Social media giant is testing a feature that could let you apply for jobs directly

folarin okunola

November 9, 2016 4:01 PM

Facebook has confirmed that it is experimenting with a slew of recruiting features.

Facebook's new Jobs feature could be a direct LinkedIn competitor

According to Techcrunch, Facebook has confirmed that it is experimenting with a slew of recruiting features.

“Based on behaviour we’ve seen on Facebook, where many small businesses post about their job openings on their Page, we’re running a test for Page admins to create job postings and receive applications from candidates,” said a Facebook spokesman, according to Techcrunch.

Naturally, the new feature will compete with both LinkedIn and developers that build "Jobs" tab applications that businesses can embed in their Facebook Pages.

Facebook could have also been preparing for this sort of feature when it tested Profile Tags in 2015 - a feature that basically mimics LinkedIn's endorsements feature.

I can't confirm how many countries this new Jobs feature is available in but the new option is present on the status update composer as well, allowing Pages to formally share a job opening with related details like job title, salary, and full-time versus part-time.

The feature has special formatting that could differentiate job postings from other content and pull eyeballs amongst the rowdy News Feed.

Job postings will also show up on the Jobs tab of the Page, creating a dedicated landing place where companies can direct job seekers.

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Businesses could benefit from this by potentially gaining new followers whether or not someone makes an enquiry concerning the open position.

Job postings will include an "Apply Now" button that launches a standard job application flow that will be pre-populated with info from a user's public profile. This could help people apply for multiple jobs without the need to type in redundant information.

The Page will receive submitted applications as a Facebook message. Inasmuch as this may help Facebook's push to get businesses to use its chat feature, it might also be clumsy for companies to confuse applications and customer support requests which they typically get via Facebook messages.

Almost everyone has a Facebook profile (even if they can't remember their passwords), which are usually filled with extensive info about their past job titles, employers, education and more.

In comparison, most employable people do not have a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn only has 467 million users compared to Facebook's 1.79 billion.

Many LinkedIn users only visit the site when they are updating their profile about a new job, or looking for one. Facebook can reach people that aren't even looking for a job but could be convinced to apply for the chance.

This is just another Facebook move that will be interesting to watch. The company recently launched Marketplace, an OLX-style competitor, and Workplace by Facebook, a Slack competitor.

folarin okunola