Louis and are open to opportunities in St. Louis, or moving back to your hometown, Nashville, TN.  The way LinkedIn is structured, you have to pick one location, or the other – or create a duplicate profile.  Neither of these options is good for LinkedIn members.

ZIP/Postal Codes

Trusting that LinkedIn search results are geographically accurate is basic to using LinkedIn.  If you request “Engineers” in the “Automotive Industry” within “25 miles of ZIP Code 48231”, you expect to get all profiles matching your selections.  In general, I trust that LinkedIn will return profiles within a certain radius of a given ZIP/Postal Code.  But when it doesn’t recognize legitimate ZIP Codes that I stumble across, I wonder what else is wrong with LinkedIn’s search capabilities – and you should, too!

Case in point: ZIP Code 33473 in Boynton Beach, FL.  ZIP Code 33473 exists.  33473 is not a new ZIP Code, it has been in use for several years.  LinkedIn members live in ZIP Code 33473.  You can find it on Mapquest.com, maps.google.com, even homedepot.com.  It seems ZIP Code 33473 exists everywhere but on LinkedIn.com. 
This is one example of search issues on LinkedIn.  What none of us know is how many ZIP Codes LinkedIn is not recognizing, or calculating properly.  We don’t know what we are missing!

Functions

Yes, Functions.  Functions are used by recruiters to quickly search for people who perform a specific function in their job.  To the best of my knowledge the list of Job Functions has not changed in the past several years.  I don’t know which Functions LinkedIn launched with, but today they are woefully inadequate.  For a website that is largely a career site, it is embarrassing.

Most LinkedIn members have never seen the complete list of Job Functions since it is only available with premium memberships, so here it is (ignore the numbers to the right of the functions):


That’s it - 26 “Functions”.  The U.S. Department of Labor lists hundreds of occupations on its website: Dept of Labor Occupations.  The DOL “occupations” are similar to LinkedIn’s “Functions” and help show the inadequacy of LinkedIn’s categorization of “what we do”.

Within the Function structure on LinkedIn:

  • A night watchman is the same as a Four-Star General;
  • A home health delivery man is the same as a Neurosurgeon, and;
  • A legal assistant is the same as the Attorney General;

LinkedIn can do better.


The Solutions

Members need to make sure their profile appears in search results using a 10-mile radius of the ZIP/Postal Code they use for their profile.  If their profile doesn’t appear, they should contact LinkedIn and explain the issue.  Beyond making sure their profile appears properly in search results, individual members need to do the best they can within the limits offered by LinkedIn – which is not much of a solution. 

One thing should not be overlooked – LinkedIn would be nothing without its members.  The more noise members make about these functionality issues, the more likely LinkedIn is to do something about the problems.  If you feel the issues that have been raised in this blog are things that you would like to see addressed by LinkedIn, let them know about it.  Just click on the “Send Feedback” link on the bottom of most LinkedIn pages and let them know your thoughts on their services.

What can LinkedIn do?

The first three issues should be fairly simple to fix for LinkedIn: 

  • Add another selection for “Industry” and “Location” and make them searchable. 
  • Thoroughly investigate the ZIP/Postal Code issue and straighten it out.  If Home Depot can, LinkedIn can.    

The fourth issue – having only 26 Job Functions, is much more of a challenge as they would have to determine which functions to add, then adjust their algorithm to properly identify and assign the functions to member profiles.  This would be a massive undertaking, but the end result would make LinkedIn a much more functional app – which would be great for LinkedIn members and ultimately great for LinkedIn.

Please add your comments in the form below.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

7 Critical Issues Regarding LinkedIn (Part 2 of 7)


Issue #2: There isn’t an “off” switch


For the person who utilizes LinkedIn to advance their career, sometimes LinkedIn can get in the way of their career – if they don’t make intentional adjustments to their profile settings, group memberships, and LinkedIn activity habits when they are new to a career position.

Ask yourself, if you started a new career position today, what do you need to focus on?  It’s pretty obvious that early on in a new position - for your sake and your employer’s sake - you need to focus on your new job. 

However, if you continue to use LinkedIn the way you used it when you were actively pursuing a new career opportunity there is a good possibility you will be distracted by needless chatter and lose focus on learning your new role.  The InMails, group updates, job opportunities, Pulse recommendations, and the omnipresent message from LinkedIn “Advance your career – follow this company” will all be competing for your attention. 

