Eyes Wide Open – The LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium Account

LinkedIn Introduced a new “Job Seeker Premium Account” feature this past week, and you’ll want to see what is – and is not within it.

The run down

So here’s what you get:

• Featured Applicant
• InMail
• Saved and Organized Profiles
• View Full Profiles
• More Introductions
• More Search Results
• OpenLink
• Priority Customer Service
• Who’s Been Viewing My Profile

Featured Applicant

When you apply for a position, your application goes onto the top of the pile.

Yes – this might be nice.

It does not mean that your position in a search is any higher!

So when you apply, you’re higher – when a recruiter looks, you’re in the same position. (which is why you have to consider LinkedIn Profile Search Optimization)

InMail

I talk about this in The LinkedIn Personal Trainer, but the short version is – immediate access to another LinkedIn user. If it’s worth $10 to get in front of someone, then it is absolutely worth doing.

Saved and Organized Profiles

This feature from last fall was reviewed under the title Be Careful With LinkedIn’s Profile Organizer Trial.

View Full Profiles

I have not covered this specifically, and it is nice – when you view a profile of someone outside your network, you still see the complete profile.

More Introductions

Doubling from 5 to 10.  Since most users don’t hit the 5 limit, this is nice to have but not a reason to do it.

More Search Results

You get 100 by default, and more is better – but how often are you going to be looking at the 150th result?

OpenLink

This allows any LinkedIn user to send you an InMail for free.  Useful, but only if people have no other way to reach you. (And I just presented several ways in the Exposing LinkedIn Connection Myths – Part II article…)

Priority Customer Service

Well – given some of the comments I see at different times, this might be something people would be willing to pay for;-)

If you are paying for service, it is a required component though.

Who’s Been Viewing My Profile

And finally – this is an interesting, but perhaps less useful tool – you can read about it in Someone’s Been Sitting In My Chair.

Packaging

So other than the Featured Applicant item, this is really a way of repackaging the aspects of a paid account in a way that could be of interest to job seekers.

Should every job seeker get one of these packages – certainly not!

Should some? Yes. Which ones – I’m not sure…  If you would find your job search helped by these specific features, go ahead and give it a try.

Eyes wide open…

My goal in this review is to make sure you understand what you’re getting – nobody likes to buy a pig in a poke!

Please do comment if you are going to try this, and especially if you already have!

To your continued success,

steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock