How do you use LinkedIn when looking for a job? Or, what better ways exist than using the tag line by publishing anything from “I’m looking for a job” to “open to new opportunities”?
First off: why is using the tag line in that way not a good idea?
In short: there’s no recruiter on this planet who opens LinkedIn with their morning coffee thinking to themselves, “Let’s find candidates who are looking for a job“, or “I’ll search for candidates who are looking for a job and see if I can match recruitment projects with them.”. That’s not how it works. Here how recruiters use LinkedIn.
So, what does work?
Step 1: Profile
Make sure your profile is flawless – for both the human (recruiter, hiring manager, HR) and the robot (LinkedIn algorithm). Proofread it. Here how to create a perfect LinkedIn profile step by step.
Step 2: Career interest
1. Go to your profile
2. Find the dashboard
3. Click on Career interest
4. Fill out everything there’s to fill out – honestly and accurately.
Step 3: Research job ads & top skills
This way you’ll make sure that your profile gets listed as a top candidate when applying to relevant job ads.
1. Choose 10 (relevant) job ads that you like the most and make a list of the listed top skills. Important: there can be zero to two lists depending on the following:
- without a premium account you can see a list, when the job ad poster has included a list of required skills.
- with a premium account and with a minimum of 10 applicant, LinkedIn will reveal the top 10 skills of all participants and highlight which you are missing.
2. Review the skills and select those you actually have.
3. Add them to your profile; bonus: ask your network to endorse you.
Other ways of using LinkedIn when looking for a job:
- position yourself as a professional / expert, by creating and sharing value-added content
- reach out individually to your contacts
- use it as a research tool to understand a company’s structure, to identify decision makers, but contact them by email
- join groups with job ads like: Hidden Job Market for Experienced Managers in Europe
And last, but not least: for those who like data – that’s the progression of tag lines:
After 5 years, the number of people using the LinkedIn tag line to communicate that they are looking for a job is being used by 2.9 professionals more than in 2019: from 987,541 to 2,874,452 (the search was done using a premium LinkedIn account).
| 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2019 | |
| looking for new challenges | 136 367 | 264 119 | 326 623 | 365 252 |
| looking for new opportunities | 306 724 | 621 907 | 834 388 | 912 195 |
| open to new challenges | 126 407 | 264 132 | 365 038 | 397 777 |
| looking for a job | 418 043 | 772 404 | 1 118 102 | 1 199 228 |
| In total | 987 541 | 1 922 562 | 2 644 151 | 2 874 452 |
That is a lot of people.
Are you one of them? Would you like to review your job search strategy? Confidentially? Send an email to Bichl.Sandra (at) CareerAngels.eu or click here. Please note: the call of approx. 30-40 min is confidential, non-obligatory and free of charge.
