What LinkedIn does: LinkedIn provides a perfect platform for professional connectivity helping users develop profitable professional relationships and to learn skills that help them upskill in a diverse workspace.
Mission: LinkedIn aims to help career professionals become high-yielding by creating a functional global community.
Size and Presence: LinkedIn currently hires around 18,000 staff in 35 locations around the United States.
Best Known For: LinkedIn is best known as the world’s largest professional social network for connecting to professionals and developing sound professional relationships.
The good bits: LinkedIn boasts a far-reaching global audience that promotes flexibility to allow them to optimize their services while exploring new innovative paths.
The not-so-good bits: There are loads of development opportunities on LinkedIn but employees need to grasp things quickly on the job.
LinkedIn was founded by American Reid Hoffman in December 2002 in collaboration with founding team members of PayPal and Socialnet.com.
Following a Series A investment by Sequoia Capital in 2003, LinkedIn became official and a regular for up to a million users in 2004. The next four years were even more profitable for LinkedIn reaching its first profitability month in March 2006 and coasting through 10 million users in 2007.
The LinkedIn mobile version was introduced in 2008 and has soared ever since. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in 2016 but allowed it to maintain its and has unique voice and culture. The Microsoft acquisition made the user experience fascinatingly seamless which expanded its popularity among users.
There are around 830 million LinkedIn users worldwide. It has consistently stayed on top of its user experience while improving on different business models.
LinkedIn claims to bring its culture to the fore in every facet of its operation. They genuinely make their unique culture a collective personality. At LinkedIn, everyone feels heard and can set their priorities while growing at their own pace.
They aspire to make their culture one that fuels trust, flexibility, and transformation and makes every day enjoyable. By wearing their collective responsibility of creating professional opportunities for users, they look to deliver high-end value-driven experiences every day. Working with collective values breeds a harmonious vibe on LinkedIn. There's a lot to cheer about with every workday. Everyone is celebrated, new goals are achieved, and professionals enjoy leeway in their careers with every passing day.
Diversity and inclusion are amongst the core values that drive LinkedIn. They include these qualities in their recruitment process as well. There are four steps in LinkedIn's graduate and intern recruitment process. The first step - application requires candidates to identify and indicate interest in vacant roles. Applying is the first sign indicating interest in a certain role.
After candidates who match the criteria have been selected, they are invited on a call to answer some basic questions. Following the first call, the graduate or intern is contacted for a more detailed call on skills, experience, and qualifications.
Graduate and intern hopefuls that pass the calling stage are invited for an interview. At this point, graduates and interns enjoy a chance to display their diverse skill sets on a range of problems.
Finally, qualified candidates who fit the roles in terms of expertise or cultural representation are contacted with an employment offer. There could be weeks between the interview and the hiring manager deciding on graduates and intern hopefuls.
LinkedIn believes that its power to excel lies in its employees hence, they provide excellent career support for both graduates and interns.
LinkedIn offers graduates and interns a plethora of apprenticeships and programs that'll see them hone their skills and develop new ones. Some programs LinkedIn provides include ERA, UnLock, and LinkedIn Scholars which satisfy different aspects of an employee's professional career.
Beyond enjoying a fun internship experience, interns at LinkedIn are offered opportunities to build professional bridges that'll see them collaborate with industry leaders.
Ranging from technical to business and creative careers, LinkedIn promises to give its employees the right tools that'll help them thrive and grow.
LinkedIn offers its employees an average salary of around $159,599 annually while interns are paid around $106,048 per year.
As LinkedIn tries to foster economic growth by giving everyone a platform to grow, they also support economic sustainability.
They claim commitment to promoting a green economy by supporting their systems with renewable energy. They offer employers opportunities to support environmentally friendly roles.
They also offer certification courses on sustainability and deliver volunteer chances to help employees contribute a quota to supporting a sustainable planet.
LinkedIn also renews water at its largest locations and keeps records of its water footprint. Around 80% of LinkedIn’s offices are solar-powered and 70% of buildings are safety satisfied.
Recent controversies around false profile creation by companies on LinkedIn are heating up. It is claimed that companies use these false profiles to reach larger audiences and improve their sales. An investigation by the National Public Radio (NPR) exposed around 70 companies using this tactic.
LinkedIn removed all of such accounts but may have to do more to prevent these unethical affairs from creeping into the corporate space again.