Optimizing the job posting experience for recruiters
Improving LinkedIn Jobs for recruiters to attract qualified talent.
ROLE
Product Designer
Personal Project
TIMELINE
April 2023
Interviews with 5 recruiters helped me learn that recruiters don’t feel confident in posting roles; especially from companies with less resources.
3/5 recruiters wished for more guidance and ‘safety measures’ when posting roles.
3/5 recruiters felt overwhelmed by the 'add skills' section of LinkedIn Jobs.
IDEATION
Adding on to LinkedIn Jobs… with post-it notes.
Using my research insights, I tried to think of ways I could instill confidence for recruiters throughout the job posting process. These were narrowed down with an impact matrix.
Prior to testing out my ideas, I prototyped my post-it sketches into the LinkedIn Jobs flow; seeing how my ideas work in the real environment. Let’s see how some of these features connect to insights.
Recruiters felt overwhelmed by the job posting process and the skills section was a direct factor in this.
Instead of automatically inserting skills, the system will show the skills and recruiters can add them if they decide.
Sometimes, job postings can be riddled with errors and mistakes. Before posting, recruiters wondered if they could get their post reviewed.
Recruiters can use the 'Enhance' feature to improve their job description language and fix mistakes.
4/5 recruiters share their job posts with the hiring team or co-workers…
🚫 …but they have to use external methods to send it such as email.
After posting, recruiters can immediately share the job post with colleagues or team members.
CRITIQUE & USABILITY TESTING
What I learned from 4 usability tests and 1 critique session
I tested my designs in 4 usability testing sessions with LinkedIn recruiters and got feedback during a design critique with LinkedIn designers. Here's what I learned:
Align with other LinkedIn products
LinkedIn has a variety of other products; ensure that my designs align with similar interactions in those products.
Design for edge cases recruiters experience
Recruiters brought up a variety of edge cases to consider like remote roles. My next steps were to design for these cases.
For this feature, a designer recommended that I look at other LinkedIn product experiences and align my features with the look, feel, and interactions of those products.
After receiving feedback, I refined my prototyped features. Here are my final solutions.
Get recommended skills based on your job description.
Share your posted roles to co-workers to attract relevant candidates.
Use 'enhance' to improve your job description language and fix mistakes.
TAKEAWAYS
Challenges & Learnings
Understand your audience
Originally, I interviewed recruiters from larger companies, but they didn’t use LinkedIn Jobs. Given my tight timeline, I adjusted my user pool to prioritize those with prior experience using Jobs.
With more time, I would have conducted a more thorough vetting process for my interview participants.
Get help from those around you
The recruiting space was new to me and I didn’t know anything. However, I was able to use my network and connect with people in the space.
I learned to use my connections and learned from 5 experts in under 1 week.
