Just a couple of years ago, all the talk in recruitment circles, and at PA and secretarial recruitment agencies, was about how LinkedIn had practically replaced the CV, creating online portfolios that allow effective networking and sourcing of great candidates.
Now, however, things have changed. Facebook is venturing into the recruitment industry, with a new ‘Jobs’ feature. Last year, the beady-eyed tech wizards at TechCrunch spotted a Jobs tab on its business page, and immediately contacted Facebook, which confirmed it was experimenting with some recruitment features.
Facebook's new jobs features
Now, Facebook is rolling out an exciting array of recruitment-related features, targeting two key markets that LinkedIn has missed out on:
- Lower-skilled workers who may not see the point of joining a professional network like LinkedIn, where the overwhelming majority of vacancies require certain qualifications.
- People who aren’t actively looking for a job. LinkedIn is a primary resource for those who are seeking new employment, but it has never really catered to the casual searchers who might make a career move if the right offer popped up.
Facebook’s Jobs features are extremely simple. Business pages will now be able to post special updates advertising job openings, with a special Jobs tab on their page, as TechCrunch initially spotted. The posts will come with an ‘Apply Now’ button, which immediately sends an application with the user’s name and profile picture pre-filled to save time. This incredibly fast and simple way of applying for a job through the world’s most popular social network could see LinkedIn’s online domination of the recruitment market start to decline.
Currently, the Jobs feature is only available in the U.S. and Canada, but there are plans to roll out the option internationally.
The challenges of using Facebook to find work
Of course, using a social network like Facebook to find work is not without its challenges. For many candidates, Facebook will be one of the main networks they use to communicate with friends and family members, sharing photos and content that aren’t necessarily related to business, especially when they're applying for top PA roles.
This means that many people who are applying for jobs on Facebook will need to go through their profiles and tweak their privacy settings to ensure that only their closest friends and family members can see content that they consider personal or not professional. LinkedIn isn’t generally a place to share personal updates, so candidates are less at risk of potential bosses scouring their profiles to get a better idea of who they’re considering for a role.
The ease with which job applications are sent could also make things tricky for employers or hiring managers. Posting about an open position on LinkedIn and asking for CVs or cover letters to be emailed to a certain address means that candidates will take time and effort to apply for a role. If Facebook make it too easy to send in applications, hiring managers could be bombarded with hundreds of applicants. This sounds like a nice problem to have, until the time comes to select just one candidate!
For all the latest trends in recruitment that might affect you in a permanent or temporary PA job, stay tuned to the Love Success blog!
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