Loading ...Several weeks back Jobster announced a partnership with Facebook. And it makes a lot of sense. Facebook, with an average user in their early 20’s, has a huge population of undergraduate and recently graduated users. These users need a much more employer centric alternative to their Facebook profiles; much of the data shared on the network is far from suitable viewing material for potential employers, and recruiters are quickly adopting Facebook as a source for potential candidates. A Jobster profile, partnered with a Facebook profile, could make a great combination of personal and professional profiles, and potentially prevent embaressing Facebook content from making it’s way into an employer’s hands.
The Jobster powered ‘Career Center‘, launched last Thursday, is the first official step in this partnership, and looks set to become Jobster’s platform into Facebook. I’ve heard from Phil Bogle, Jobster CTO, that what I’ve seen is a very early Career Center, and that we should expect much more in the way of integration and intelligent job advertising. Bearing this in mind, I’ll save a more detailed analysis of the Career Center until some updates have been made, and Jobster have had a chance to make some official announcements on their intentions for their golden opportunity with Facebook. But for now there’s a few points worth considering.
Any social network that partners with Facebook is making a tremendous move, but the Career Center development team have a great deal of work to do to realise their potential one-stop shop for all things career related in Facebook. This won’t be dependent on pure development time though, further negotiations will also be in order. At the moment, unless you’re specifically looking for the Career Center, you probably won’t notice it, simply because it’s a group within Facebook, and not a navigation option, which is what I was expecting it would be after I heard about the partnership. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, is renowned for driving hard bargains (and rumoured to have rejected a hefty buyout from Yahoo!) so I’d bet he’s also driving a hard bargain with outside social network integration into his service. Subject to Zuckerberg’s agreement, it would be fantastic opportunity for Jobster if CEO, Jason Goldberg, could get a ‘My Career’ option into the Facebook side navigation that links into the Career Center, rather than relying on a group format;
