We’ve covered hiring practices at Twitter (parts 1 and 2) and Facebook already, learning how each of them approaches hiring talent to their companies by leveraging their own products. To round out the Big Three social media peer groups (SMPGs), we took advantage of our opportunity to attend LinkedIn’s Talent Connect user conference in San Francisco and grabbed a few minutes with Brendan Browne, LinkedIn’s Director of Global Talent Acquisition, to discuss some of the activities in which LinkedIn engages to grow its now nearly 800-person company. LinkedIn sure has come a long way since its launch in May, 2003!
Browne shared that his recruiting team currently consists of about 20 individuals but that over the next year or so, they are looking to grow to about 30 recruiters. We chatted about how LinkedIn uses its own products to recruit engineers, data scientists, and sales professionals as well as some of the new tools that LinkedIn announced during its conference and how they will help with more targeted talent attraction in the future. Browne said that his team focuses on gathering relevant and targeted data and then putting it to good use by creating focused and hyper-targeted messaging directed at potential candidates. Hmm… sounds an awful lot like running a marketing campaign: research FIRST, then analyze, strategize, and message.
They key is always the data, of which LinkedIn has a ton. But having all the data in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t know what to do with it. As he shares in the video (see below), Browne understands first that much data is regional – though some research and recruiting practices are universal, you must consider geography and culture as well when using data to develop targeted messaging. He also knows that data needs to be ‘unleashed’, in his own words, in order to reveal its full value. As we know, being research professionals, data is only as good as how you choose to apply it. LinkedIn, as Browne says, is its own number one customer when it comes to leveraging its network’s data for hiring talent.
Check out the video from our chat – they’re hiring now, by the way! Just saying…