GigaOM

I don’t think it will outdo LinkedIn. LinkedIn has simply become a method for people to remain in contact and find out who they might be connected with. I’m not using it to find a job, I’m using it to find interesting people.

Nice scoop, Om. This would be a nice coup for Jobster, right on the heels of their recent PR in Business 2.0.

Rob

I would disagree. The largest market for linkedin is the job seekers and recruiters. This could potentially be big competition for linkedin. The big question is whether people want to see their business contacts along side their social contacts. If people do not mind then facebook could easily capture the market, especially with all the uni grads (companies are already creating networks on facebook and have been for some time now). It will be interesting to see where this goes (uni grads are big job seekers, however probably not the most lucrative group for recruiters) and even more interesting to see what linkedin plans to do with this most recent round of vc funding.

Interesting to see how they plan on integrating their data. For people my age (25), Facebook is THE standard social network. Everyone is on it from school.

So when people graduate, they’ll want to have something that addresses their professional needs and as a jobster user. I think it’ll be a great fit.

Jobster’s 2007 restructuring makes a lot more sense now. Goldberg was cryptically talking about investing more in their “online services” when he made his moves at the beginning of the year. Here we have it.

I also heard from an insider that Jobster hit 1MM uniques in January.

Dave;

I agree with your assessment. I probably should noted that it’s only myself (and the majority of my connections) that use it for networking-only. Even with that said, I’m sure at least half of my connections would be “headhuntable” given the right opportunity.

As for Facebook - no, I wouldn’t want my social connections anywhere near my business connections (well, some business connections ARE social connections, but most people don’t like to mix the two). ;-)

This doesn’t change the fact that Jobster’s business model isn’t that great. Nobody wants to be “social networking” with job seekers when they have a good job. LinkedIn is great because its about networking in your job. Jobster is about networking when you don’t have a job or are seeking one. What happens to their users when they get the job? They have no incentive to stay around to be a part of the community anymore, where LinkedIn doesn’t have this problem.

We’ll see what kind of partnership is actually in store for Jobster and Facebook, but it’ll have to be a very strong partnership with lots of interoperability between the two sites for it to save Jobster.

Each CEO has had some interesting press about their personalities; should be interesting to see if they can play nice.

Funny, I was just talking about Facebook and jobs…

http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2007/01/pokemycareer.html

Jobster - Facebook Could be Career Winner…

Just as I am whining about the lack of an impressive move in the careers space, utilizing the well-proven social networking utilities, here comes the rumor, reported by Om, that Jobster and Facebook may be contemplating an exclusive partnership. This…

Have your troubles guys :)

When people grow up, they usually leave the playground (Facebook) and switch to LinkedIn. I just don’t see how Facebook can help you advance in one’s career any better than LinkedIn.

First of all, Jobster will not attract HR or recruiters. And that is why they are offering their listing services (classified at best) for free. It is a lawsuit haven. If HR or recruiters were to look for new hires through Jobster, they are risking discrimination lawsuits. Here is why (speaking from HR experience). Try sending your resume with a picture of yourself. Trust me. 99% of the recruiters or HR will dump your resume. Why? Because if they looked at your resume with your picture and deny you the job, you can cry discrimination. That is why HR and recruiters will run far away from Jobster.com. Jobster is just advertising company. They are really good at getting media attention but HR or recruiting departments will stay away from them. No matter how much time’s change towards social networking, unless the job law changes, having a site with your picture will not get you a job. Probably a pizza delivery job. Jobster will die off really soon.

[...] GigaOm first reported the story, and wonders if this partnership could create a LinkedIn rival. I think we’ll need to reserve judgment until we see how deep the integration goes - deep integration that leverages a user’s network could be immensely powerful, but just gluing on a job board wouldn’t be so great. That said, jobs are also the obvious way for Facebook to make money, so a partnership of some kind seems like a no-brainer. [...]

Hi everybody.
I do have 2 specific questions, actualy.
1) why competition is ABSENT on facebook ? (i’m talking about a total absence of strategy in social networks like facebook). is it neglection?

2) Is the fact of creating a sponsored group (300 000$ and more) crucial for Jobster to reach the top toward the facebook comunity?

if you have an idea, i’ll be honored to hear it

regards,

Yann Levy
eMarketing strategist
http://www.efairjob.com