Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn Managing Director and Vice President, APAC and China speaks on the importance of networking and solving the issue of a network gap.
There are communities of professionals around the world who may not have equal access to networks, or the understanding to build and leverage on them. This may be due to background, location, education, etc. This is what LinkedIn calls the network gap.
The network gap is a cause for concern, because a stronger network equals better opportunities for professionals in their career. For example, LinkedIn data shows that 70% of professionals get hired at companies where they already have a connection.
In fact, these job seekers are three times more likely to get a job through a referral, versus if they had applied through a job board.
The hiring rate on LinkedIn took a dive earlier this year, reflective of the economic situation. This indicates that many professionals have found themselves out of work in 2020. To cope, job seekers have had to update their current skills or pick up new skills in order to find new opportunities, either outside their current industry or in a different role.
Aside from skills, we also know that the strength of one’s network is important. Those who have stronger networks tend to have access to more opportunities. This year, we saw record engagement this quarter as LinkedIn’s more than 722 million professionals looked to connect with their communities, learn new skills, and find new opportunities.
To meet the changing demands of the professional community this year, we launched various learning paths for in-demand jobs and tools to help job seekers match their skills to different roles. We also launched the Network Gap Alliance, a partnership with organisations from non-profit, private and the public sector to help job seekers overcome the network gap and offer career coaching, as well as advocate for inclusive hiring.
Currently, over 25 organisations (including L’oreal, Credit Suisse and S&P Global) have pledged their support and partnership. 7 of these organisations have pledged 3,200 youth graduate and internship roles. We expect further momentum as more organisations step forward.
Top trending jobs and skills in Malaysia
The top trending jobs as of September 2020 are:
- Software Engineer
- Marketing Executive
- Teacher
- Project Engineer
- Business Development Executive
- Account Executive
- Business Development Manager
- Sales Executive
- Lecturer
- Graphic Designer
The top trending skills for those jobs are:
- Project Management
- JavaScript
- Adobe Illustrator
- AutoCAD
- Higher Education
- Sales Management
- C#
- Project Planning
- Teaching
- Project Engineering
