Is Linked In any better?
Whether you're a student, professional, volunteer, or business owner, connections with the appropriate networks are the key to your success. Keeping the network (of peers) connected is even more difficult to do in today’s busy world. In the year 2006, I had to hand out resumes in person. This used to be the norm in job searching. The process was tedious and daunting; however, it boosted my confidence in terms of putting myself out there and strengthening my self-esteem. Morgan Freeman once said, “challenge yourself, it’s the only path which leads to growth”. Looking back at it now, I realized that was more engaging and physical networking (than connecting through the net) because the employer gets to see you in person, before looking at your resume.
In the early days of 2017, was when I created my LinkedIn page. The profile was set up to maximize my networking, if I wanted to work in the corporate world. My profile was not set to private, and as a result, I received several spam emails from recruiters. Ultimately, I was content with my job and was not interested in scouring these “opportunities”. I then decided to not put any more effort in the account.
Fast forward to now, I realized how little of the information I had described under my profile and wondered why I received all the recruitment jobs? I edited the content to be more appealing to my network. Uploaded an image for my display picture, included a brief biography, work experience, job preferences to give it a professional appeal and searchable. Suddenly, my account is looking more professional than it was before. Now I ask myself, how do I even connect with people on here? Is it worth using this account? I guess time will tell.
There are benefits of setting your profile to recruiters only on job networking sites. Most recruiters often hear about job openings before the official posting has been made. Recruiters often work with a specific client base and link them to the right companies. Based on my experience, you are more likely to be contacted by recruiters from Seek than from LinkedIn. I am currently using the website seek.com to source out job opportunities. The website is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and effortless in connecting with recruiters compared to LinkedIn. Fast forward about 2/3 weeks ago, I was getting calls from many recruiters accessing my resume from Seek. However, l am yet to receive any inquiries from recruiters through LinkedIn, even though my profile is set to “Only recruiters”.
In conclusion, I figured that the user base at Seek is more diverse (unemployed and employed) in terms of people looking for different types of employment. Those employment opportunities vary from temporary, part-time and full-time employment. In contrast, the user base at LinkedIn are individual who are already employed, and the platform is usually used to connect with people/peers with a common interest, gather recommendations, discover new opportunities, strengthen and extend their networks. It also, allows the users to be “counted” by potential employers who would offer them a job that is on par or higher than what they have.
Some key facts on LinkedIn and Seek:
· LinkedIn is Australia’s premier B2B Social Media platform. With,
· Visitors spending an average of 10 min 42 secs and view 8.52 pages per day on LinkedIn. Whiles, on the other hand,
· Visitors spend 8 min 4 sec and view 8.27 pages per day on Seek (December 2020).
Source Social Media Statistics for Australia (Updated December 2020) — Genroe
To wrap this up, I personally do not see the need to choose LinkedIn over Seek to search for employment. To benefit from LinkedIn profile, you need to have a strong connected network. However, it is still beneficial to have a professional LinkedIn profile, as well as Seek profile. Having both platforms increases your chances of gaining the employment you desire.
