According to recent LinkedIn data, professionals in badly hit industries are now more likely to apply to jobs outside of their current industry.
Malaysia’s unemployment rate remains at 4.7 percent in August 2020 after reaching its highest in May at 5.3 percent.
However, finding new roles that are most relevant to their current skills, or even venturing into a completely different industry has its challenges, and job seekers may not know where to begin.
LinkedIn’s response is an online career exploration tool, which will help job seekers identify new career paths that have the most skills overlapping with their current role; as well as new skills they will need to acquire in order to excel in a different role and industry.
Through the interactive dashboard, job seekers will be able to discover LinkedIn Learning courses or learning paths they can take to build the necessary skills. In addition, the tool will also connect them to open jobs and other LinkedIn members in similar roles, who may be able to offer career guidance.
LinkedIn is also encouraging employers to hire based on skills, rather than focusing solely on traditional qualifications or past experience.
Feon Ang, Vice President, Talent and Learning Solutions, Asia Pacific, LinkedIn said: “Regardless of what you have studied, or where you have worked, you must be willing to upskill as you take on a new role; or even reskill in order to venture into a different industry. We also encourage organisations to hire based on skills, as opposed to degrees or past experience, as it helps build a diverse workforce and contribute to more equitable recovery for all.”
Other tools that help job seekers land new employment opportunities include:
- Skills Assessments: Skills Assessments allow members to showcase their skills level to recruiters and their network, helping them to stand out amongst candidates with more traditional experience. There are currently close to 100 Skills Assessments available on LinkedIn, and job seekers who successfully earn a skill badge are 20 percent more likely to get hired.
- Interview preparation tools for in-demand roles: Job seekers can use LinkedIn’s interview preparation tools which include commonly asked interview questions, answer guidance and tips, as well as instant feedback on recorded practice answers. The tools will cater to specific roles such as software engineer, which LinkedIn has identified as one of the most in-demand jobs in Malaysia.
- Open to Work photo frame: The Open to Work feature allows job seekers to indicate that they are actively looking for work through a simple LinkedIn profile photo frame. Since its launch, job seekers who used the feature have recorded 40 percent more recruiter inmails and 20 percent more messages from their community.
To encourage more employers to hire based on skills, Linkedin has made the following available to small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) and hiring managers:
- Free jobs for SMBs: Small businesses can now create job postings on LinkedIn for free, easing the hiring process and expanding the number of job opportunities on LinkedIn.
- Open To Hiring: Hiring managers can easily share that they are recruiting, broadening their talent pool and reaching job seekers beyond their network.
