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Is your career resolution to find that job you've always wanted or to change up your career? Whatever it is, start by using the right LinkedIn tips and tricks for job seekers.
LinkedIn is an amazing tool for finding a job, but there's so much more to know than just creating a profile and listing all your experience. Here are some lesser-known, but easy-to-use LinkedIn tips and tricks that can help you successfully reach your short- and long-term career goals in the coming year.
Save your LinkedIn searches
It can take a lot of effort to determine the best search criteria for the job you want, and finding possible connections or people who can help can get tiresome. LinkedIn helps you get around this with its Save Search option. This option pops up when you search for people (and specifically people's positions) on LinkedIn. Through the Save Search option, you will receive alerts when a profile fits your search criteria pops up, cutting down your overall search time. This option will appear on the upper-right-hand side of your screen when you search for people on LinkedIn.
On top of this, you can set up alerts for the job titles that you search for as well. When you search for a particular role, the option to set up job alerts will appear at the top of the search. This not only saves time, but LinkedIn will also continuously send leads for jobs that match your criteria while the search is saved.
Make yourself easy to find
This is basically utilizing SEO to get noticed on LinkedIn, and it's not as hard as you might think. When you find job descriptions that interest you, copy and paste them into a word cloud tool of your choice, which will show which words appear most often in any body of text; the frequently used words reflect what recruiters most want to see in a candidate. Make sure you have these words (or phrases) in the summary and experience sections of your profile and you'll be more easily discovered by both human and automated searches on LinkedIn.
Not sure how to optimize your profile to its fullest extent? This is one area where TopResume can be an invaluable resource. With a TopResume LinkedIn profile rewrite, an expert writer will help you create a LinkedIn profile that will impress those who come across it.
Find and connect directly with hiring managers
LinkedIn lets you search for professionals with specific positions within a company so you can discover and connect directly with a potential hiring manager or someone in a management role at your desired organization without going through the usual gatekeepers.
Find the company's LinkedIn page, click “See all employees” at the bottom right, and you'll be taken to an advanced search page. Once there, type a job title in the keywords section and you'll get a list of everyone with that title in their LinkedIn profile. Choose a person to contact, and you're off and running. Remember to follow the rules of etiquette for reaching out and making these potential contacts.
Be sure the “Current Title” area is complete
Next is one of the lesser-known tips on LinkedIn, but one that's critical for job seekers who are currently unemployed.
Recruiters and hiring managers generally search for qualified candidates on LinkedIn using the Current Title area. This quickly lets them find people who hold the job title now versus farther back in their job experience. If you leave this box empty, most searches will skip over you and keep looking. The good news is that you can fill in this area without having to stretch the truth.
Simply put in the job title or titles you're looking for along with wording such as “Seeking New Opportunities” or “Currently In Transition” in order to alert recruiters that you are currently looking for employment in this role. For example: Marketing Analyst Seeking New Challenges.
Have a minimum of 50 connections
A profile with fewer than 50 connections raises a huge red flag for recruiters, which can lead to negative assumptions about your qualifications. Having few contacts gives the impression that you don't know many professionals, you don't want to know or connect with them, or you don't know how to connect with them. Any one of these assumptions will have a recruiter passing you by.
But while it's important to bolster your connection pool, don't just start inviting people to connect. Do some research and go for professionals with similar job titles, who work in the same industry, or who have similar non-work interests. Joining a group on LinkedIn is an easy way to locate potential appropriate contacts.
Put a video on your profile
Add a video of a presentation you gave or meeting you ran in your profile to highlight leadership abilities. You can use photos or a slideshow, as well. Any of these methods can be used to show examples of your skills. Use a detailed spreadsheet (without proprietary information) to show your Excel skills, create a slideshow where you walk through your abilities and experience; there are many ways to make it work.
Just click on Edit Profile, go to Summary, click the box icon, then Add File.
Install the LinkedIn toolbar extension on Chrome
Google Chrome users have access to a LinkedIn toolbar extension that makes checking LinkedIn fast and effortless, which is important if you're waiting for search results or a message from a recruiter. If you use Firefox or another browser, see what add-ons or extensions it might offer for LinkedIn.
Use the first person
While this isn't right for a resume, it is absolutely acceptable for your LinkedIn page. Actually, it's encouraged.
So rather than writing, “Bill Jones is a highly talented marketing professional,” it would be, “I am a highly talented marketing professional.” This presents the information as more of a conversation than a formal resume. Your LinkedIn profile should be both professional, yet personal — you don't want it to sound too uptight.
Get a LinkedIn Profile Makeover
Making your LinkedIn profile the best it can be can take a lot of time and effort — unless you utilize TopResume's LinkedIn Profile Makeover services. With this option, one of our expert writers will rewrite your profile so that it is keyword optimized, clearly highlights your career intentions, and positions you to impress recruiters and other professionals. A properly written profile will also help you attract the attention of recruiters, create more connections, and ultimately bolster your job search. Also, by utilizing our service, you will free up time and energy that you can use for other parts of your job search.
Trust us — taking the time to learn these and the many other LinkedIn tips and tricks will create amazing returns in visibility and opportunities to find and take that next step in your career. All you have to do is get started.
On top of making sure your profile is the best it can be, make sure your resume is highlighting your best self with a free review today!