Naukri, Monster, Dice are Job Portals. What about LinkedIn?

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Naukri, Monster, Dice are Job Portals. Well this was a no brainer, right!! So how about LinkedIn!! Sounds fairly simple to answer this one. LinkedIn is a Job Portal!! LinkedIn is not a Job Portal!! But is this so simple? Well, let’s take a look at this question and try to decode it from the angle of a candidate and a recruiter. As it depends on the users who are using LinkedIn.

Just to make things more interesting, let me share some statistics with you. Naukri, no doubt is the bread and butter of all recruiters in India, and Monster too is somewhere close to that. Naukri has around 35 million resumes in their database and Monster too close to 30 million. Any guess how much does LinkedIn have!! It’s great to say that LinkedIn has 225+millions users worldwide. But how much of that database is India centric!! Hold your breath; LinkedIn has around 20 million users in India. Naukri was started way back in 1998 and LinkedIn in 2003. Does this mean anything!! Is LinkedIn a Job Portal!!

Okay, so let’s back to find out what it actually means for users using LinkedIn.

Candidates: Most of the candidates have their resumes on Naukri, Monster etc. They also have their so called resumes on LinkedIn. Does that mean all of them are looking for a job opportunity!! LinkedIn’s tag line is very much clear that it is a social networking website for people in professional occupations (Wikipedia). Do you agree that there is also a small size of population on Job Portals who are passive job seekers!! As in those who have their resumes to check their market value!! Interesting right!! One might say that having my resume on LinkedIn does not mean that I am looking out for a change. Right!! Well, a valid point. May be they just want to connect with other professionals, or recruiters!! Or just look for interesting Job Openings!! Or just follow some companies!!! Well, but this does not mean that LinkedIn is a Job Portal. Right!!! Wrong!!!

Recruiters: These are the most interesting set of professionals who end up using Job Portals and LinkedIn almost daily. Let’s take this argument that companies pay lakhs and lakhs of rupees to Job Portals for using its services. Be it Job Posting, Database search, advertising banner etc. LinkedIn is also known to have special services for Recruiters, Job Seekers and Sales Professionals. For example again you need to pay x amount for Premium Search, InMail Messages, Full Network Visibility, in case you are a Recruiter. Well, one thing is confirmed, that you need to pay extra to have a greater advantage in terms of more results, advanced filters, and search alerts.

Is the talent solutions product from LinkedIn a major step towards being a Job Portal!!! Through LinkedIn Recruiter, thousands of corporate recruiters are empowered to find, contact and nurture relationships with the world’s best talent, faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Talking about LinkedIn Groups, you might have noticed that almost all recruiters might have posted their jobs on groups at least once, if not more. So are recruiters using it as a Job Portal! Well, it will be interesting to see what are the new additions that LinkedIn is planning to get to encourage more recruiters to use it. Those recruiters who are using LinkedIn Recruiter Product, might find it a bit more easy to search and connect with potential job seekers (Recruiters like to call them Passive) J So does this mean LinkedIn is a Job Portal!!

Well, one would definitely say that LinkedIn has so many interesting things such as LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn News, LinkedIn Influencers. May be LinkedIn did not want it to be used just like any other Job Portal. Or maybe they want to also get into the Territory of The Naukri’s, The Monsters, The Dice etc. Looking forward to your views on this interesting topic.

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KunalKunjal Kamdar has been involved in sourcing for the last eight years, having worked in both recruitment and sourcing capacities. Currently, he works with Quinnox Consultancy Services in India as a Talent Acquisition Group Lead. Kunjal enjoys sourcing and using Social Media to expand and innovate new channels in the recruitment process. Blogging is his real passion, and he in turn loves sharing his passion for sourcing and social media with others in the recruiting community. Check out his blog at Rambling Recruiter’s Blog. Connect with him on LinkedIn and on twitter @kunjal23

 

7 Comments

  1. Rakshita Dwivedi says:

    interesting thought Kunjal!! LinkedIn is more of a networking portal where job is one part of it.We connect for business req, knowledge sharing etc. but yes Job always is a primary need out there.

  2. Thanks Rakshita for your valuable views. It also depends on how Recruiters and Candidates are using LinkedIn. Some section of recruiters are just posting jobs on groups and discussion sections. So it will be interesting to see what are the new innovations that LinkedIn has its sleeves. As FB is currently testing a new option where you can add your professional skills to the work and education section of your timeline. This will surely make things more interesting :)

  3. Very interesting thing! Linked in is an platform where we can connect to each other in professional manner and understand the actual need of an employer with discuss to each other.

  4. Kunjal :

    “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare

    Similarly..a portal is just another name for entrance/door.

    Linkedin has an edge over the ‘traditional’ job portals-courtesy the classic positioning it has occupied in the mind of the professional-a legit and transparent excuse to showcase one’s competencies.

    Also the relative ‘authenticity’ being in the public domain gives it more credibility. ( Mere Job portals can tend to have more folks blatantly misrepresenting facts as there is very little opportunity to be caught redhanded)

    However-as the divide between ‘talent wanted’ and ‘talent available’ increases-I feel the power of choice is increasingly skewed in the favour of the professional taking charge of her/his own career..as organisations are increasingly looking for JIT (just in time) hires..rather than train & invest in talent.

    Crystal gaze in to the future. I think once the emphasis shifts to ‘quality of talent’ -and we look at ROI- rather than ‘cost per hire’..the ‘source’ becomes just incidental…and over obsession will be on engagement..and retention…”what happens inside”!!

    I think Linkedin has made a lot of strides..ahead of its contemporaries by evangelising its mission of connecting the world’s professionals to enable them to be more productive and successful. A great branding success story..more than a tool for HR fraternity!!

  5. Lyricspool says:

    Thanks for sharing this useful information…!!

  6. Today LinkedIn has evolved so much that it is possible to monetize an account, create global contact networks and get your message across the world.

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