Microsoft-owned business-and employment-oriented social networking site LinkedIn is rolling out a new service especially meant for people looking for work. The new service, which began with a small test run last month, will be available free of cost, according to a recent report in techcrunch.

LinkedIn's new service will identify potential mentors and people who might be looking for mentorship in a specific area, and then get them in touch with each other by matching them.

The service, which will be first made available to LinkedIn users in Australia and San Francisco, is similar to Tinder but for professionals who indicate they are interested in getting some mentoring. Initially, LinkedIn has made a hand-selected list of potential mentors, who will be displayed to people who indicate that they are interested in getting some mentoring, so that a match can be made.



Mentors on the platform will have the option on selecting people whom they would like to mentor. It could be users from their first-and second-degree networks, in their neighbourhood or their former school/college.

The option of becoming a mentor will be available to everyone as LinkedIn believes that there's something to learn from everyone, according to Hari Srinivasan, Head of Identity Products at LinkedIn.

When it comes to mentees, after a user indicates that they're interested in getting mentorship in a specific area or topic, the service provides them with further potential parameters to narrow down their search. It also gives the users an option of just having a list of potential mentors that is as wide as LinkedIn’s 500 million+ user base.

Once a mentor and mentee match, they can message each other. The service also provides each of the party to terminate the communication at any point of time.

With the new service, LinkedIn is hoping to fill the gap in the job market: career mentoring. According to the platform, career mentoring from people belonging in the same field can make a huge difference as they know the challenges and opportunities the field has to offer.

While there a lot of professional career coaching services available like Everwise, BetterUp or Out of Office hours etc., they come at an expensive price point and can be too formal at times. This is exactly what LinkedIn's new service isn't. The service has the potential of covering as many jobs as there are lot of users registered on the platform.

LinkedIn is quite positive about the service and is looking forward to how it is accepted by its huge community. According to the company, they were sure about the need of the service when during a research they found out that among the senior ranks of their user base, nine out of 10 people have said they want to give back.

The launch of the service will work in favour of LinkedIn as it will give the company one more service to spur engagement on its platform.

[Top Image: Crain's New York Business]
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