Received the following email blast this morning – from the ATS (applicant tracking system) for employment prospects for the company LinkedIn.com:
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When you select the “Sales Development Specialist” position in Mountain View… here is the job description you get to review:
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Now – I’m a BIG fan of LinkedIn… (always have been)… LinkedIn is an important of my branding, marketing and networking strategy and I think that LinkedIn is absolutely wonderful !! BUT… - I think this type of email broadcast is insulting and disrespectful to people who are currently laboring seemingly endlessly to find employment these days – and to receive an email like this – is just plan disrespectful and insulting.
Why broadcast out a job description (that also allows you to cross post the JobVite to your FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages… but also broadcast to everyone you know in your email address book)…??? To post “Will insert later” is beyond ridiculous and just another crap email note the currently employed get to shift through when trying to decipher the real employment prospects in their inbox – compared to the spams, MLM (multi-layer marketing) pitches and the emails announcing you’ve won the lottery.
I have paid to post job postings on LinkedIn – and have made some very successful placements via LinkedIn. Still wondering what LinkedIn was thinking – allowing free job postings within its groups when the organization charges to post the site (like paying for an ad in the employment section – or posting for free under “help wanted”) – seems like the same thing !
When employers are blowing off job fairs and human resources departments have absolutely no funds to even advertise the open job requirements they do have – we should be using technology effectively and efficiently. This is LinkedIn’s business… - this is insulting to a wonderful organization… and to the users who depend on LinkedIn – as a business networking, branding and marketing tool.
Comments
Daniel,
Great Post!
With the rise of unemployed in the Bay Area the communication between employers and employees needs to be improved so people can get back to work ASAP. Listings like these are frustrating to all involved.
As a fellow Examiner (Career Coach, Oakland) I work with job seekers giving council as to how they can best prepare themselves for their job search- why don't employers and recruiters do the same?
I subscribed to your feed so I'm looking to your future posts.
By-the-way, regarding branding, I wrote a post entitled 'Why get personal? How online personal branding can help your job search' (available on Examiner.com) which seems pretty appropriate here for both job seekers and employer/recruiters.
Cheers!
Mark Montoya
@MarkMontoya
LinkedIn has an interesting business situation (like Wal-Mart) -every applicant is prospective customer of their website and services - especially during the employment process!!
Social networking is beneficial for a career, not just immediate employment needs. What you build on LinkedIn is something that will grow and produce residual income and business/career opportunities for many years - if it is cultivated and nurtured lovingly and respectfully.
This improper email broadcast (perhaps a simple mistake) was not very respectful of the viewers’ time (again those viewers are users and prospective employees.) Yes - you can simply hit "delete" - but if LinkedIn understand the amount of bogus emails broadcasts a person received when they post their resume on Craigslist or other resume websites - you'd understand why an email like this would be perceived as a waste of that person's time (and that to me – is disrespectful.)
continued - next post!
During a difficult economy, the one thing an organization like LinkedIn should be doing to applicants (and prospective customers) is being respectful of their time.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Daniel Parrillo
President - Technical Talent and Capital Strategist
By the way - if you liked this posting about LinkedIn... - read my posting from a prior Electronic Recruiters Exchange posting on resumes submitted via Taleo....
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