If you’re searching for a job, Facebook probably isn’t the first place you’d think to look. But Facebook wants to change that. Last week, they released their brand new Social Jobs Partnership app, which functions as a job posting aggregator, pulling job postings from other sites like jobvite.com and monster.com. The Social Jobs Partnership app comes out of a year-old partnership between Facebook, the U.S. Department of Labor, The National Association of Colleges and Employers, DirectEmployers Association, and the National Association of State Workforce agencies.
Many media outlets have questioned whether this new development presents a threat to LinkedIn. At this point we believe it does not.
Why? By nature, Facebook is a personal social media site. As soon as Facebook hit the college scene in 2004, people began sharing a great deal of personal information on the site, from photos to political views. As Facebook has grown, most users have become more cautious about their privacy settings and the content they post, but the site is still seen by most as a place for personal interactions. LinkedIn, on the other hand, has always been a place for work-related interaction. Most users build their profiles knowing full well that potential employers and colleagues will see them, and they present themselves accordingly.
Wouldn’t you rather interact with your next employer through a site where you’re intentionally presenting yourself as a great candidate than one where you’ve been sharing many aspects of your personal life for years? We think most job hunters will say yes.
We can certainly appreciate the fact that Facebook is dedicated to improving the job market. We even understand their logic that the strong social connections that exist on Facebook might be advantageous when searching for a job. But we simply can’t imagine that many LinkedIn users will forgo the privacy and professional nature of LinkedIn in order to risk putting their personal lives on display for potential employers on Facebook.
Featured image via: WebProNews
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