Ex-Twitter X has launched a beta of its recruitment platform, X Hiring. For now, the service is available only to organizations that boast $1,000-a-month gold-tick verification. As depicted in a sample screenshot, the feature allows companies to display a “We’re Hiring” section on their profile pages.
It’s unsurprising to see Elon Musk’s social network making this one of its early steps toward being an “everything app,” given that its first acquisition under his ownership was reportedly that of recruitment startup Laskie, back in May.
On the face of it, this could be a winning augmentation for X. If the platform continues to be a major hub for general activity, organizations’ recruitment ads could catch the eyes of many people who may not even be actively seeking a new role.
However, that’s a big “if.” X is becoming decreasingly useful for those seeking the expert insights that used to make Twitter hum, with comments under many posts dominated by low-value contributions from those who have purchased the site’s blue tick, and therefore get pushed to the top.
Musk’s operation also has a growing reputation for toxicity (he now wants to get rid of the block button, which will make harassment far easier) and for bias toward the right side of the political spectrum (as exemplified by the return of mug-shot-toting former President Donald Trump last Thursday). Even if organizations are sticking around for now, many left-leaning or marginalized users have fled, reducing the diversity of the potential talent pool on offer.
Some of those users have gone to new Twitter clones such as Bluesky, but there seems to be a growing trend in Microsoft-owned LinkedIn—which has recruitment as its beating heart—being a big beneficiary of Twitter/X’s decline. A recent Nature survey suggested LinkedIn was the second most popular social media refuge for scientists who have fled X, and, with many people now using it to share personal as well as professional updates, Bloomberg last week carried the astonishing headline: “Sorry, but LinkedIn is cool now.”
Given how cringey and inauthentic LinkedIn posts often are, I think Axios’s Emily Peck is probably right to say this is more a sign of the social media age being “well past its prime” than anything else. But if X really is trying to steal some of LinkedIn’s lunch now, LinkedIn taking a bite out of X would certainly be a richly ironic scenario.
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David Meyer
