Among many valuable features that LinkedIn is discontinuing “to improve member experience,” what stands out for me is losing the Role/Job Title search facet with the switch to the new desktop UI.
Seriously? Tell me it’s not happening! For anyone looking for professionals on LinkedIn, I imagine that this, always-free, search filter has been critically important.
(If you see a prompt by LinkedIn, after you search by keywords that sound like a job title,
please know that this is, in fact, just keyword search – for “developer” in the above screenshot – and, oh, this is VERY different.)
LinkedIn has:
- ~1.7 MLN people with the job title “developer” and ~5.7 MLN with the keyword “developer.”
- ~1.1 MLN people with the job title “nurse” and ~2.5 MLN with the keyword “nurse.”
- ~800K people with the job title = (recruiter OR recruiting OR recruitment) and 8 MLN people with the keywords (recruiter OR recruiting OR recruitment)
I.e. overall, it will get about ten times harder to find the right people because of this change alone!
The only products with Job Title search, after the new UI is rolled out to everyone, are going to be LIR (Recruiter) and SN (Sales Navigator). And here are the consequences:
- Job seekers – even those with paid accounts – will no longer be able to search for people with title=Recruiter. Job search will be harder also because LinkedIn subscriptions changes will block a significant number of recruiters from using LinkedIn efficiently.
- Recruiters who do not upgrade to LinkedIn Recruiter (with the current pricing of $8-10K and up per year, a tenfold hike for all recruiters with premium accounts) will not be able to search for candidates efficiently.
The price hike for Recruiters with premium accounts is going to be too steep for many; they will probably stay with their current subscriptions – and searching is becoming harder for them. (We shouldn’t be surprised if InMails will be getting more spam and poorer response next year because of that.) An option to get a job title search is Sales Navigator, not quite a product for recruiters, but, I suppose it’s a way out without getting broke for many. It “only” costs about $1K/yr.
There are multiple other drawbacks with the UI redesign and changes in account options.
On the other hand, even if you do have the money, don’t think that LinkedIn Recruiter subscription will let you search well – the new search syntax is not Boolean, it’s pretty odd and not easy to use.
With all that gloomy future in searching LinkedIn, I invite you to get ready for 2017 – join me for the last webinar of the year, the top-attended-ever
Lecture “Sourcing without LinkedIn” – Wednesday, December 21st, 2016
For my blog readers, I will offer a money-back guarantee for the presentation.
Sign up soon – seating is limited (and it’s already filling up).