If you’ve ever asked about looking for jobs online, chances are that someone may have mentioned of making a LinkedIn account. Now, if you’re new to the world of career hunting, you probably won’t know what that is. LinkedIn is a social platform that allows people looking for jobs, connect with people who are hiring.
Contents
Like any other social media site, you have a public profile. It contains your details, which in this case are your qualifications, skills, experiences and any other job-related information. Anyone who’s interested in employing you can have a look at your profile and connect with you.
History
- LinkedIn was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman along with some founding members of PayPal and Socialnet.com.
- The company reached a total of 1 million users in 2004. This was a massive achievement considering it was founded just 2 years ago.
- March 2006 was the company’s first month of profitability. Just 2 years later, it launched a mobile version of the site.
- The website went global in 2007 by offering Spanish and French languages.
- Jeff Weiner became the CEO of LinkedIn in 2009. As of now, he is still the current CEO and president of the company.
- By 2011 LinkedIn had over 90 million users and got listed on New York Stock Exchange.
- Microsoft purchased LinkedIn in 2016 for $26 billion.
Jeff Weiner
- Jeff Weiner was born in 1970 in New York.
- Weiner graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors in Economics in 1992. Not much is known about his early education.
- Weiner started work in Yahoo in 2001 and spent many years serving various roles to the online giant.
- He also served as Vice-President for Warner Bros before becoming the CEO of LinkedIn.
- Follow his Twitter to know about his views.
Social Media
- It has 1.45 million followers on Twitter, while it has a following of 1,117. Notable followings include Microsoft, CNBC, NASA, The Martian Movie, and Kevin Spacey.
- On its Instagram, it has 318,000 followers but only follows 7 accounts. Some of them are Microsoft, a couple of LinkedIn pages and a mysterious profile named Jonathan.
- It has 1.9 million likes on its Facebook page.
How To Use LinkedIn
- Many people are unaware of how to make a successful LinkedIn profile. It is important to have a good profile as it can affect your future career prospects.
- The first step, after making an account, is to upload a professional profile picture. The quality of the picture, you dressing and your expressions in the picture can make a world of difference to someone viewing your profile for the first time.
- The next step is to make a good, catchy headline for your profile. It should be short and should be related to the field you’re experienced/interested in.
- Next, you need to set up is your profile Summary. You need to mention your interests, along with all your current achievements and accomplishments. Adding how you can revolutionize the field you’re interested in is also a bonus. To make it easier for someone to reach you, add your email address at the end too.
- Moving on, you come to the Work Experience section. Remember to include every possible work experience as the more it is, the better it will be for you. Also, remember to include a comprehensive description of each work experience. It is preferable if it’s in the first person.
- In the Education section, make sure you add as much detail as possible. Choose the university you went to and add the degree you got from there along with the year you got it. Add a minor too, if you’ve done any.
- Lastly, make sure you have a look at your profile URL. Edit your URL so that it spells out your name, preferably your last name. This helps search engines prompt up your profile at the top when anyone searches for your name.
Revenue Model
LinkedIn has 3 main sources of revenue:
- Talent Solutions
This is the largest source of revenue for the site, constituting of over 50% of the overall revenue. It takes advantage of the LinkedIn Recruiter Tool that helps employers look for suitable employees for their job openings. What is does it allow access to databases containing data of people interested in a particular job opening. This tool is made for large corporations and is priced accordingly. The most expensive package is called the Recruiter Corporate and is available at a price of $719.95/month. - Marketing Solutions
This is one of the most common revenue models for any online business. However, it is one of the most effective ones out there. How it works is that the website displays advertisements on its pages and keep track of the number of times each page is viewed. The advertisements are of IAB standard (300×250 rectangular banner) along with custom text ads shown on the right. LinkedIn is then paid according to the number of time each ad is viewed. - Premium Subscriptions
LinkedIn is basically free for everyone but that is their basic package. Along with that, there are also 3 others tiers of Premium Subscription that users can avail to get benefits not available otherwise. The highest tier plan, also called the Executive package, costs $74.95/month. This model constitutes the lowest in the overall revenue earned by the website.
Careers
- Along with regular jobs, LinkedIn also offers internship opportunities for university students.
- There are 3 main departments for the internship: Technical, Business, and Creative.
- Technical involves engineer and data analyzing roles. Business includes positions for management and HR roles. Creative, as the name suggests, has to do with design.
- Other than internships, LinkedIn also offers some entry-level jobs in the same 3 departments, for university students.
- Regular job opening at LinkedIn include positions like Associate Digital Marketing Manager, Customer Support Specialist, Product Marketing Manager, and Network Operations Engineer.
Recent News
- On November 14th, 2018, LinkedIn launched the latest generation of its Company Pages in the hope to “make it easier for brands, institutions, and organizations…to foster constructive conversations with LinkedIn’s community.”
- The site launched LinkedIn Salary feature in November 2018. It would provide a detailed breakdown of salaries by job title and location.
- LinkedIn is rolling out an update for its mobile app that includes stories. Like Snapchat and Instagram, the stories would disappear after 24 hours of being posted.