Now more than ever, LinkedIn is playing a role for millions of both passive and active jobseekers across the globe. While it is important to understand the power of branding yourself via LinkedIn, we’ll touch on that soon. You have to start with a solid Linkedin profile. Whether you’re on day four, month four, or not very active in your job search, you need to take the necessary steps to stand out.
If you are looking to be found by recruiters, the first place to start is on Linkedin. Understanding how recruiters use Linkedin and making sure they find you should be your number one priority. In the sections below, we’ll take a step-by-step approach to ensure your LinkedIn profile is optimized for your active or passive job search so that potential employers can fully understand the impact you bring to a team or organization.
Why is this important?
Like it or not, in today’s digital landscape one of the first things people do when they are about to meet a potential employer or employee is to look up their social profiles, typically starting with LinkedIn. While some view LinkedIn as an evolving virtual resume, it is important to look at it as a tool for your success, rather than a digital version of the paper copy you bring with you on interviews. Your profile is a great way to tell the story of your career, show people some personality (this is social media after all), and brag about your accomplishments and references.
How does someone find your profile?
With over 90% of recruiters utilizing LinkedIn to identify passive and active job seekers, it is important to stand out and ensure your profile comes up in a search. While you don’t want your LinkedIn to be a list of buzzwords, it is important that the key common words or phrases for your target role/audience are present. Inputting keywords to match the role or set of roles you’re interested in (while still showing value in what you did) can help you pop up in a search and allow a recruiter to see that relevant information. You’re likely to attract more attention with a description of what you did utilizing that word, rather than just a list of words. Think about what you’d most likely to be interested in and make sure it pops up in your profile.
Getting Started
Someone has found your LinkedIn profile, maybe it was a recruiter searching for talent, maybe it is someone that is going to interview you tomorrow afternoon. How do you ensure they actually click on your profile? And once they click, how do you capture their attention for longer? We break it down into sections.
If you have any further questions or would like to chat, feel free to reach me at mtokarz@hirewell.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
