The icy relationship between Linkedin and job boards took another sour turn today when the professional networking site launched a plug-in called “Apply with LinkedIn.”
Companies both big and small can now add the plug-in alongside their own “apply now” button on corporate career sites, enabling candidates to throw their hat in the ring using their LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn has already worked out the applicant tracking side of the equation by ensuring the candidate’s profile feeds directly into most systems. Many of the major ATS providers already began implementing the feature, and Taleo and Kenexa expect to include it within a few months.
Job boards can add the button if they so choose, but don’t count on a warm reception, especially since they get a big chunk of revenue from resume searching.
Companies pay big bucks to have access to the profiles of job seekers on job boards. It’s safe to say that job boards won’t take kindly to LinkedIn’s latest offering, just one of many products the social site has introduced that encroaches upon job board territory.
ERE’s John Zappe points out that in the last three years especially, LinkedIn has been expanding its recruitment solutions aggressively by offering premium search tools for recruiters, job postings, experimenting with career tools, adding a resume-maker for candidates, and now the apply button.
LinkedIn appears to be evolving from contained professional networking ecosystem to a full-blown, 21st century job board with social sharing capabilities, something most of the job boards haven’t been able to nail down.
In fact, when Monster announced its first big foray into social media earlier this month, LinkedIn quickly stepped in to rain on their parade by cutting off access to its network. The app Monster built, called BeKnown, culled information from LinkedIn to build members’ profiles.
Monster’s indignant response to the shutdown gave us a glimpse into the increasingly hostile relationship between the job boards and the professional networking site.
But one thing is clear – LinkedIn isn’t backing off, not one bit, and today’s release is evidence of that. Whether the apply button will be widely embraced remains to be seen, but many companies, including Netflix and Photobucket, have already added the plug-in.
LinkedIn’s 100+ million membership base may be very persuasive for those who are on the fence.
Do you think LinkedIn will overtake job boards, or is this just another product they’ll move on from to create bigger and better things?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a logical move for LinkedIn. What remains to be seen is the level of adoption by employers. In its favor is the convenience factor for job seekers – no one likes to reenter their resume when going into an ATS. It may have an impact on resume access revenue for some sites – particularly those that are not niche.
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Good write-up Vanessa, but social is over.
It’s a feature now. LinkedIn is already a death trap of spammers and third-string sales people, says Gregg who was quite active on it less than a year ago.
Organizations looking to do great recruiting and retention are nurturing their own talent communities not LinkedIn.
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Gregg, you’re just a LinkedIn hater. Social is over? Puuuuuhlease… we’ve only just begun.
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Job advice for professional networking: if you feel compelled to use LinkedIn which is an egregious mistake in the first place, at least maintain a shroud of respect for yourself and reveal as little as possible.
You are a busy, highly-sought after professional, not a grovelling, clingy skank.
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I agree. Linkedin has quite a bit of sh*t to wade through to find some actual content. Of course there are those that when they do contribute, you read with full focus. There aren’t many. Then there are those that wh0#e themselves out. It’s too bad too because I would love a ‘Cheers’ on the internet of people in the industry to chat and discuss things, really. Beyond 20 words or less. Linkedin has the format that is ripe for that but it is over run, not social, bland, and repetitive. Apply with Linkedin…..I vote fail. I would much rather have my own branded button plug in that applies within to my own back end system. Another ploy to try to integrate spammy Linkedin into business practices that I would rather not – thank you very much!
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