Fenomena Penggunaan LinkedIn di Kalangan Pencari Kerja di Kota Medan

Abstract

This research is entitled "The Phenomenon of Linkedin Use among Job Seekers in Medan City". The research method is qualitative. The purpose of the research is to understand how LinkedIn, which was originally designed as a professional platform, is now used for non-professional purposes such as finding new acquaintances and even checking the background of other people. The purpose of this research is to better understand the phenomenon of LinkedIn's changing function among job seekers in Medan City. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and informants were selected using purposive techniques. The validity of the data was tested using source triangulation. The number of informants, consisting of five main informants and one triangulation informant, showed that LinkedIn is not only an important tool for job search, but also a platform for building personal branding, expanding professional networks, and even for personal purposes such as establishing social relationships with other people outside the professional context, stalking other people's accounts, and screening potential acquaintances. The result revealed that they use LinkedIn to find information about other individuals before establishing further interactions in both professional and personal contexts. The conclusion of this study shows that there has been a shift in the function of LinkedIn from a professional platform to a social media site that is also used for personal interests. However, users still maintain professional ethical boundaries in their interactions.