Allen Blue: Reinventing social networking

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Allen BlueLinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue discusses how the professional online network plans to change the way business is run.

Before he helped create the world’s largest online professional networking site, Allen Blue lectured on theatrical scenery and lighting design at Stanford University, designed marketing programs at PayPal and was a self-employed web designer. Now, as co-founder of LinkedIn, an online professional network with more than 350 million users, Allen knows a thing or two about job searching.

“As job seekers we need to change,” says Allen. “We need to think differently about how we go about it. There’s no one there who’s going to be holding our hands through the entire thing. We’ve got to pick up the tools that are available and use them.”

Allen Blue: Reinventing social networking

LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue discusses how the professional online network plans to change the way business is run.


LinkedIn is used by people all around the world – in 200 countries and territories.

The platform has also changed the way employers screen candidates as job seekers connect with new opportunities – proving, once and for all, it really is all about “who you know” in the world.

“The world of work is changing now faster than it’s ever changed,” adds Allen. “Those kinds of moments when the door might shut or a particular kind of work no longer exists, those are going to happen with greater and greater frequency in the next 10, 15, 20 years. So, it’s going to be a radically different world.”

Mike Walter recently sat down with LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival to learn about the behind-the-scenes challenges faced by the world’s largest professional network and how it plans to change the way we do business.

Follow Allen on Twitter: @AllenBlue