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Making services more useful 2 - an idea for LinkedIn

Ah, now here is the idea that got me started on this thread………

A chick on a chick mailing list I’m on is posting on her interviewing experiences. Great stories. They’d make a great shared blog, some sort of healthier twist on fuckedcompany from back in the day. In writing her a note, I thought - this would be a natural for LinkedIn.

If you look at their services today - you see they capture the now and past of people, and are expanding into their future with job postings. Why not capture their travels as they manage their careers and move to new positions by capturing their feedback of what it’s like to evaluate a company via interviews?

Now there are issues with this - the dangers of rants on interviews gone wrong and the natural reluctance of some to lay themselves bare. But there’s interesting data here, which can help show the character and personality of the poster, the company and its people. Now it could be looked at as a potential public relations nightmare for the companies, or it could be looked as a powerful tool to get at the impressions they leave with potential employees. It will give them insight into how the great ones get away, what they do that’s unique and impressive, and what they need to change.

This is valuable intel that would make the LinkedIn pool of data more valuable for new members, and that would strengthen the links between hiring companies, their postings, and the community. It’s also fabulous information that I (with my research and strategy bent) find extraordinarily juicy.

Now, this may be a bit out there, as far as LinkedIn’s business goes, but if it’s fertile ground for a blog, it’s gonna happen. This is a chance for LinkedIn to tie this into their portfolio of career management services. Right now, LinkedIn let’s you get that info about who is there and who was there, not about those who were almost there.

It’s a fact that the costs of poor employee fit are very high. LinkedIn, as I understand it, is mostly about making connections and outing skeletons. Augmenting that by making it easier to share information about company culture, which most people — fish in water style - don’t notice, will help yield successful hires. Everyone knows it’s not always about the smartest, or most experienced, or best connected - it’s about the person who’s best for a particular corner of your company.