LinkedIn Hits 1 Billion Users, Adds AI Features for Job Seekers (reuters.com) 28
LinkedIn, the business-focused social network owned by Microsoft, on Wednesday said it now has more than 1 billion members and is adding more AI features for paying users. From a report: Crossing the billion-users mark puts LinkedIn -- where members maintain a resume-like profile of their education, work experience and professional skills -- in the top-tier of social media networks that include rivals such as Meta Platforms. About 80% of recent members are signing up from outside of the United States, the company has said.
LinkedIn has a free tier of membership but also offers subscriptions. Members of its $39.99-a-month tier will get new AI features that can tell a user, who may be plowing through dozens of job postings, whether they're a good candidate based on the information in their profile. The system can also recommend profile changes to make the user more competitive for a job.
LinkedIn has a free tier of membership but also offers subscriptions. Members of its $39.99-a-month tier will get new AI features that can tell a user, who may be plowing through dozens of job postings, whether they're a good candidate based on the information in their profile. The system can also recommend profile changes to make the user more competitive for a job.
How many are real users? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I was gonna say, between the known spam-bots and the trawled user accounts? Are even half of those actually real? I have my doubts.
Re: How many are real users? (Score:4, Informative)
It is also a place where the vast majority of users only log in when job seeking. Only the weird, hyper-aggressive ladder-climbers use it as a social media site. For most people it is no different than Indeed or ZipRecruiter.
Re: (Score:2)
LinkedIn has a habit of trawling public forums for names and email addresses, creating new accounts for them and then sending invitation emails to "finish creating your profile!"
At some point, I blocked the specific email I used to register with them back in ~2000 and guess what? They must have scanned emails of outlook users I have as customers because they then tried to contact me through my ticket system, opening a new ticket each time.
I decided to re-activate the primary email I registered with them in the first place to avoid that.
I didn't know MS bought linked-in or didn't remember but it explains everything I guess.
I didn't change my profile since ~2005 and I still get posts
"Business-focused" lol (Score:3, Informative)
It's become more like facebook than something meant for careers. Increasingly the inbox messages are dating service spam and the user posts are political trash or family pics.
Re:"Business-focused" lol (Score:4, Insightful)
They seem to excel at creating new classes of communication for me to ignore. I must have ignored like 20 or so already and they keep coming up with more spam.
"Hey, Linkedin AI, find me a good-paying job." (Score:5, Funny)
You mean "Users". (Score:5, Informative)
Definitively need to put that in quotes, given the amount of "recruiter" spam I've received from that site over the years.
Not at all remotely true (Score:2)
AI work (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think I ever gave them my birth date nor the few people "I follow" would have back in ~2000. Is it required now? What happens if you enter a fake birth date? Anyway, I never got a single birthday emails from them but I get the "Congratulate X for 20 years at company Y" although they left said company a long time ago. I also get "you might be interested into person X" because that person is like a friend of a friend of a friend of somebody "I follow" and I also get emails from people wanting to put
Hello, my name is Sunil Ahuja (Score:2)
One of the worst social media sites (Score:5, Insightful)
The entire site exists to suckle at the teet of tech industry titans. Every other post is in some emoji clickbait format, seeking to glorify the worst of corporate America.
Re:One of the worst social media sites (Score:5, Interesting)
... to glorify the worst of corporate America.
LinkedIn also exports this "corporate America" to the rest of the world.
LinkedIn works on the assumption that everybody is constantly looking for a new job. For this, it pushes you to be active on its platform. More connections, more reach, endorsements, posts, likes. All for being on the radar for headhunters, or for more bargaining power in your next job-seeking round.
And my US colleagues tell that this is how it works there. You build your career like a ladder, expecting to take a new step every few years.
Not all the world works like this. There is stability, loyalty and other stuff that the US market does not value at all.
LinkedIn is exporting the US career model to the rest of the world. Good or bad? I don't know. But it is yet another field where the US dominance is visible, and where a single web service is changing the world.
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting point of view, though I am not sure if LinkedIn is actually doing anything based on a model except of "more clicks". Like facebook is suspected to have facilitated some election results due to their algorithms, but not specifically because Facebook execs wanted the result, just as results of "more engagement".
Regarding your "good or bad?" question, I think a website is not going to have an effect on the job market. A colleague of mine has trouble finding a job because he changed every 2 years or
Re: (Score:2)
There is stability, loyalty and other stuff ...
Most corporations are looking for employees that have already been trained by some other corporation. As the "next big thing" changes the definition of a desirable employee, HR will look for persons already having that experience.
Or the job will change; casualization, gig-economy, after-hours on-call, and finding employees willing to suffer such abuse is difficult.
LinkedIn is catering to the corporations who put stability and loyalty, second.
No (Score:2)
After their censorship practices, there's no way I'll ever use them again.
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed. When they censor what people in China can say about their government, that's not a good look.
For all the fawning I hear about how China has all these liberties, it's amazing how often people are arrested for speaking their mind.
I never think about it (Score:2)
I might use linkedin if I was looking for a job but otherwise I never pay attention to it. Every so often someone will message me on it and I won't know until a month later because I ignore it normally. I really does reek of a desperation to be a social media site.
It doesn't matter (Score:2)
LinkedIn is a business. Unlike other businesses LinkedIn created "shadow" profiles of people. These are users. But many (most?) have never been used, so all things being equal, a user account on LinkedIn is worth much less on average than other online businesses.
As a business, their users they may or many not be worth much in total. However, quoting random user counts is not a good metric for LinkedIn and some statistic of value is needed.
Fit for a job? (Score:3)
Not being qualified for a job has stopped approximately zero applicants, from what I can tell. AI isn't going to change that!
account deleted (Score:2)
I deleted my LinkedIn account a couple of years ago, nothing but spam.
Post-truth Marketing (Score:2)
The ego trip continues (Score:2)
garbage (Score:2)
I advertised a job on LinkedIn just yesterday. Someone applied within one minute, literally as soon as I posted it I had an application. A full 50% of applications are missing the same clear requirement. I could have used craigslist for this quality of applicant.
HR already uses buzz-word bingo. (Score:2)
"I sorry Dave, I can't do that: You are not good because you lack 7 years of "Java 2022" experience."
This AI doesn't change the HR department or the get-a-degree mind-set, so nothing is solved.
Everything needs some care (Score:1)