LinkedIn rolls out Intro feature, overhauled iPad app

'People are cultivating their goals and aspirations on the go,' a LinkedIn employee says of the new features. 

On Wednesday, LinkedIn rolled out a couple of new mobile features intended to improve the user experience on mobile versions of the job site. 

The first is a "complete reinvention" of the LinkedIn iPad app, with a cleaner, media-heavy design and a personalized navigation bar. The iPad app, which you can download for free at the iTunes Store, also includes a new search bar that allows users to browse job listings by company or groups, such as Poetry and Literature (fat chance), Steel Detailers (better), or Black Belt POWER Networkers (sounds intriguing). 

Next up is something LinkedIn is calling Intro. The feature works inside the iPhone Mail app, and it uses technology from Rapportive – which was acquired by LinkedIn in 2012 – to display a small amount of data on the sender of an e-mail.

So let's say you get a message from an HR manager at a big software developer, which would like to hire you for a new programming gig.

Assuming you're both on LinkedIn, you'll see the manager's picture, his title, and his location (see image at left). And if you click on the manager's title, you can see if you both have connections on LinkedIn. 

"Gone are the days when your career is confined or bound to a set schedule. Now, the opportunity to change your career trajectory can happen anywhere, at any time," LinkedIn's Deep Nishar wrote today on the company blog. "People are cultivating their goals and aspirations on the go, and finding that their career is more satisfying when it transcends what they do from 9-5." 

In the second fiscal quarter of this year, LinkedIn posted revenue of $364 million. The company says it now has 238 million members.