LinkedIn launches career advice feature in UK

LinkedIn has launched a new feature to help its members to connect with professionals and receive or give careers advice on topics such as changing careers and career development.

The business-orientated social networking website first launched Career Advice in San Francisco and Australia earlier this year and is now rolling out the feature to the UK, US and India, with a global launch planned in the coming months.

Opportunities  

According to LinkedIn, more than 80 per cent of the website’s members either want to have a mentor or be a mentor to someone. The website is now aiming to use the new feature to help people to have access to mentorship opportunities by connecting them with the right person.

Users can now have access to a Career Advice tab on their dashboard, which will take them to a set of questions about their career goals, the type of career advice they would like to receive or give, and where they would like their mentor or the person they are mentoring to be based. The feature then works in a similar way to a dating app by providing the user with recommendations to help them find their perfect match.

Users who are interested in mentoring someone else can also specify what type of mentoring they would like to offer to other members.

Guidance

LinkedIn’s Career Advice feature has been praised by the website’s members, with VMware Technical Staff Karthik Kalyanaraman stating: “During my interaction, [the advisors] gave me ideas and guidance to achieve my goals with respect to exploring new domains in the industry. One of my matches even introduced me to his LinkedIn connections which helped me broaden my network and interact with people who share the same interest in my field.”