I have been accused of being disconnected from my family. For example, with Easter approaching, I should’ve known that it’s a gift-giving holiday, when the girls will receive $100 Sperrys and my son a massive amount of candy, which will amount to a large dentist bill. How could I have forgotten?

This is a trivial matter compared to how disconnected jobseekers and recruiters/employers are when it comes to LinkedIn’s role in the hiring process. It makes me wonder if jobseekers are aware of how recruiters/employers value LinkedIn as a tool to find talent. The two parties aren’t on the same page.

An infographic published on The Undercover Recruiter paints a pretty telling picture of the importance recruiters et  al place on LinkedIn in finding candidates, while it also shows that  jobseekers seemingly place little importance on using LinkedIn.

Facts from the infographic show

The reasons vary as to why jobseekers fail to utilize the very tool that recruiters/employers are increasingly relying on to find them. It may be that LinkedIn is difficult for some to master. Only 50.5% of LinkedIn users have a complete profile. Some of my customers complain about basic things like downloading a photo, remembering their password, how to connect with other members or the Jobs feature, etc.

Some may find it impinges on the numerous hours they spend on the job boards. Sadly, the average time spent using LinkedIn is a mere two hours a week. Good gosh, I spend two hours a day on LinkedIn. Can they give up half an hour a day? Fifteen minutes?

Others may wonder if LinkedIn actually works. There have been no cold facts on the success rate jobseekers have had at finding work directly or indirectly by using LinkedIn. We have heard that personal networking garners anywhere from 60-80% success if used as the primary job method, but some people will only believe it when they see it.

There are jobseekers I consider to be experimenters–they join LinkedIn because they’ve heard how it will help them get a job, only to abandon the application after a day or two of looking for immediate gratification. To these folks, I tell them to kindly close their account and not muck up the work for the rest of us.

Whatever reasons there are for recruiters and jobseekers being so disconnected, it is obviously clear that the two entities are fishing at different lakes. Recruiters will never reveal where the fish are; and I fear I will never understand that Easter is a gift-giving holiday.