Three things you must know before you hit the “Apply with Linkedin” button

There’s been talk about this for a while, but last month LinkedIn officially released the “Apply with LinkedIn” button.

The button will appear on employment websites. LinkedIn kindly sent me a press release with this explanation on how it works. Here’s my take:

When you hit the “Apply With LinkedIn” button you can edit your profile before submitting to the employer, or you can directly hit the submit button. Once you do that your public LinkedIn profile goes directly to the employer, or pre-populates the employer’s online application form.

You can see who in your network is associated with that employer, giving you the opportunity to contact that person to improve your chances of being hired.

I always have a few questions whenever I allow third-party access to my information on social media, namely how much access am I giving and how is that data going to be used.

I put my investigative reporter’s hat back on 😉 for some reassurance, and put these questions back to LinkedIn.

Me: Could you tell me if this gives the recruiter/employer ongoing access to a candidate’s profile? What happens when an applicant updates the profile? Does that re-populate the database of the employer/recruiter?

LI: No. The “Apply With LinkedIn” function creates a PDF snapshot of the applicant’s profile. This is not linked in any way to the applicant’s profile and so would not update itself if the profile was updated.

Me: How much information does it give an employer? Will they have access to areas such as contacts that an applicant may have set as private on their profile?

LI: Before submitting their application, an applicant can edit their profile so that the recruiter/employer only sees what they want them to see, including areas of the applicant’s profile that may be set to private.

Me: Will an applicant be able close off access, if they are off the job market?

LI: An applicant isn’t granting a recruiter or potential employer access to their profile with “Apply With LinkedIn.” Instead, they are creating a static “print out” version of their profile in place of submitting the traditional CV.

So there you have it.

I have another post coming up from interviews with four headhunters and recruiters about what they look for in a LinkedIn profile. If you want to use this function, you’ll need to read this.

Stay tuned.