As a job seeker, you must do everything you can to get noticed by hiring managers. LinkedIn is a brilliant platform to help you do just that. The stats show that over 90% of people in the recruiting business will use LinkedIn to find prospects. So, it’s definitely a place where you can get hired and set your career up for long-term growth.
Having said that, competition is rife on this platform. If you want to be successful with your job hunting, then you need to try and stand out from the crowd. Here’s how you can do this on LinkedIn:
Optimize Your Profile For Searches
When a recruiter uses LinkedIn, how do you think they find the right candidates? It starts with a simple search. They type in the job title, then receive all the relevant results. As such, your first job is to think of the main keywords relating to the role you’re after.
Think about what hiring managers are typing to find people like you. Then, implement these keywords throughout your profile. They should be included everywhere, but mainly in your headline and summary. Don’t list them – nestle them into your content, and make sure they look natural. This will make it more likely that your profile is seen when recruiters are searching for specific roles on LinkedIn.
Targetting these keywords also ensures that your profile has a narrow focus. You’ve created it to target a specific role, so it’s instantly more relevant to hiring managers. There should be less information that doesn’t directly link to the job!
Write A Killer Headline
We touched upon the headline, and it’s something that needs lots of attention. Your headline is the first thing people will see when they find your profile. It provides a snapshot of what’s in store, and it needs to encourage recruiters to read on. If you have a generic headline like ‘I am a marketer,’ then it isn’t impactful. It looks dull, and hiring managers will likely bypass it.
On the contrary, something like ‘I help businesses grow their brand’ has a different impact. It shows what you can do, and it instantly intrigues people. Again, think about what the hiring manager is looking for, then tailor your headline to it.
Doing this helps you make an excellent first impression. One way to enhance the power of your headline is to pair it with a good professional profile picture. Show yourself with a smile, and the odds of someone noticing you are far higher than if you look moody.
Keep It Brief
You never want to overdo it with a LinkedIn profile. Think about it, hiring managers don’t have much time to look through lots of dense profiles every day. It’s likely they’ll only spend a few minutes looking at profiles and deciding if they should be considered or not. So, if you have too much information and your profile seems too long, then they’ll probably skim through it and miss lots of vital info.
Instead, keep everything brief and to the point. Write a summary that lists off all your best achievements and what you’re capable of in the specific role. When adding your work experience, create impactful titles for your roles that grab people’s attention. Make sure you have recommendations for each job as this shows the recruiter that you’ve got a lot of references and can be trusted. Ultimately, you want your profile to be easy-to-read and very skimmable – but while ensuring all your key points are laid out and clear to see.
Try these three tactics, and you’ll start to see more success with your LinkedIn job seeking. You should stand out from the crowd, meaning there’s more chance of people recruiting you. Or, at the very least, a higher chance of being contacted for an interview.
