LinkedIn Alternative

Given the ridiculous fees and obstacles created by LinkedIn over the past 3 years; Would an alternative site that was designed to be more open (with recruiting in mind) be something that the larger talent acquisition community would support? I would love to hear what other think on this topic.

Cheers, Jason

aka Recruiter-At-Large

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on May 16, 2011 at 12:45pm

Rayanne, weren't you the one who was telling everybody in your office to update their Linkedin profiles? If it's a venue just for jobseekers and recruiters would you please just have your office staff send their profiles to me. :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tami Brittain on May 16, 2011 at 1:10pm

Only if it were free.

Speaking on behalf of the indies as well as those that are employed by companies/organizations that will only foot the bill for the "big ones" (ie: Monster, Careerbuilder) for sourcing purposes, I'd fully support it, promote the you-know-what out of it.

I've actually had some success with Ziggs as well.

tami

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Roberto Angulo on May 16, 2011 at 1:16pm

Jason,

I'm curious to see what obstacles LinkedIn has created. AfterCollege rolled out public profiles recently, targeted for college grads mainly and not with the goal of replacing LinkedIn, but rather to fill the gaps where LinkedIn leaves off in serving the college and entry level community. We're currently in the process of getting our 600k registered users to upgrade to these profiles. Some are making them public, others are keeping them private and only opting to have registered employers contact them. Here is a write up describing our profiles:

http://acdc.mx/profl

I'm interested in getting your feedback on this and I'll share it with our dev team.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Amos on May 16, 2011 at 1:20pm

As an early adopter I remember when I start headhunting via LI about 7 years ago for a role in Paris. I recruited 42 people and got 13 referrals, thats 55 candidates for Zero down! I also remember advocating the site to HR managers but they didnt buy into FREE profiles when they were already using the big boards. But LI has used the freemium model to move forward and monetize, and the majority of the buying market they are going after are corporate HR departments. Now the early adopters (3rd part recruiters) will just end up paying a little bit more for something they have used for free.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason Elkin on May 16, 2011 at 2:11pm

Hello Roberto,

LinkedIn has created several fee barriers. Unless you subscribe to one of their packages your access will be limited every time you search the network or try to communicate with someone that is not directly (1st Level) linked to you.

Roberto Angulo said:

Jason,

I'm curious to see what obstacles LinkedIn has created. AfterCollege rolled out public profiles recently, targeted for college grads mainly and not with the goal of replacing LinkedIn, but rather to fill the gaps where LinkedIn leaves off in serving the college and entry level community. We're currently in the process of getting our 600k registered users to upgrade to these profiles. Some are making them public, others are keeping them private and only opting to have registered employers contact them. Here is a write up describing our profiles:

http://acdc.mx/profl

I'm interested in getting your feedback on this and I'll share it with our dev team.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tony Palm on May 16, 2011 at 4:12pm

Sorry to appear contrary but I placed a quality candidate last year at my company using only the free membership. Given the candidate's experience and value she brought (and if I were still a third-party recruiter) my fee would have been in the $13.5 - 18K range.

Perhaps I’m missing something . . .

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason Elkin on May 16, 2011 at 4:16pm

Hi Jennifer,

I don't know of a single "real headhunter" in the web/internet space that ignores social media outright and is still successful. Zero social media presence might still work for some industries, but not for any discipline that is moving at the pace of real business.

Regardless, I think you missed the point of the discussion. We're not discussing headhunting chops. We are discussing the place/importance of LinkedIn within the larger talent acquisition community and if there should be an alternative that better serves our needs. :-)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on May 16, 2011 at 4:30pm

I find Linkedin to be valuable not only as a direct source of candidates - but for the research and other sordid "employment/hiring/company profile" info it provides. I have never paid a dime for it though. Maybe I would - maybe I wouldn't. I guess I'll be finding out soon enough.

@Jennifer - I'm a "real" headhunter. Yet I do find myself wasting time all over the place. Gotta take a break from time to time! :()

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jason Elkin on May 16, 2011 at 4:42pm

You're not being contrary :-)

Tony Palm said:

Sorry to appear contrary but I placed a quality candidate last year at my company using only the free membership. Given the candidate's experience and value she brought (and if I were still a third-party recruiter) my fee would have been in the $13.5 - 18K range.

Perhaps I’m missing something . . .

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mat von Kroeker on May 16, 2011 at 5:05pm

McD's has BK, Carl's and the like---- It's a free, capitalist market, correct? Why shouldn't LinkIn have some competition--- Here's a good tag line--

"This isn't your older brother's LinkIn." lol

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sandra McCartt on May 16, 2011 at 6:23pm

@Jennifer You remind me a lot of a third party recruiter who used to bitch constantly about recruiters using job sites while her business was going downhill and now is trying to start a job site. I'm a real headhunter who uses all the sites. There are thousands of us so if all you have to contribute is a knock at job sites we have noted your objection several times. Your profile looks like a "ghost" so if you are real come join the party with more about you than just a dig at job sites and/or people who use them.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by pam claughton on May 16, 2011 at 7:32pm

Jennifer,

Every real headhunter I know, myself included, uses LinkedIn as well as other tools. Why on earth wouldn't you? That's like saying real headhunters don't use email, they just fax....that's how essential LinkedIn can be.

Any tool that gets you to the right people more quickly should be part of your toolbox. Otherwise, you could be at a serious disadvantage. Why make things harder than they have to be?

~Pam

Jennifer Kelly said:

How about getting off all sites? Go train under a real headhunter that bills 500-1mil+ a year. They don't waste their time with linkedin or any other social site.