In the past year, LinkedIn received about 85,000 job applications — quite a bit for a dedicated global recruiting team of 45. And that number doesn’t even include the lucky group of people that LinkedIn recruiters actively contact on a daily basis.
With such high competition, applicants hoping to get a foot in the door at LinkedIn are better off knowing the ins and outs of the application and interview processes.
We spoke with Brendan Browne, LinkedIn’s director of global talent acquisition, about how job applicants can stand out among the masses and ultimately land a job at the world’s largest professional social network. Read on for his tips and let us know your questions about applying for a job at LinkedIn in the comments below.
Getting Started
The majority of LinkedIn’s recruiting efforts take place on LinkedIn.com. The Work at LinkedIn page and LinkedIn’s very own company page on LinkedIn are the two main hubs for job listings and application information. Interested candidates can also use the LinkedIn Jobs search to narrow down job options by date posted, location, salary, job function, industry and experience level.
Browne suggests that applicants take a look at some of LinkedIn’s other online properties for a deeper understanding of what’s moving the company forward, including:
- LinkedIn Engineering Blog: The goal of the blog is to share the latest technological developments at LinkedIn. Those interested in engineering positions should especially take note of the blog, as LinkedIn engineers share live code, details on winning Hackday projects and information about relevant events, such as LinkedIn Tech Talks and other tech meetups.
- LinkedIn Labs: Here you’ll find up-and-coming beta products that have not yet been fully launched on LinkedIn. Like the Engineering Blog, LinkedIn Labs is particularly insightful for R&D applicants, especially those interested in product development.
- LinkedIn Blog: To keep up to date on LinkedIn’s latest ventures, read the LinkedIn Blog, where product managers write about their recent projects. Hovering over an author’s name will connect you to their LinkedIn profile, where you can send him or her a message or get introduced through a mutual connection.
- LinkedIn Press Center: Do your research and be up to speed on LinkedIn’s latest press coverage. The company’s press page also includes information on the company overview, investor relations and other resources that could be useful in researching the company.
Available Jobs at LinkedIn
LinkedIn currently has nearly 200 open positions that run the gamut, but there are two areas where LinkedIn is making the biggest push: R&D and sales.
On the research and development side, engineering, product development and data scientist roles are hot right now. Whether you specialize in web development, database engineering, building mobile applications or manipulating data to solve hard problems, there’s probably a development job that fits your niche.
On the sales side, LinkedIn is hiring at all levels across Asia, Europe and the United States.
What It’s Like To Work at LinkedIn
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, LinkedIn also has 16 other offices, located in Chicago, New York, Omaha, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Delhi, Dublin, London, Melbourne, Mumbai, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney and Toronto.
With 100 million users and nearly 1,300 employees, LinkedIn is a public company that reaches more than 200 countries and territories worldwide and is available in six languages.
By most measures, it’s a large company, but Browne’s description of what it’s like to work at LinkedIn makes it sound like a startup in corporate clothing. Yes, it has grown up from its humble beginnings, but its team hasn’t lost its entrepreneurial spirit.
The company is defined by transformation, says Browne — “transformation of the world, the company, oneself and you as a professional.” People at LinkedIn believe that they can “change people’s futures,” whether they are in Sub-Saharan Africa or New Jersey, says Browne. The team at LinkedIn strives to scale the company and cultivate professionals who are also happy outside the office while also making a global impact on how professionals connect.
Many of LinkedIn’s benefits and traditions support these missions — Hackday is one of them. As described by Technical Marketing Manager & Resident Hacker Matthew Shoup, Hackday is “one day set aside each month when employees step away from their everyday job functions to give back to the community, create new rapid prototypes, solve business problems, express ideas and be creative while learning and ‘bending’ new technologies.” Browne says that the variation of projects created on Hackday is wide and that some of the resulting creations have gone live on the site. And not everyone who participates is a hardcore engineer — those from marketing, design and elsewhere bring innovative ideas to the table for leveraging LinkedIn’s platform and data, too.
