Just when you thought you had your social networks all figured out, Facebook goes and throws a curveball—a LinkedIn size one.
Say hello to Jobs on Facebook, a new service that lets employers fill positions and job-seekers apply for jobs without ever leaving the platform. Businesses can publish a job alert in just a few minutes, while filters like location, industry, and job type can help applicants easily identify new opportunities.
“We’re focused on building new ways to help make it easier for businesses to interact with the over 1 billion people visiting Pages every month, “ Facebook said in a blog post announcing the service. “Businesses and people already use Facebook to fill and find jobs, so we’re rolling out new features that allow job posting and application directly on Facebook.”
How it Works for Employers: Any business with a Facebook Page can tap the newly created “Jobs” tab located on the right-hand navigation bar on the home screen. There, Page admins can create a job listing, track applications and communicate directly with applicants right on Facebook. Listings will appear in this Jobs tab and appear in the News Feed.
How it Works for Applicants: Job-seekers can navigate to Facebook.com/Jobs to browse local listings or filter for ideal roles. Once a potential job is identified, they can follow the prompts to an application page where contact info and previous work experience will be auto-filled. Easy, peasy!
So what’s the benefit here? Tech Crunch points out that Facebook picks up where LinkedIn leaves off, writing, “LinkedIn has neglected two big opportunities Facebook is now capitalizing on: helping lower-skilled workers and people who aren’t actively looking for a job.” These job-seekers—who might not ever have a reason to visit LinkedIn—will now see openings in their Facebook Newsfeeds and opportunities falling into their laps.
It is important to mention that while this feature has LinkedIn size potential, it’s still operating on a Meerkat-sized scale. Advertising has not yet been enabled, and job-seekers might not find the filters limiting enough. But as Facebook’s professional development has exceeded our wildest expectations over the last decade and a half, we’re sure this new feature will deliver high marks on its next performance review.
