Tips for LinkedIn Job Seekers to Stand Out

3 LinkedIn Profile Setting Secrets for the Job Seeker

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3 LinkedIn Profile Setting Secrets for the Job Seeker

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Tips for LinkedIn Job Seekers to Stand Out

Table of Contents

**This is a guest post written by Joshua Waldman author of “Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies.” 

Why are we even talking about social media in the context of job search?  Simple!  Recruiters are using social media and recruiting to find talent. In fact, several surveys in the last few years point to a very high percentage organizations recruiting through social media.  Adding to this trend, LinkedIn’s API has now made it even easier for recruiters to access fresh talent via some powerful recruiting software tools.  My philosophy is that if you want to make a sale, step into the shoes of your customer.  Translation: if you want to land a job, understand how recruiters do their jobs. Then adjust your job search strategy so that you pop up on their radar.

Tips for LinkedIn Job Seekers to Stand Out

The shift here is that LinkedIn’s own search capabilities are being used less as more advanced technologies emerge, making recruiting much easier for professionals. If you are still keyword packing, get with the program. LinkedIn is a whole different animal. Keyword packing and most of those SEO tricks for your LinkedIn profile are yesterday’s news.

There are three main elements that you now need to optimize for if you plan on using Linkedin for your job search. And they are much different then before as LinkedIn has and will continue to go through dramatic changes.

1. For the Passive Search: Bigger Social Network IS Better

When you look at recruiting software such as Bullhorn Reach, you’ll notice that primed candidates pop up based on the user’s own social network. This means that if you are connected to that recruiter through social media, and you just lost your job, added a hot job title, or otherwise did something to your profile, you’ll pop up.  Don’t believe me? Watch this video and pay particular attention to minute 1:50.

 

Many of these advanced social media recruiting tools deliver search results for the recruiters based on that person’s individual network. Yep. Essentially, if you are not in a recruiter’s network, you are not likely to show up in search results. So how many recruiters do you have in your network?

2. Update Your Location for Visibility in LinkedIn Recruiting

Another essential factor in whether or not you come up in a recruiter’s search is your LinkedIn profile location. It would be a mistake to be too general (like “USA”), but it would also be a mistake to enter your current location if you want to move.

If you are a LinkedIn job seeker looking for a position in Nevada (god knows why!) and you live in North Carolina (okay, lots of sun too), you need to put your DESIRED location in your LinkedIn profile – even though you don’t currently live there.  Think about how a job board works. You are asked two things: where you want to look for the job and what you want to do. Right?  This is exactly how recruiters use their specialized software. They get hired to fill positions, or they are corporate recruiters and are looking for local talent. So they use zip codes to filter names from their list.  Be sure your LinkedIn location settings are where you want them to be.

 3. LinkedIn Skills to Pay the Bills

Did you remember getting an email from LinkedIn a while ago asking you to fill in your Skills for your profile? I’ll bet you did, but you probably deleted it with your spam. That was a mistake. Here’s why: “Skills” in LinkedIn are set up like tags. You can have multiple skills to tag yourself with, but you can have only one or two industries and only one job title. Many software packages include a skills filter for their LinkedIn searches.

Why? Because when a company or hiring manager talks to a recruiter, they aren’t always writing clear job descriptions. Often, recruiters have to write or re-write the job description or even guess at what type of person is needed to fulfill a role. So all they have to work with is a list of random skills and they need to go out there and find people with those skills.  Remember in the movie Taken, with Liam Neeson? When they kidnap his daughter, he says, “I have a very particular set of skills, skills I’ve acquired over a very long career.” Well, go to your LinkedIn profile and tell the world what very particular skills you have acquired over your career.

Joshua Waldman is a guest blogger at Blogging4Jobs and is an author of Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies, is a career advancement specialist helping people use social media to go from good jobs to great careers. When he’s not helping executives become sought-after authorities at Corporate Warriors, he’s blogging on CareerEnlightenment.com or working out at the gym. Check him out on Twitter @joshuawaldman 

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7 Comments

  1. Hi Joshua,

    You’ve raised an excellent point about LinkedIn and their new ‘skills’ feature. If a recruiter sees a specific skill on your profile, it may lead to interest even if the job they’re trying to fill doesn’t require that skill. It may be something they have in the back of their mind for a client who isn’t advertising but always on the look out for the right candidate. It might open a conversation that wouldn’t have happened without the skill being listed. What those skill tags do is add depth to your overall profile without pages and pages of description.

    You’re absolutely right, jobseekers should add skills as soon as possible.

  2. I’m not a fan of LinkedIn, but even I have to admit that skill tags are the best thing ever to happen on LinkedIn profiles. Skills coupled with their revamped mobile app has me cautiously optimistic about LinkedIn again.

  3. Yes, I can see where LinkedIn can be very productive in helping recruiters finding jobs for people across the county. This part of social networking can be very useful for helping job seekers get their name out there.

  4. Hello Jessica, Hope you are doing great? These 3 LinkedIn Profile Setting Secrets for the Job Seeker are superb. Thank you so much for sharing this informative post. This is a motivational one as well. I like LinkedIn and find it to be one of the best platforms for the job seekers around the world. Keep blogging.

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