What's it like working at LinkedIn
Ed. note: This post is a part of our continuing blog series featuring our new hires. We now turn you over to Brendan Browne.
Brendan is the Director of Global Talent Acquisition -- in other words, recruiting -- here at LinkedIn. Brendan’s had a really diverse career, working in Hollywood, in Technology, East Coast, West Coast, China, and more, so he’s going to tell you a little bit about why he’s so excited to be at LinkedIn.
Several years ago, through the power of the web, the open-source music community and social networking, I was able to create and distribute an album with musical collaborators from all over the world. This was a completely thrilling achievement. Music has always been a passion of mine and CC Mixter, an online music community gave me the support I needed to learn and grow as an artist.
Since joining LinkedIn’s Talent Acquisition Team, I keep coming back to this idea of following one's passion, and the way a supportive, authentic community can help make that happen. I think about the people who encouraged me to explore recruiting and HR, in different industries and in different parts of the country and world. I benefited from the knowledge and advice of others. That’s something I believe LinkedIn can help professionals achieve at a massive scale.
It’s hard to find many parallels, so I’ll just say it plainly: I get to be part of the company that is changing the face of my profession. Because of LinkedIn, the recruiting team at LinkedIn isn’t just business as usual: cold-calls to possible matches for job openings. We’re developing real, ongoing relationships with people who will be great matches at some point in time, even if that time is not now. In addition, what makes this recruiting role at LinkedIn truly unique for me is that we are both the customer and consumer of our product. As a result, we truly collaborate with all parts of the company -- from product roadmap and product ideas, to participation in business strategy discussions. Such an opportunity is extremely rare.
In 2009, Deloitte published work that stated:
Why does passion matter? Because staying competitive in the newly globalized labor market requires all of us to constantly renew and update our professional skills and capabilities. The effort required to increase our rate of professional development is difficult to muster unless we are passionately engaged with our professional activities.
I am a huge believer in passion as a differentiator, both personally and professionally. And, my role in LinkedIn has enabled me to take my creativity, love of recruiting and joy in building something special into another dimension.
You only need to look at an event like InDays — a monthly event we organize at LinkedIn where all LinkedIn employees create projects for LinkedInLabs, bring in speakers on crowdsourced topics, and mobilize around causes or ideas — to see the variety and diversity of interests and passions around the LinkedIn offices. The people here, their willingness to engage, learn, explore, in and out of the office, truly sets LinkedIn apart.
Of course, this post will not be complete if I don't mention our Careers page. If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, please, get in touch with us.