LinkedIn Introduces 'Bring In Your Parents Day,' A Worldwide Event That Bridges The Gap Between Generations

LONDON, Sept. 12, 2013 - LinkedIn, the world’s largest online professional network, announced today LinkedIn Bring In Your Parents Day, a worldwide event taking place Thursday, November 7, 2013. LinkedIn encourages professionals to invite their parents into their workplace to provide them with a first-hand look and greater understanding of what they actually do every day. Parents can be a valuable part of a professional’s network, having faced challenges and important career lessons along the way. However, one in three parents admit they are unfamiliar with what their child does for a living and so may find it challenging to provide the right advice to support their child's success. LinkedIn Bring in Your Parents Day is a way to help bridge this gap by bringing parents and their children together in the workplace, so they can learn from each other.

“Given all of the new types of jobs created over the past few years, it’s understandable that a lot of parents may not understand what their kids actually do at work each day,” said Pat Wadors, vice president of talent at LinkedIn. “We created LinkedIn Bring In Your Parents Day so that professionals worldwide can provide their parents a glimpse into what they do at work, and in return, learn valuable lessons and even greater admiration from their parents.”

In a recent global survey, LinkedIn found that two thirds of parents want to learn more about what their child does, and half of the surveyed parents feel it could be beneficial to their child’s career development if they had a better understanding of the child’s job. Careers such as social media manager, investment banker and sociologist are among the top 10 professions that parents are least likely to comprehend.

The top 10 misunderstood jobs globally, with the percentage of parents who weren’t confident in their ability to describe the job are:

1. User Interface Designer (74 percent)

2. Actuary (72 percent)

3. Data Scientist (62 percent)

4. Social Media Manager (61 percent)

5. Sub Editor (59 percent)

6. Sociologist (52 percent)

7. Radio Producer (51 percent)

8. Public Relations Manager (50 percent)

9. Sports Team Manager (43 percent)

10. Investment Banker (43 percent)

LinkedIn Bring In Your Parents Day will be held in 14 countries including the United Kingdom, United States, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Australia, India, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong, and encourages business worldwide to take part in the day. Companies already taking part include leading global investment bank Deutsche Bank; Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm; Logitech, world leader in products that connect people to the digital experiences they care about; collaboration software maker Mindjet; Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces; digital trading platform Rubicon Project; worldwide brand communications firm Starcom MediaVest Group and Trulia, a leading online marketplace for homebuyers, sellers, renters and real estate professionals. 

About the Research

Opinium Research carried out an online survey of 16,102 adults between July 30 and August 14, 2013. Of these 7,683 were parents of workers, 12,015 were parents and 13,064 were workers (full or part time). Countries surveyed were Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA.

For more information please contact:

Brands2Life

Katie Buckett/Cathy Donald

0207 592 1200

linkedin@brands2life.com

About LinkedIn
Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 238 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network on the Internet. The company has a diversified business model with revenue coming from Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions products. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, LinkedIn has offices across the globe.