LinkedIn profile pics: you CAN turn it off
This has got to be the most useful feature from LinkedIn. Not only do you have the ability to set your photo’s visibility on LinkedIn, you can also choose not to view OTHERS’ profile pictures. It’s definitely a valuable tool for those of us who feel that the photo feature could compromise anti-discrimination hiring practices/expose corporations to possible discrimination suits (from the few sue-happy folks who will use just about any excuse to squeeze a buck).
The option is under your account settings and is the very last option under privacy. Or. You can just click here.
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LinkedIn now has pictures
I noticed something new in my LinkedIn profile today. It now has the option to add an 80×80 photo.
The Boston Globe’s Business Blog was wondering why it took this long. Did it not make it to their to-do list?
I doubt that’s the reason.
LinkedIn is used heavily by recruiters. This is because unlike Facebook and MySpace, a person’s LinkedIn profile is almost equivalent to a resume. (I suppose LinkedIn using the hresume microformat is based on what members use the site for.) Any seasoned recruiter or staffing professional will tell you that resumes and photos don’t belong together.
Discrimination suits aren’t fun. Or cheap. Sure, you can argue that discrimination can occur in other stages of the recruiting process, but recruiters will tell you it’s better to play it safe and throw out that photo attachment.
It’ll be interesting how this new development with LinkedIn changes things, if it changes anything.
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How do you use your social network for recruiting?
Recruiters are quick to flock to social networking sites and why shouldn’t they? Social networking sites are filled with possible candidates you won’t otherwise find on Monster or Dice. Plus they are free.
Unfortunately though recruiters aren’t always welcome. I’ve had a few contacts who have given me quite a bit of drama before finally adding me. A handful of them have told me that they have personal policies not to add recruiters to their networks because they end up getting spammed. One sent me a long e-mail with his complete contact information. He just didn’t want me on his LinkedIn list fearing that my second and third degree recruiting contacts would spam him.
I get that occasionally too, even in offline networking events. There was this woman one time who, upon looking at the business card that I handed to her, just told me “oh we already have vendors.”
She joined in on the conversation I was having with a group of other folks and before I left she asked for my card. How that could be construed as ME selling her something, I’m really not sure. I went from a person she was eager to talk to, to a person she really didn’t want to hear from. Yet I couldn’t blame her. Poor gal is probably a hiring manager and gets a ton of phone calls from staffing sales people and has been conditioned to associate “staffing” and “recruiting” with the never ending cold calls she gets throughout the day.
Social networking sites are great for recruiting but the bad recruiting practices such as spamming of the relatively few could easily turn these sites into hostile territory for recruiters and ruin it for the rest of us.
What are some recruiting best practices that you follow when it comes to social networking sites?
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Recruiting and social media
I went to the Lunch2.0 event yesterday at Netgear and was chatting a little bit with LinkedIn’s Community Evangelist Mario Sundar about social media and employment.
LinkedIn is becoming quite popular with recruiters these days because it allows them to tap into passive candidates who are not otherwise available on Monster or Dice. And as other social networking sites (MySpace, FaceBook, etc)become more mainstream with job seekers publishing more information in these sites, recruiters are also starting to tap into them not just as a resource for candidates, but also to research their candidates.
In addition to social networking sites, there are also new services popping up targeting the job seeker/recruiter market. A lot of them are designed to make the recruiting process more personable through the use of images, video and reference tools to allow the prospective employer to see the candidate beyond their skill set.
We already do this in recruiting. They are called in-person interviews. But social media allows recruiters/employers to see a more complete view of things that may not be mentioned in their resumes such as their personalities and communication skills before they even proceed to the interview, so in theory, shouldn’t social media be a valuable tool for recruiters?
In theory…yes. But in a litigious society, maybe not so.
Remember the old recruiting days when we used to toss out resumes that had pictures attached because employers didn’t want to be exposed to for racial, sex or age discrimination suits? Never mind that the photos were unsolicited? In the world of blogs, MySpace and FaceBook, pictures don’t have to be attached, they can be easily found via a simple Google search. If a candidate is not hired for some reason and a potential employer appears on that candidate’s site traffic report, can that person claim discrimination? “I applied for a job and employer A came to my blog, saw that I am Asian and decided not to hire me.” What about video resumes on YouTube or ResumeBook?
I mentioned this concern to Mario and he mentioned that this was actually one of the reasons LinkedIn members do not have the option to upload photos as part of their profiles — because the company recognizes that LinkedIn is used not just as a networking tool but also as a recruiting tool.
LinkedIn also has a recommendation tool that allows clients, partners, co-workers and bosses to comment about a person’s quality of work or credentials. I think this is a great tool because it allows recruiters to do a reference check before even possibly contacting a candidate. But as a former recruiter I seem to also remember widespread corporate policies prohibiting managers against giving references to former employees. Now…LinkedIn, despite it being a “professional” networking tool, is still a personal tool so I guess the point here is that social media definitely blurs the line between what is official and what is “personal.”
At the risk of being redundant, if recruiters/employers don’t find it on LinkedIn, it takes but two seconds to find it elsewhere.
I won’t offer any opinions here, other than to say that I am at a wait and see state. It would be interesting to see how the staffing and employment industry adapts to new trends in technology and social media.
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About This Blog
Lisa Amorao is currently the Marketing Programs Manager for ATR International, a Silicon Valley-based contingent staffing firm.
Lisa has held roles in recruiting and sales before moving on to her current role in Marketing.
The opinions expressed here are her personal opinions and does not reflect those of her employer or any of its clients.
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