Is LinkedIn Still a Good Job Search App? EP18

Episode 18 Transcript

Welcome back to the Marketing Combat Podcast. My name is Chris Kubbernus. With me always is the titular, amazing, super fantastic, ex -balladotius, Jason Donnelly. What's up, man? I don't think that I've ever been called titular. I'm going to look that up after the episode and see if I'm offended. So today... You will be. You should. the Marketing Combat Podcast, we're going to be talking about LinkedIn. Is it a valid job search app? Is it?

social media, I don't even know what it is at this point. But to bring everybody into the loop on the marketing combat podcast, we know what the topics are beforehand, but the second person who talks, it's to actually decide which way they're arguing, which means the other person might be arguing a point that they don't want. So LinkedIn, is it still valid? I'm going to go with as a social media network platform, it is no longer what it set out to do.

It is no longer just a professional place where people put their job help and try to help people. It's definitely still a job search platform though. Let me tell you why, because all the other job search platforms are garbage. I mean, if you go to CareerBuilder, if you go to, honestly, that's the, what's the other one? The MonsterJobs? No, I don't even consider that a valid platform anymore. What's the Glassdoor? Glassdoor is the other one that we were not fans of. But yeah, I think LinkedIn's a valid,

job search app only because they have jobs there. But I don't know. There's so many, every job that I've ever looked at, there's hundreds upon thousands of people applying to it. So it's like, it's finding a needle in a haystack. I think it's still a valid place because it's the only place that actually has jobs. as a social - So a monopoly standpoint, you're saying like it's got a monopoly on the job search market now. And that's

That's why it's a job search. Okay. So you're, you're arguing like it is a good job search platform. It is the job search platform. Tell me why it's not. I can't argue. just like, I'm going to be arguing illogically here because I agree with you, but the here's what I'm going to say about why it's not a good job search platform, mainly because right now there is so much volume on the platform because of

all the other stuff, right? All the social network stuff. And I would say it's not even business to business social networking anymore. It's very much a platform for posting photos of your vacation, posting things that are completely irrelevant to your job, to your career. It's very emotional. There's a lot of emotion in it, which

you could say has crept into corporate culture. There's a lot of discussion about people's feelings and things like that. And you know, whether you think that's valid or not, I don't think it is. I think there's a lot of noise when it comes to business these days that is irrelevant towards actually like company producing results, right? To actually pay the people to continue to do their jobs. And I think we're seeing a shift in focus, which is not healthy. The shift in focus is towards other stuff that's just noise.

my opinion, like I mentioned before. So from a job search standpoint though, it is so full of all this other stuff that it's hard to figure out actually what are the good job opportunities, how can I apply? And because it's so used, you're a needle in the haystack. And people that are recruiting are not even really doing a good job of vetting people to interview, right? Because it is so many people. And I would say like, it's very, I mean, I put jobs out there. I know the amount of...

Applications I would get, a lot of it is irrelevant. LinkedIn has done a sort of good job of trying to help you filter it, but reality is, is like you just have to skim the surface. It's very surface level when you're looking at applications, when you're looking at people applying for the job. You're basically looking at, okay, do they currently have a job? Do they work in the industry that I'm...

currently in as well? Do they have some sort of like pedigree in terms of like where they've worked beforehand? Is there not too many like jumping around? Like you look for red flags essentially. It's almost like a dating app. You're like, okay, that person's holding a fish. Okay, red flag. You know, so you're looking for red flags to filter everybody out and.

It is surface level, right? So from a deep job search, from actually like putting yourself forward in a nice light to be able to sell who you are, it is really not that great. It's very surface level. So for job seekers, I think it's bad, but for employers, it's also very bad because you're only getting, you're getting just so much stuff. So many people applying that are irrelevant. A lot of people just applying for jobs that they do not have any business applying for, and that's bad.

That's bad for society, that's bad for you, that's bad for people, because there's a lot of good candidates that probably get passed up simply because of the noise. So LinkedIn needs a massive change. We need something that takes more effort to apply for jobs than just apply, LinkedIn apply. We need something that really makes them pause and go, okay, should I apply for this job and how can I apply and how do I put my best foot forward?

rather than just randomly applying for stuff and hoping that they get a call back. Yeah. And I think the entire recruiting industry needs to change because right now there's so many of these things that they're like, upload your resume, send us a cover letter, now enter all of that information again. And it's just making people angry.

all the time. think video recruiting should be the thing. think like instead of cover letters, think like just send us a video. And I know some people aren't good on camera, but like that's going to also weed out a lot of people that don't have interpersonal skills, aren't good at communication, which I think are probably some of the most important skills these days as we headed more into AI and stuff like that. So send us a video of why you think you should work here. You know, what are your main points in your career that you want to highlight? A little video interview ahead of time. I mean, I know that LinkedIn has that like

there is that actually option to say to people, they should send in a video resume or a video highlight reel. So maybe they need to push that more. So it's not a good job platform. I may, I used to be a recruiter back in the day, a very long time ago. And I'll tell you, yeah, did I ever tell you that? Anyway, the biggest thing that I'll say is, I know, if you just said You drove around in a Ford, a red Ford. No, that was when I was a college recruiter and adjunct professor, very fancy.

I was a creative recruiter in New York when I first got there. But yeah, like I said, if you just put your stuff out there, if you just throw your resume out there and try to get some recruiter interested in you, you're gonna be a number. If you go to the job, find the people that you might connect with, find the people that you might work with, connect with them, chat with them, see if it's something that you might actually be interested in, and then say, hey, I'm interested in this position, could you see if you can help me out there? It's.

who you know, not just throwing your stuff against a wall and hoping for the best. That's my two cents for anybody looking for a job these days. Reach out, be a real person, not just a number. Totally agree. Good points, good debate. Thank you guys for tuning into this episode of the Marketing Combat Podcast, where we dive into marketing topics every single day of the week, not the weekends, we like to take a break. And we would love your support. Please subscribe, please like.

comment if you see this on social media, you see this on YouTube. All of your support really helps us reach more people with this amazing content. Of course it's amazing. And we will see you guys in the next one. Thanks for tuning in. That's Chris Kubbernus, and I'm a man with a mustache. Yes, you are.