LinkedIn is the social network for the serious. With over 300 million users, two new users signing up every second, and a goal of attaining three billion members, LinkedIn is going to get a lot more serious. What started out in 2003 as a great way to professionally network, LinkedIn has transformed into the online CV website and shop window for employees from every walk of life and recruiters across the globe. In recognition of the way LinkedIn has evolved, they recently launched Resume Builder – a tool to create a CV directly from a LinkedIn profile – choose the template, edit your info, share.

Since it’s inception, LinkedIn has been the go-to place for recruiters researching assignments. As recruitment consultants we find more and more people are flattered by the attention they receive from their LinkedIn profile, and if it’s a good profile why not be flattered? But does flattery lead to a new job? Not always. As Facebook has become a great place to gain a little peer acceptance for one’s lifestyle (likes, comments etc), LinkedIn become a great place to gain a little career adulation.

LinkedIn is a crowded place for recruitment consultants. We compete with in-house recruiters, corporate recruiters, other consultancies, and a host of entities, all searching for the perfect candidate. But does the perfect candidate want to move and how many people are serious about a career change, or just want a little career idolisation? In a world where flattery is easy to come by, how much has vanity crept into LinkedIn? Head-turning attention received from LinkedIn can, ultimately, have a detrimental effect on an employee; becoming restless with thoughts of what could be, losing focus, evermore demanding – there are many examples of LinkedIn-friction – it seems to create as many problems as it solves. Is LinkedIn still a serious recruitment tool or has it become a website of professional narcissism?

There are just too many questions to answer, so we will leave you with this: currently only 13% of 18 – 34 year olds use LinkedIn; has it already lost traction with the millennial generation? Are we already seeing the demise of LinkedIn? That we can’t tell you. What direction do you think LinkedIn will take? Perhaps the future of LinkedIn is as a super-integrated job board, we wait to see.