Whats New on LinkedIn - October 2016

Whats New on LinkedIn - October 2016 Over the past six months, and since my March 2016 report on the 8 Most Important Updates for You to Know on LinkedIn, LinkedIn has introduced a panoply of new features to make life easier for job seekers, enhance the mobile experience, and support both students and members of the LinkedIn community who might not have a college degree. If you know where to look, you can find a wealth of information and tools tailored just for you! Heres a list of what I think are the 6 most important updates on LinkedIn since March 2016. 1. LinkedIn’s Job Search App Whether you are a job seeker or an employer, you need to know about LinkedIn ® Jobs. Jobs are so important on LinkedIn, in fact, that they have their own tab right in the top menu. Now with robustly featured mobile apps for iOS and Android, job seekers can apply to jobs using LinkedIn right from their phones. Don’t let that job offer sit in your inbox for hours while you’re out networking! For Android users: Click here to get LinkedIn ® Job Search App for Android (Google Play) and log in to your account. Tap the grid icon in the upper right corner. From the dropdown menu, select Job Search. You can then search for new job opportunities, save your searches, create job alerts and apply. From the dropdown menu in the upper left, select â€Å"Activity† to see your recently viewed jobs, save searches, and keep track of where you’ve applied. Or click â€Å"Discover† to view the jobs that LinkedIn has recommended for you. You can also sync your phone with your LinkedIn account. For iOS (iPhone) users: Click here to get the LinkedIn ® Job Search App for iPhone (iTunes). iPhone users enjoy additional amenities with the Job Search App for iPhone. Search jobs, save searches, set up notifications, apply online and track jobs you’ve applied to. Click her for more about LinkedIn for mobile. 2. Open Candidates In October 2016, LinkedIn introduced the â€Å"Open Candidates† tool, which allows job seekers to privately signal to recruiters that they are open to new job opportunities. Now you don’t have to worry that you will be telling the world (or your current employer) that you are on the hunt. Here’s how to use Open Candidates: From the Jobs menu, select the Preferences tab and flip the switch to â€Å"On.† You will then be asked to provide preferences for jobs you are interested in. Open Candidates makes it easy to access hundreds of thousands of recruiters who are looking for talent on LinkedIn. It’s available in the U.S., U.K. Canada and Australia on both the desktop and mobile versions of LinkedIn, and there are plans to rolled out the program globally. Ready to get started? Log in here to change your preferences. Click here for more info on Open Candidates. 3. New Mobile App Features On October 12, 2016, LinkedIn kindly outlined the three newest features available to you via your mobile phone. These features are designed to help you find what you need more easily and to control the type of information that comes through your LinkedIn feed. Customizable Feed Click the three dots in the upper right corner of your mobile app to reveal the â€Å"Improve my feed† option. Pick topics that interest you, follow leaders you want to hear from, and tap on publications you like to read. Also, you can unfollow or hide updates from connections that you find less interesting, and the app will deliver more of what you like to read. Save Content for Later At the bottom right of each article, there is now an option to bookmark it so you can come back to it later. To access your saved content, click on your â€Å"Me† tab. Search for Content The mobile app’s search box allows you to find the content that interests you most. Who doesn’t love a search function? 4. LinkedIn Students App According to LinkedIn’s official article announcing this mobile app, â€Å"86% of students choose to go to college to get better jobs, but 44% of graduates are underemployed.† Ada Yu, LinkedIn’s product manager, stated that often students â€Å"don’t know what to search for †¦ what they’re qualified to do, or even what’s out there.† This skill gap, coupled with mounting student debt, makes support to get a job right out of college- or even during college- a huge advantage. LinkedIn’s Students App was created to help college students land their first job sooner. Available for iOS and Android (in the US only), this app helps you as a student work on a host of job search activities between classes or whenever you have a few precious moments. Explore suggested roles based on your education. Read helpful articles curated by LinkedIn and JPMorgan Chase Company. See the companies that hire from your school. View the profiles of recent alumni with your major. Get job listings appropriate for your major and year. Get new recommendations delivered every day. The information recommended by the app is generated just as it is with LinkedIn Jobs, except tailored specifically for students. In fact, the app has been touted as resembling the infamous Tinder app, making it familiar and easy for students to learn and navigate. 5. Training Finder Are you just a training or two short of being qualified for the positions you want? In March 2016, LinkedIn began rolling out â€Å"Training Finder,† a service designed for people with a high school diploma and some or no college who need to learn a skill. Currently limited to only a handful of cities in Arizona and Colorado, this tool, powered by LinkedIn’s Economic Graph, provides local candidates a way to secure better jobs by connecting them with live training programs. Allen Blue, LinkedIn’s VP of Product Management and Co-Founder, describes Training Finder as providing â€Å"relevant training programs in their area; which programs are affiliated with employers; whether or not they’re accredited; the program’s employment rate, cost, and duration; the skills the program will teach them; the jobs they’ll be qualified for when they complete the program; and the estimated salary. These insights will help them choose the training program that will teach them the skills they need to get the job they want.† According to LinkedIn Help, the â€Å"majority of information about programs †¦ is uploaded by the schools directly (training descriptions, potential job positions, affiliated employers, skills you will learn, etc.). The other information, such as alumni of the program, number of job openings related to the program, and expected salary for those jobs is based on LinkedIn’s own data.† 6. Career Pages On the Company side, LinkedIn has created the â€Å"Next Generation of Career Pages.† If you are a job seeker, the new career pages could mean that you are getting a much better customer experience when a company is interested in your candidacy! You will be able to learn more about a company’s culture, and have better access to people in similar roles to the ones that interest you. I’d love to hear your stories of how this feature works for you. Have you noticed any other new features on LinkedIn that you want to report or have questions about? Let me know and I will cover them in my next update!