LinkedIn opening office in Detroit

[Zacha341]

Yes, and Y-E-S Onthe405! I concur that we're quickly loosing ground fought for re. employment discrimination, with no method of response as you're rarely face to face with the party or person applying such.

Social media increasingly is one of the fastest ways to be dismissed without the need for any traditional interviewing. Which is why I do not have a photo and because I'm in the applied arts I can get away with that -- substituting a graphic image/ icon instead.

Goodness, allow your politics and world view relative to the social culture etc be known -- by association, inference [[as you stated) or directly is for sure the kiss of death with everything seemingly so split down the middle!

As you said quickly a persons character and personhood can be judged/ ascribed and you're shut out of consideration beyond that.

In light of this new employer leverage, I find it incredible that some are so open and careless to convey every nuance of themselves and others. But, the very presence of social media seems to be the propellant to do so.

...As a result, in a matter of seconds, a potential employer can now determine your race, age, or gender as an immediate knockout. This is in addition to more subtle things like what your friends & contacts say about you:

"Gee, this guy's applying to be an engineer---but he's got an awful lot of contacts in the arts & fashion .. . .probably gay!"

"His/Her contacts appear to have a common thread of either liberal or conservative causes . . we don't want those kind working with us"

25 years ago, these were personal things that couldn't be gleaned from a resume---and had nothing to do with a candidate's qualifications or the interview process....

[bust]

Linkedin has at their disposal the profiles of millions of workers and job seekers in the US and around the rest of the world, a historical record of countless employment opportunities by location, the number of applicants each opportunity received [[and from whom), and how long it took each job to be filled. I don't think they have directly at their disposal data regarding compensation per opportunity, but there are other sources of good estimates of compensation per opportunity by location and I'm sure they've studied that data too.

In other words, Linkedin is much better able than other companies to determine where they can find the talent they want for the lowest cost. As such, it's a likely indication that business expenses in Detroit, including salaries, are comparatively low.

Whether or not that was an important factor in their decision, it's a good sign that a company with so much data at their disposal selected Detroit. Wishfully thinking, perhaps they're near the vanguard of what may prove to be a broader trend.

And whatever the case, it adds a little more diversity and competition to the employment environment downtown. That's tempered somewhat by the fact they're looking for salespeople not software developers and system administrators. But it's one step closer toward achieving critical mass.

[Nektye]

Bust that is a really great point, they have mounds of data that would help them make the cost/benefit analysis of this type of move. They aren't running a charity so there are definitely business reasons why they did this