INSTANT MBA: Here's Why This CEO Finds All Her Employees Through LinkedIn

Instant MBA

August 27, 2014

When it comes to hiring the perfect person, there's a lot of information to wade through to narrow down your choices.

Between resumes, cover letters, and job applications, it can take hours to filter out the best candidates — and there's still no guarantee that you'll find what you're looking for.

Rebekah Campbell, founder of social network start-up Posse, knows this conundrum well, as she explains in a column for the New York Times. "My problem was that the best candidates all had good positions and were not reading job advertisements," she says.

Campbell spent valuable time combing through emails and job applications while her ideal candidates were busy working elsewhere.

Because Campbell couldn't afford to hire a professional recruiter, like many small business owners, she turned to LinkedIn's recruiter service to scope out the most talented individuals. "For $2,200 per quarter, I can run detailed searches on exactly the type of candidates I'm looking for and then approach them en masse," she says.

Campbell quickly began using LinkedIn as her sole recruiting platform because it allowed her to easily search for her ideal candidates — including those currently employed elsewhere — and send them a personalized email. If she needed a software developer, she could easily look up Google's top people.

By replacing her old routine of job boards and resume scanning, Campbell not only saves time, but is able to tailor her pitches to each candidate individually. Furthermore, she can handpick which candidates she wishes to pursue instead of relying on the luck of the draw from a job posting.

"LinkedIn gives us access to the passive job hunter market that used to be available only through expensive recruiters, and it helps us seek out top quality candidates from within other companies," she says.

Though Campbell worries that competitors will poach her best employees via LinkedIn the same way she goes after other companies' top talent, the network still provides a crucial venue for her to seek out employees and grow her business.

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