I admit, it’s been a while since I had to create career pages in LinkedIn and generate job postings. When I went to do so for a client recently, I was shocked by the hoops LinkedIn has created to try to get paying customers. It’s one thing to generate revenue, I’ve got no issue with that. It’s quite another to generate hours of mickey mouse work for someone trying to create a career page. Here’s how my story goes.
I went to create a career page. Instead of actually being able to set one up, I was directed to a sales presentation on the various benefits of Recruiter, Posting Jobs and oh there it is, Career Pages. Now with Career Pages, I have two options. I can request a free demo or download a fact sheet. And actually, clicking either of those options just leads me to a form where I can request more information. (Sigh. Really, no fact sheet?) So I do so and patiently wait.
A few days later I get a call from a perky sales representative in Somewhere, California. She is apparently going to “pre-qualify” me for a Careers Page. (Huh?) After answering several inane questions, I finally asked her how they could justify all this sales overhead. How much was a Careers Page now, after all? “$10,000″ she replied. Okay, well that ended the conversation right there.
Or so I thought. Now, it appears, LinkedIn has put me on several sales lists. I get emails about the latest LinkedIn sales options. I even got a call from a sales representative (this time in Chicago) who, after once again several inane questions about my golf game this summer, claimed Careers Pages were nowhere near as costly as $10,000! After hanging up the phone on the guy , I realized LinkedIn probably wasted at least 2 hours of my time. And I never did get a dang fact sheet!
Listen, it’s one thing to monetize your service. I’ve got no problem with that. But LinkedIn has created a sales monster that may be okay for SalesForce.com, but certainly doesn’t work in the world of social media. Shame on you.
Oh, by the way, I never did get a fact sheet. Not that it
