Is LinkedIn on the right track?

LinkedIn cancels Career Advice help feature but is it on the right track?

LinkedIn has just issued a notification that is cancelling its Career Advice feature. The message said that "We’re discontinuing our Career Advice feature as we explore new ways for members to offer help and support." Any messages previously sent or received through the Career Advice hub will still be accessible in members' LinkedIn messages. In the meantime, LinkedIn's Career Advice Team are encouraging members to learn about more ways to engage their LinkedIn community to give and get help with a range of new features. When it comes to your career, just one person opening a door can make all the difference, which is why LinkedIn's community of millions of members across the globe are such a valuable resource to jobseekers. And, in challenging times like these, that resource can be one of the best ways of supporting one another. LinkedIn has recently added some new features that make it easier to give and get help. These include new prompts when starting a post on LinkedIn to easily share with others that a member is willing to lend a hand and additional ways to share with the broader LinkedIn network you're open to opportunities with a new #OpenToWork profile photo frame.

Sharing you’re open to work
A good first step to finding a new opportunity is to let others know you’re looking. The platform has made it easy to privately signal recruiters that you’re open to work, specify the types of jobs you’re interested in, and indicate your preferred start date and location -- ensuring you show up in more recruiter search results. According to LinkedIn, over 30 million members have used this tool to help them find their next job. This function has now been taken a step further, with an Open-To Work feature that allows users to indicate to the community that you’re open to work and to make yourself more discoverable by hiring managers. When you turn on the optional feature, a #OpenToWork photo frame is added to your profile picture, so anyone who sees your profile will know you are open to new opportunities -- and can help connect you to them. This will include, for example, when your profile comes up in a search or when you comment on a post.

Turning on this new feature

1. Go to your profile and under your picture click: “Show recruiters you’re open to work.”
2. Fill in your job preferences such as location and job type.
3. Click the “choose who sees that you’re open” to select if you want to keep this to recruiters, or if you want to add a badge to your profile that everyone can see.
4. After you turn on the feature, you can create a post using #opentowork so you can reach even more people on LinkedIn to help you find your next role.
5. Offer to Lend A Hand

Offering a helping hand
Numerous LinkedIn members want to help their community; whether by providing an introduction, reviewing a resume, practising interview tactics, or just providing general jobseeking advice. New features are now being tested on the platform to help members lend a hand to people in their network including new prompts when starting a post on LinkedIn, so you can tell others you’re willing to provide a helping hand.

Getting started

1. Start a new post and click the “Offer to Help” option
2. Select all the ways you’d wish to help others in their job hunt or career and click “done.” This includes:
3. — ? #OfferingHelp: General Help, Career Coaching.
4. — ? #OfferingHelp: Referrals.
5. — ? #OfferingHelp: Resume Reviews.
6. Edit your post and determine who you’d like to be able to see it -- we encourage you to share beyond your connections.
7. Hit post and field any inbound messages or comments to set up a conversation.

A new support reaction has also been added to the reactions icons so that members can show support for articles, posts, news or views.