Facebook Threatens LinkedIn With Job Opening Features (techcrunch.com)

Facebook is looking to compete with LinkedIn by allowing business Pages to promote job listings. "The new Jobs features could give companies another reason to drive traffic to their Facebook Page beyond marketing their products in the News feed, while also allowing them to pay the social network to get their open position in front of more candidates," reports TechCrunch. A Facebook spokesperson said, "Based on behavior we've seen on Facebook, where many small businesses post about their job openings on their Page, we're running a test for Page admins to create job postings and receive applications from candidates." TechCrunch adds: A new Facebook option in the status update composer allows Pages to formally share a job opening with related details like job title, salary, or if it's full-time vs part-time. The special formatting could differentiate job postings from other content and attract eyeballs amongst the crowded News Feed. These job postings will also show up in a Jobs tab of the Page, creating a dedicated landing place where companies can send job seekers. Businesses would get the added benefit of potentially gaining new followers whether or not someone inquires about the open position, compared to a relatively static Careers page on company's website. Job postings will include an "Apply Now" button that launches a standard job application flow, but pre-populated with information from a user's public profile. That could help people quickly apply for multiple jobs without typing in redundant information. Submitted applications will be received by the Page as a Facebook Message. Businesses will also be able to pay to show their News Feed job postings to more people, directly competing with some of LinkedIn's ad offerings. Facebook's opportunity here combines its ubiquitous reach, personal data, and engagement.

Comments

Oh yes please

[Anonymous Coward]

Lets give Farcebook even more personal data to mine and sell by uploading our resume to them. Hey what the hell, let's just use Farcebook to APPLY for jobs as well, so they can finally get our Social Security numbers and credit ratings as well!

But on the bright side, at least grandpa and grandma can get jobs working tier 1 helpdesk for Robert Half and earn a little extra income while spamming cat videos to their kids now!

Hopefully they will learn

[lucm]

I hope Facebook will learn from LinkedIn how to make a decent API. The Facebook APi is awful, almost as bad as the Twitter one.

I understand that when a company experiences explosive growth there is usually no time to design a perfect architecture, but some organizations like LinkedIn, Amazon and to some extent Google managed to do it. I guess Facebook is too busy spying on people.

The Facebook API is a tapestry of bad designs that are not even consistent across the various namespaces. The developer console looks like something that was designed by people who have never heard of UX principles, and the documentation is awful. I'd rather work with Yahoo CSV API than with Facebook "methods".

Re: Hopefully they will learn

[AuMatar]

As someone who worked there-it isn't designed. There are no central architectural design teams inside Facebook, each team does its own work to their own specs. So throw any hope of consistency out the window without a total culture reboot. The fact it's all graphql doesn't help (that's a decision that probably makes sense financially at scale due to saving space over Jason, but makes all queries a pain in the ass)

Re: Hopefully they will learn

[TTL0]

"There are no central architectural design teams inside Facebook, each team does its own work to their own specs."

I think the term is Agile.

I use the two sites for different purposes

[Elfich47]

I use facebook for non-business, non-work, non-professional reasons. I use Linked in for business, work and professional reasons.

I do not normally mix the two. The first being I don't want my boss or coworkers (with a couple of exceptions) knowing how I spend my weekends. Its none of their business.

Facebook is apparently trying to bring that separation between my private and work life. I won't participate in that. There are two many chances of something stupid being cross-posted between personal and professional sections of Facebook. Not going there.

Re:I use the two sites for different purposes

[misnohmer]

Bingo (though for me I don't use facebook at all, people who I want knowing how I spend my weekends already do). Whenever I interview anyone, I always google them first. I have to say, never, ever did someone's facebook page make the candidate look more suited for the job. At best, facebook content was neutral. I'm sure hiring for social media, comedians or other public entertainment venues it may be useful to blend the two, but for most jobs it can only hurt the candidate.

Work/life balance

[Kernel Kurtz]

LinkedIn consists of people putting their best professional face forward. Facebook consists of people freely sharing their personal lives.

Mix them at your own peril.

Re: One privacy invading site threatens another

[AuMatar]

Linkedin is useful as a self updating list of email addresses for former colleagues who may be helpful as references or have job openings in the future. Fat better than the old fashioned way where you had to keep in contact or ask mutual friends for contact info

Re: One privacy invading site threatens another

[AuMatar]

Most companies do. I get reference requests on former juniors every few months. I don't really understand it (I mean if they listed my name they know I'm going to give you a good review, otherwise they'd have given you someone else or lied), but a lot of companies put stock in them. Personally I only think they're useful if its a mutual acquaintance- if I know someone who worked with you I'd call them and trust the result. But many companies actually do call references, and some of those that don't will still ask for them.