Since the pandemic, more and more people are part of informal professional networks. This allows them to get help on technical aspects of their job, to make contacts and even to find work, explains the BBC. Most of these closed groups are on the Slack platform and mainly concern the tech sector. David Feinman recalls how he joined a group of digital marketers on Skype in 2015. At the time, there were 200 of them. Today, the group, renamed Online Geniuses, has migrated to Slack and has 40,000 people living in the whole world. And “Online Geniuses also acts as a job site, with a specific recruitment channel”.
On the one hand, the phenomenon is only the modern reinvention, with new tools, old-fashioned networks, underlines the British information site. According to economist Lauren Thomas, who works for the English business evaluation site Glassdoor, “these groups for people with similar careers and interests are the online equivalent of meeting in the pub with your acquaintances to discuss job opportunities: they’re like virtual networking sessions”.
A “hidden job market”
But, with the pandemic, opportunities to get together have become rarer and virtual networks have gained momentum, while the “great resignation” and the shortage of labor in certain sectors have revitalized the market. employment for employees. These new networks on Slack can also give candidates an advantage because they are recommended and have often already made themselves known to recruiters by being active in the group.
“The use of these types of platforms for job postings shows how the market is moving from formal modes of communication to more casual modes of communicationsays Lauren Thomas. It’s no surprise that employers and employees see this as an addition to their current job search arrangements.”
The BBC nevertheless points out that these new networks pose two problems: on the one hand, Slack is a private platform and the groups themselves are private. Joining them therefore depends on the arbitrariness of the founders or administrators, which can lead to a lack of diversity. On the other hand, they make up what Kathy Gardner of the New York-based remote job site FlexJobs describes as a “hidden job market” since most of the opportunities there are not posted on job boards, social networks or company websites.
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