Use LinkedIn Strategically

If you use LinkedIn strategically – dialing it up when you are open to considering a job change and dialing it down when you are staying put - LinkedIn will become an even stronger tool for you to use.

This has been a rough winter.  It seemed like I would never put my snow shovel away, but eventually it happened.  The snow shovel had served its purpose and it was time put it away (actually, I threw it away!). 

If you remember to “put LinkedIn away” after it has served its purpose, the next time you set it in motion it will likely be for an intended step up in your career and not a desperate job-seeking move.

What are the Solutions?

As an individual member there are a host of things that can be done to draw less attention to your profile without taking the radical approach and cancelling your account or dropping connections.  Many of the solutions mentioned below can be found in the “Privacy & Settings” section of your account.  I will give you search strings that you can use to zero in on the instructions found in LinkedIn’s Help Center. 

Here are 10 solutions you may want to implement while you are not considering new career opportunities:

1)      Update your profile to show you have a new career position: While LinkedIn is certain to notify you within days of the update that you should consider opportunities with other companies, believe it or not, most recruiters are not going to try to recruit someone who just started a new position.  Not only will it discourage current recruitment attempts, you will be updating recruiters and setting yourself up for your next big career move! (Search: “edit profile”);

2)      Hide your profile picture: In this blog by Libby Kane, she quotes LinkedIn career expert Nicole Williams regarding the impact of having a picture on a LinkedIn profile, “You’re seven times more likely to have your profile viewed if you have one (picture)”.  While I question if there are valid statistics that would indicate that significant of a difference, if you hide your profile picture, your profile should be viewed less often.  (Search: “Settings for Photos on Profiles”);

3)      Hide your public profile: By hiding your public profile it won’t appear in searches made through public search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.  (Search: “LinkedIn Public Profile - Overview and Settings”);

4)      Stop receiving InMail messages from members who are not direct connections: You are somewhat in control of your profile.  If you want to stop receiving InMail messages from members who are not direct connections, you can! (Search: “Controlling Incoming Messages”);

5)      Leave groups that are primarily recruiting related: It may be difficult to tell which groups are recruitment related, but give it a try.  Group names that include terms such as: Jobs, Careers, Recruiting, etc. are in general the types of groups to leave when you are in the “staying put” mode.  You should be able to rejoin the groups when you are passively or aggressively pursuing new career opportunities.  (Search: “Leave a group”);

6)      Stop receiving Group Digests and emails for Discussion Updates, or decrease their frequency:  You may want to continue to receive digests from some of the groups, while not receiving any updates from others.  LinkedIn makes it very easy to adjust your settings for each of your groups.   (Search: “group digests”);

7)      Remove your phone number and/or email address from your profile: To make it easy for recruiters and other hiring authorities to contact them directly via telephone or email, many people will put their phone number and email address in the Summary section of their profile (BTW – that’s a great idea!).  When you start a new career position, remove them. 

Also, you can delete your phone number from the Contact Info Section of your profile.  This information can only be viewed by your direct connections, but you may want to remove it from your profile and add it back to your profile when you are open to new career opportunities.  Unfortunately, there is no way to remove your email address from the Contact Info Section.  Your primary email address is automatically displayed.  (Search: “Editing Contact Info Section of Your Profile”);

8)      Stop following companies: Following companies is a great way to get updates on the companies you wish.  During your early stages in a new career position these updates are largely distractions.   (Search: “stop following a company”);

9)      Turn off your Activity Broadcasts: This is a no-brainer as it will decrease your footprint on LinkedIn.  (Search:  “Hiding Activity Updates”);

10)   Adjust your settings so that only you can view your Activity Feed:  Again, this action will reduce your footprint on LinkedIn.  (Search: “Privately Looking for a Job”);

LinkedIn can also do a lot to help their members who have just started a new career position without causing harm to their business model.  But, creating an “off” switch is not where they are focused, so we shouldn’t expect LinkedIn to come up with any solutions in this area.  However, one simple thing they could do would be to send a congratulatory message to a member who just changed jobs and include their own suggestions for “dialing it down” during the early stages of a new career position. 

Obviously for this LinkedIn issue, it is up to the individual member to take action to minimize their LinkedIn distractions while in the early stages of a new career position.  Such action will increase the chances of success in their new role.

Since this list is incomplete, please share your suggestions for the LinkedIn member who just started a new career position.