Searching for jobs is tough and boring as it is. Add to that the boring and drab interface of LinkedIn, and you have yourself a snoozefest. Now, the company is finally trying to spice up your job hunt, by bringing a new set of (uninspiring) features.
After a really long period of time, LinkedIn has finally brought major updates to its web and mobile applications. The business and employment-oriented social media platform has announced a complete redesign of its platform that includes a new Stories feature, improvements in messaging, video chats, search optimization and many more.
Joining the bandwagon of the likes of Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat, LinkedIn has brought out the Stories feature on its platform (because we totally wanted that on a job seeking platform, right?). It had already tested this in Brazil, Netherlands, UAE, Australia, and France and will now roll out the feature officially in the US and Canada initially before expanding it globally. According to LinkedIn, during the tests, users had shared millions of stories ranging across thousands of topics like home-office setups, job opportunities and influencers talking about their work-life, employment, corporates, etc. The new Stories allows users to add local stickers and even asks them a question everyday like what are they working on or how do they relax on an off-day.
Messaging has been an integral part of LinkedIn, which helps users connect with potential employers, influencers and entrepreneurs. New updates from LinkedIn give users the ability to delete, edit or recall messages, as well as the opportunity to respond with emojis. Users can now also report inappropriate and harassing content.
Moreover, LinkedIn is also introducing video chats on its platform, which seems like an essential part of a job seeking platform and is a perfect fit, even though the company is very late to the fight. It has announced partnerships with Zoom, BlueJeans and Microsoft Teams for its new integrated video chatting feature, to make sure that the experience is as seamless as it can be.
And lastly, one of the best updates is the changed search tool. From now on, if you are searching for anything on LinkedIn, it will not just show people and companies but also courses, events, jobs and much other stuff. This will make it much easier for users to look up job opportunities and online courses on the platform. So for example, if you search ‘coding’, the results will show you courses on coding, job openings for coders and companies that hire coders.
All these new features might not be new in the social media world and probably LinkedIn is too late to the party. But given the uniqueness of the platform that focuses on providing corporate and employment-related services, it makes a huge difference for the users who will benefit at large with these updates during times like the COVID-19 pandemic.
