If there’s anything more interesting than Facebook’s foray into recruitment, it’s the speed at which it is moving. This year alone, Facebook has introduced the following:
- The ability to post jobs on through company Pages
- A serious competitor to Slack, including Mac/PC integration and screen sharing
- A Jobs link, accessible directly within the Marketplace on its popular mobile app
- Integration with ZipRecruiter, Recruitology, Jobscore, and others to get more job content on the platform
If there was any question whether or not Facebook is serious about employment and taking a piece out of this $100 billion industry, the vigor with which it is cranking out products and features should answer that question. The main question, as I asked recently, is whether it’s to eats LinkedIn’s lunch, or Craigslist’s?
One of the current challenges the company has with posting jobs from Company Pages is the employer/candidate conversation occurs through Facebook’s Messenger platform, as opposed to the traditional method of submitting a resume. Chatting with candidates, as you can imagine, turns off a lot of employers. The API it recently launched with ZipRecruiter helps solve some of that, but the hurdle of getting resumes, or at least LinkedIn-like profiles into the system would be really beneficial.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised to see that Facebook is now testing the addition of resumes to profiles. According to news sources, the social media giant is currently testing a resume “upload” feature that allows users to share work experience with their network. The new option expands on the site’s “Work and education” section currently found in your Settings. Smartly, resume information won’t publicly display all information about your credentials, which will make users and privacy advocates happy, while keeping this information walled off from Google and Microsoft/LinkedIn.
Screenshots are posted via Twitter:
This functionality is currently in test mode, so most users won’t be able to see it yet. No word on when or if it will be a site-wide feature. Since Facebook’s focus on the employment space can best be described as laser-like, I expect to see resumes rolled out to everyone soon. Additionally, making anyone who applies for a job through Facebook to fill out a resume or add it to an existing profile will only speed up adoption.
