The Use of LinkedIn in Critical Qualitative Employment and Careers Research

Tanya Weiler; Deanna Grant-Smith

doi:10.4135/9781529681307

This case explores the possibilities, issues, and considerations associated with using the social media platform LinkedIn as a source of naturally occurring qualitative data for employability and careers research. Most employment and careers research that uses LinkedIn treats this as a big data set suitable for conducting quantitative statistical and network analysis often using algorithms, machine learning, and econometric modeling. This methods case explores how LinkedIn profiles can be used as a rich qualitative data set to complement and enrich other qualitative data such as in-depth semistructured interviews and questionnaires. Drawing on a PhD study that used participants’ existing LinkedIn profiles as a naturally occurring data set in critical qualitative research, these profiles were compared with participant curriculum vitae to explore narratives of self during education-to-employment transitions. Because this research focused on individual rather than aggregate big data, it sought informed consent from participants to access and collate LinkedIn profiles at multiple time points (before graduation, after graduation, and during transitioning to professional employment). This longitudinal approach created a data set for each research participant that was also used to tailor interview questions to provide a deeper avenue of exploration around the topic of the presentation of self in a professional context. Used alongside researcher-generated qualitative data points, LinkedIn profiles provided another source to triangulate information gathered from participants as part of the data analysis. This case contributes to understanding of the potential applications of using existing data to augment and contribute to qualitative research in an ethical way.

The Use of LinkedIn in Critical Qualitative Employment and Careers Research

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