Many professionals update their LinkedIn profiles when they need a job. Are you one among them? If so, then be careful. It is a huge mistake. Recruiters around the world are constantly digging 467 million profiles on LinkedIn to find the best candidates. Having an excellent profile, which acts as your online resume, could mean you are missing out on some top job opportunities. Experts believe that with a LinkedIn job search, you don’t have to search for your dream job, rather the job will find you.
According to Guy Kawasaki, the man who has worked with Steve Jobs and who is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist says, “If you are on LinkedIn, you might as well not be in the world. Everybody must be on LinkedIn.” If you want to use the LinkedIn Job search option to find the best job for yourself, then you must make some changes to your profile. What are those? Let us find out.
LinkedIn Job Search Tips
Make your summary unique- A LinkedIn summary acts like pitching yourself to a recruiter. It is the first thing that anyone notices after your name. List your experience, achievements, how you get motivated, what interests you, etc. Try to make it as interesting and bang on the point as you can.
Upload a professional photo- It is one of the best LinkedIn job search tips. As per LinkedIn, profiles that have a photo are about 21 times are viewed more compared to one without a photo. They are even 9 times more likely to get connection requests.
Always choose a professional photo that represents you in the best way. Skip the ones that are badly cropped, have low-resolution, or have another person with you.
Include at least 1 to 2 mission statements- Now this is your elevator pitch. This is a quick summary of your identity. So, be creative and make sure you don’t simply reuse your work title. It must be short, simple, and contain all the keywords that are important in your industry.
Add your current location- One of the important LinkedIn Job search tips that many ignore is not mentioning their current location. Most of us do not know that recruiters screen resumes by location.
Not mentioning your location will be bad for you. According to LinkedIn, simply by mentioning your city in your profile, you can improve the chances of being noticed by nearly 23 times.
Add-In your educational background- By mentioning the name of your schools and colleges, former classmates and hiring managers will probably find you in the LinkedIn job search.
Indeed, the profiles with complete education fields get 17 times more messages from the recruiters. However, you may leave your graduation year, as this will show your age to the potential recruiters.
Mention the industry you worked in before- As per LinkedIn, every week, over 300,000 people search LinkedIn profiles in terms of industry. That is a huge number, isn’t it? Making this small change to your job profile can increase the chances of being noticed by recruiters. It also lets LinkedIn help you connect to the correct events, job lists, and trending job-related articles.
Mention your present position- Having an obsolete position on your LinkedIn profile page gives a bad impression to the recruiters. They might think that as you have not updated it, you are not active on the site and won’t reply to their messages.
Or there are chances of them thinking that you are not serious about your online professional presence. It takes few minutes and is a great way to show your professional path. Make sure you include your present title, company name, when you started working in this company, etc.
Create a personalized URL- Every LinkedIn user receives a generic URL. But how many of you know that you can get a personalized and short URL? If you want to attain success in LinkedIn job search, then using a personalized URL helps. While you edit your job profile, select the “Edit” link next to the public profile, and you will find the option to choose a new URL.
Again, make sure you keep it professional and use your name in it. However, if you have a common name, then you can always look for some variation but keep it as simple as you can.
Mention your special skills- Mentioning your skills is another important one in the list of LinkedIn job search tips. This is the right place to show the skills that you have learned along your professional journey. This is a section that allows your contacts to weigh in and “endorse” you, mentioning how good you are at mentioned skills.
Look for a referral- Job seekers who are referred by an employee have 9 times more chances of getting hired. Getting a referral is simple. Mentioning a referral, if any is one of the most important LinkedIn job search tips you must follow by any chance. If you know someone who is an employee of the company to which you are applying, just click the “Ask for a referral” button just below the “Job Description.” Good things come to those who can ask for them. Right?
Be clear about your being open to opportunities- More than 300,000 companies use LinkedIn to find the right talent. So, do not just look for a new job rather let it come searching you. If you are doing a LinkedIn job search, then be clear about your goals and for what you are ready. Just go to the “Career Interests” tab on the “Jobs” page and turn on the signal that helps recruiters know that you are open to job opportunities.
Size up your expected salary- While applying for a new job role, “that” discussion around salary can be at times a bit awkward. With LinkedIn Salary, you can see a detailed analysis of salaries in terms of companies, job title, and location. So, keeping that analysis in your mind is one of the vital LinkedIn job search tips. Find your earning potential and prepare yourself with perceptions that let you approach better for salary negotiations with your new employer.
Save your job searches- LinkedIn has a “save search” function, which can help you to track specific job keywords or the listings that you want to see. You can even set up alerts that will inform you when these keywords pop up so that you do not end up reviewing your searches every time.
Join Right LinkedIn Groups- Joining the right groups’ matters a lot when you do a LinkedIn job search. LinkedIn Groups offer a place for experts in the same industry or at least with the same interests to share the content, find the right answers to their queries, post jobs, make business contacts, and determine themselves as industry professionals.
It is important to join the right LinkedIn group. You can join Alumni groups as it will help you to get access to several referral jobs and industry-specific groups where you can mingle with like-minded people from your same industry.
Add all the keywords for which you want your resume to rank- If you want to make sure that your job profile is noticed by more and more recruiters, then make keywords your best friend. Optimize your job profile for LinkedIn job search. Find out the common keywords that recruiters usually use in job postings you are looking for. Those are the same words they use while searching for candidates. So, using those keywords will make your profile reach them in no time.
No matter how you see it, LinkedIn can play the role of an MVP in the LinkedIn job search. You can decide how much you want to work with it, but when you start using this social media platform more and more, you will get more rewards from the people as well as companies who use it to find the best people looking for jobs.