LinkedIn has revolutionised the world of recruitment and job searching, making it easier than ever to reach out to candidates directly, however, with so many candidates searching for their new job you will need to ensure your profile stands out from the crowd. Here’s our complete guide on optimising your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters and find new job opportunities.
Optimising your profile
Recruiters are busy people who see hundreds of profiles every day, you’re going to want to make your profile jump out the search box.
Drawing recruiters in
If a recruiter is looking to find someone for an ‘X’ role, they’ll be putting ‘X’ into the search box, such as a recruiter searching for an ‘Accountant’. You’re going to want to be putting ‘Accountant’ into everywhere that LinkedIn’s algorithm is going to be searching, such as your headline, summary, experience and skills section.
Your headline will be the next thing to draw a recruiter to your profile, avoid only listing your job title. Instead, expand further by reflecting on what you can do and any specific niches you focus on. If you’re a graphic designer, rather than just having your job title as your headline use ‘Graphic Designer with experience in Logo Design and a passion for Corporate Branding’. This little line of text may be what convinces a recruiter to click through to your profile or not.
Making first impressions
You can have a long summary filled with amazing details and experience, but a busy hiring manager is unlikely to delve deeper into this on first glance. The way to get around this is to start with a sentence that summarises your worth, skills and experiences. So even if the recruiter doesn’t read it all, they know you’re who they’re looking for. Like above, the recruiter is unlikely to read all your work experience section filled with bullet points and job descriptions, but they will definitely skim the companies and titles. It is worth to make sure all your previous job details are up to date and make sure to change any confusing job titles into something more easily understandable.
People don’t trust a profile without a face to the name, adding a profile picture adds the professional feel you’re looking for. Don’t use a photo of you and your mates down the pub, but avoid brooding model poses, nothing works better than a genuine smile, clean professional clothing and a calm background. Don't forget, people often try to surround themselves with people who are happy.
Growing your connections
Many people will only connect with people they have met or spoken to, but they are a great way to help you land your dream role.
LinkedIn's algorithm shows results that are more likely to be connected to the one searching, e.g. a 2nd connection rather than 20th connection. You can improve this by adding those who are in the preferred recruiter’s industry.
You can improve your connections in a few ways; by importing your address book, reaching out to recruiters, news pages and by joining groups. Another easy way to find connections is by looking at who views your profile.
There are many benefits to add those who you don’t know directly in person such as:
You won’t limit yourself geographically, especially if you live in a small town.
It will help you get your foot in the door as you will have more chance to chat to industry-relevant connections.
You open yourself up to new opportunities by accepting requests and users often send follow-up messages after connecting which could benefit both of you.
You will also get a chance to ask old colleagues and bosses for recommendations on LinkedIn. If the recruiter notices you have recommendations under every job you’ve had, it shows you often outperform expectations. If you’re going to ask for a recommendation, ask them to focus on the first two or three sentences as this is typically the part that appears without clicking to open further.
Staying active Once you have drawn the recruiter to your profile, you will need to make sure they can tell your profile is up-to-date and accurate.
Ensure you consistently update your profile, post relevant news and articles, send messages offering advice and feedback to others, like and comment on posts. You could even write and publish your own LinkedIn article if you have a lot of knowledge within the industry.