Are you a needle in a haystack on LinkedIn?
In the era of social media, the value of maintaining online presence should not be diminished. Therefore, it should also be clear that having a well-prepared profile on LinkedIn, an online platform designed for career development, is key to find success in today’s job market. The platform’s biggest strength is that it facilitates:
- self-positioning strategically
- building a consistent and professional online presence
… both of which are crucial factors in job seeking!
While we have already written extensively about the proper way of building a solid LinkedIn profile (Click here!), one question still remains unanswered: “How does it work from a recruiter’s point of view?”. And consequently, “What can I do to make my perfectly structured profile findable for recruiters?”.
According to Hootsuite, LinkedIn has 1 billion users worldwide. Some of them are seeking development opportunities, some are building their networks, some are maintaining their personal brand, and a good many of them are looking for a job – 61 million, to be exact, submitting about 140 job applications every second. How can we ensure that we don’t get omitted in such a massive crowd?
The recruiter’s perspective
What do the statistics say? That today, about 95% of recruiters use LinkedIn as a major sourcing tool to find candidates. The important question then becomes: how do they do it? Here are the two vital pieces of information candidates could use to their advantage:
1. Keyword searches
Recruiters are only human, just like everyone else. It is not feasible for any of them to look through millions of profiles in hopes of finding the perfect candidate. Instead, they narrow down the list as much as possible. Two tools come in handy during this process:
- search filters → the search bar on LinkedIn allows to filter people by their location, current and past company, education, industry, and even by skills!
- search operators → searches can also be improved by adding quotation marks, which returns exact phrases, as well as by using the NOT, OR and AND operators, which allows for more specific results; read more on the search operators supported by LinkedIn: Click here!
Naturally, expert recruiters use these tools in tandem to minimize their workload and maximize results!
How can we use this newly-acquired knowledge? By making sure that we are not omitted during these advanced searches! The key, according to Shally Steckerl, one of the leading recruiters for Fortune 500 companies, is to first figure out which keywords to use in your profile. Find a job ad for your position of choice, or a similar one, and scan it for important keywords. It is even possible to literally scan the job ad, using Jobscan.co, thus saving some time.
Once you know which keywords the recruiter will be searching for, you should put those keywords in your profile summary and other relevant sections of your LinkedIn profile. It will certainly help recruiters find you!
Note: Make sure that your profile summary is structured for the “human reader” first, and then add the keywords for the LinkedIn algorithm at the end of it.
2. Networking
You might have noticed that when you search for somebody, the algorithm shows you an entire list of “Other similar profiles” on the sidebar. This is another method that recruiters use to find candidates: they simply search for people with characteristics similar to the people they already know!
It is a great argument in favor of maintaining a large network on LinkedIn. You never know when you showing up as “another similar profile” worth viewing will make someone click on your profile. And once someone does so, having a large network on LinkedIn (500+ connections) may be the difference between landing a job interview and getting rejected. After all:
- profiles with few connections can look suspicious, especially if they’re missing some other crucial information
- a well-connected person looks like a professional in the field who engages with the community and has real experience
Here are some tips for building and maintaining your network on LinkedIn:
- attend conferences, events and register for courses, both online and offline → research the attendees and hosts beforehand to maximize your networking efforts
- connect with your university’s alumni and utilize existing connections
- send only personalized connection requests → bonus points if you add a relevant call-to-action for them to react to
- find the right balance between being too pushy and too reserved in your approach
In the end, all your efforts may fall flat on their face if your LinkedIn profile is unprofessional and/or uninviting. Now that you know how to attract a recruiter to your profile, make sure that you structure it well and present all information consistently and neatly: Click here!
Do you have a professional and well-structured LinkedIn profile? Not sure?
- Request a free LinkedIn Report with feedback on all sections of your profile by sending an e-mail to Contact@CareerAngels.eu | Subject: LinkedIn Report