Hackday is part of a bigger program called inDay, which also includes a speaker series and time for employees to work on projects that they are passionate about and that positively impact the community. Here’s what Mario Sundar, LinkedIn’s senior social media manager and chief blogger, told Mashable about the monthly shindig:
“One of the elemental pieces of our culture is the monthly inDay where folks from across the company are given a ‘No Meeting Day,’ to focus on projects they are most passionate about. This ranges from the very productive Hackday (started by Adam Nash) to the TED-like Speaker Series where we bring in transformative professionals ranging from MLK III to Suze Orman to speak. Education is an oft-repeated theme as we get to hear from the game changers in that space like Sal Khan (Khan Academy), Charles Best (DonorsChoose.org), etc. Many times these events lead to our colleagues contributing towards some of these worthy causes. For example, one of our engineers, Alejandro Crosa, built out DonorsChoose.org’s first iPhone app after listening to Charles Best, the CEO, speak at an inDay where Charles announced their internal hackday contest.”Sundar splits his time between LinkedIn’s Mountain View and Toronto offices, “so I get a sense for an emerging unified culture across the globe,” he says. “Frankly, I think projects like inDay actually translate well across different cultures, languages, etc. and get teams working toward a common cause outside of the daily work environment. This lends to a more collaborative environment when it comes to work as well.”
The LinkedIn Interview Process
LinkedIn’s interviewing process begins with a phone screening in which a recruiter conducts a “high-level assessment to really understand [a person's] motivations … and to make sure they have some of the key qualifications and competencies we need,” says Browne.
“Assuming that goes well, there’d be a phone call with, typically, the hiring manager,” continues Browne. “If it’s a more technical job, there will probably be a technical screen on the phone. Or if it’s non-technical, the discussion might be pretty functional.”
After passing the two phone call screens, job candidates move on to the on-site interview. While the format of the interview depends upon which group the candidate is applying to, Browne says that the common theme across all interviews is that “most people are coming in and displaying their problem-solving ability real-time, tackling real issues or acting in a real-life scenario. On the sales side of things, people need to come in prepared to pitch in a pretty formalized way … On the technical side, people are given real problems to go tackle. So, it’s a creative conversation in which the applicant is problem-solving in a conversational manner with the interviewers.”
If the on-site interview goes well, applicants typically meet a few senior LinkedIn executives toward the end of the process. The discussion is generally focused on career development and “where LinkedIn can take them in terms of their trajectory,” says Browne.
Standing Out
LinkedIn employee Armen Vartanian, seen here preparing for the 2011 Bay to Breakers race, is a 2012 summer Olympic hopeful. Vartanian recently moved from LinkedIn’s finance department to its newly developed health and wellness program.
Browne described in great detail exactly what traits his recruiting team looks for in applicants. Here’s a quick overview and our biggest takeaways from the conversation:
- “Passion is huge.”
- “People who actually want to build stuff” are key.
- “People who have a high degree of intellectual curiosity and are really results-driven” excel at LinkedIn.
- “We look for a huge bias for action and doing.”
- “People have to have deep aptitude in whatever area they’re in.”
- “People wanting to make an impact is a big deal. It’s still early days in our growth. We want to connect every professional in the world. There are over 600 million professionals in the world. We’ve done amazing things, and there’s a lot more to do. There’s a lot of impact that you can have here. For people who are really eager to make serious impact and see their work go live on a site that touches over 100 million people, this is going to be a great place.”
Being Active on LinkedIn
Don’t apply for a position at LinkedIn without having a LinkedIn profile — you’ll look ridiculous. At the minimum, complete your profile, including your job history, education and photo, and make an effort to build a network of connections.
“We often look at who you are connected to,” says Browne. If you are connected to “people that we know are pretty awesome” that means a lot, he says.
For brownie points, update your LinkedIn status with interesting information within your field and blog about relevant topics. Whether you’re an influencer in your space or not, having an active voice on LinkedIn will help you stand out.
“Even if there isn’t a position available that’s a fit for you, start building a relationship with the company now since LinkedIn is always looking to talk with passionate, authentic, wickedly smart people who want to solve very hard problems,” says Brendan. “Blog about the LinkedIn products you’d love to work on, reach out to people on the team that you’d like to work with and see if there are any projects you can collaborate on. Join LinkedIn Groups that other folks in your ‘dream’ department are a member of and chime in on the discussion threads.”
If you’re applying for a job at LinkedIn, Browne also recommends that you leverage your LinkedIn network to see if you have a second- or third-degree contact that will help open doors for you. As an added tip, if you make it to the interview process and figure out via LinkedIn that you have a contact in common with your interviewer, start off the conversation by asking how they are connected and explaining your own relationship. That simple anecdote can show that you understand the value of LinkedIn and how to use it for networking.
Your Questions About LinkedIn Careers
Let us know what questions you have about applying for and landing a job at LinkedIn, and we’ll do our best to get you answers.
More Job Search Resources From Mashable:
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- HOW TO: Land a Job at Twitter
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- HOW TO: Land a Job at Google
- HOW TO: Land a Job at Microsoft
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