LinkedIn rolls out ‘Career Advice’ feature for professional guidance

The tool, which is currently available on mobiles and dekstops, will help professionals connect with the right mentors and seek advice on projects, career moves, and so on.

Getting a mentor or career adviser is very important, when you want to take your professional life in the right direction. While some are lucky enough to get the chance to be guided and trained by experienced fellow mentors, most individuals are not so fortunate.

A LinkedIn survey has found that one in two Indian professionals aged 25–33 years say they do not have the right connections to find a mentor. More than 70 per cent of professionals in their early 20s and 30s, revealed that they are keen to seek advice on their career moves but do not know whom to consult. Around 57 per cent of those surveyed admitted that they do not have the right connections to find a mentor.

To address this problem, LinkedIn has launched Career Advice, a tool which helps members seek career advice from suitable and experienced fellow members on the platform. The tool has already been pilot tested in San Francisco and Australia. It was being tested in Bangalore since September 2017 and has seen some great connections being made.

With the help of Career Advice, professionals can easily connect with members across the network for quality advice pertaining to career paths while switching to a new industry or aiming to understand best practices for a project. The tool basically helps impart and receive lightweight career advice through casual, informal conversations with professionals across industries.

As the industry is changing fast and people are expected to have different kinds of skills to succeed at the workplace, this platform can be of great help to professionals. Career Advice will help them know which skills are in demand and prepare accordingly.

How does Career Advice work?

The new free-for-all Career Advice Hub will appear on the dashboard of a member’s LinkedIn profile with the following options:

• Sign up as a mentor or mentee: Members can state what advice they are looking for or what advice they can offer.
• Quality matching: LinkedIn will recommend a personalised list of members who can help, based on their preferences, interests and experience.
• It’s quick and easy: Once a suitable match is found, members can engage with each other via LinkedIn Messaging and get or give career advice.

The new feature is offering a lot of help to professionals and is very convenient to use.  In the words of one of the users, “During my interaction, [the advisers] gave me ideas and guidance to achieve my goals with respect to exploring new domains in the industry. One of my matches even introduced me to his LinkedIn connections, which helped me broaden my network and interact with people who share the same interest in my field.”