LinkedIn did it again...

If you have not been to the LinkedIn web site in the last few days you have not had the surprise of finding that they have changed the look and feel of the interface. So in this blog, I am going to give a bit of an overview of the changes that I see. And hopefully make the transition a bit easier for my readers. I am also doing this in preparation for next week when I will be giving several presentations on LinkedIn at various locations around the Dallas Ft. Worth Metroplex (check out my LinkedIn Profile for details about my upcoming events).

One of the first things I noticed with the new interface is the lack of navigation on the left side of your screen. Previously this was where you selected your Home page, Groups, Profile, Inbox and various other options. This has moved to the top of the window in the form of an horizontal menu bar. This is good from the perspective that you are now able to have a larger area for content. Moving the navigation to the top also brings all option to the top of the screen and now you don't have as great of an area to scan for your choices.

Another aspect of the menu that I like is the "More" menu. This allows a quick access to your various applications like Box, Events and the Reading List by Amazon. No more scrolling down on your profile to make a change in this area.

Another change to the navigation is the addition of a Jobs menu. This looks like it is a great addition for those that are posting jobs, but does have the one option for Find Jobs. While looking at the other options it was interesting to see that they listed the price for posting a job at $195 for a 30 day posting.

"Account & Settings" link has been renamed to "Settings". While we are looking in that area at the top you will also see a new link for Add Connections now sporting a new bold green color.

There is now an Advanced People Search under the Search drop down Menu. I think this was previously a beta feature that was being tested by all once you did your initial people search you had the option to go into an advance search.

I have also noticed that moving the navigation up to the top has now increased the width of the profile viewing area causing my e-mail address to now be on the same line as my title in the Professional Headline area. So if you are doing this as a way for people to more easily contact you, you will need to add some additional characters to separate the two items. I personally have chosen to use two hyphens.

When looking at someones profile I also noticed a feature that I had not seen before. It is a link on the right for "Search for references" looks like this brings up a summary of your common links. Will need to work with this a bit more but might be a cool option for establishing a list of informational interviews to network into talking with a hiring manager. Time will tell on this.

Overall, I really like the way LinkedIn has updated the interface. It is a much cleaner and organized experience and I believe that it will be a decreased for new users.

If you want to learn more about LinkedIn and up to use it as a tool for professional networking check out one of my upcoming presentations found on my LinkedIn Profile. www.linkedin.com/in/jnosal

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jnosal