How to Use LinkedIn When You Are Looking For a Job Part 1: Your LinkedIn Profile
If you are looking for a job, you should be on LinkedIn. There are three reasons why LinkedIn can be a job seeker's friend:
It will provide more opportunities to be found by a prospective employer.
It offers opportunities to network with others.
It also has a job board.
As the saying goes, you get more bang for your job hunting buck when you use LinkedIn than going on other social media platforms. This is not to say that you should limit your social media presence just to LinkedIn. There are reasons to establish a personal brand on the other social media platforms. I would only suggest that LinkedIn, since it is a professional business network, will provide opportunities and easier access to people that may be harder to find on other social media platforms.
In this blog post, I will point out the areas that a job seeker should prioritize while using LinkedIn for a job search. I have purposely omitted some features and areas of LinkedIn that, while interesting and useful, are less relevant to job seekers.
The areas of LinkedIn that you should concentrate on are setting up a compelling profile, networking and engagement, and the job area. Part one of this series will cover your LinkedIn profile. Part two, which will publish next week, will be about networking and engagement as well as how to use the LinkedIn job board and its features.
Setting up Your LinkedIn Profile
The first thing you should do on LinkedIn is to fill out your profile information. You want to maximize the opportunity within the profile to tell your story. You want the information you provide to emphasize your experience, skills, and accomplishments. You will also want to keyword optimize your profile to show up higher in the search results of a recruiter looking to fill an opening.
Contact Information
When you are looking for a job, it is crucial to make yourself easy to contact. You want to provide as many ways as possible for someone to reach out to you. A must is your email address. If you feel comfortable with having your telephone number public, you can add it as well. Also, if you have other social media accounts or a personal website, add them here. It also helps to have your contact information in other areas of your profile, like the About section. Someone that reads that section first will not have to jump back to your contact section to find out how to reach you.
#OpenToWork
LinkedIn now allows those looking for work to visually announce to their network that they seek new opportunities. If you choose to enable the #OpenToWork green ring around your profile picture, anyone that looks at your profile or sees that you liked or commented on a post can see your name with this designation. If you choose, you can only let recruiters know that you are open to new opportunities.
Profile Picture
Your profile picture is often the first thing that a person looks for when viewing your profile. Having a good profile picture is essential, as it also follows you everywhere on LinkedIn, such as with your comments, posts, and if you apply for a job via LinkedIn. The keys to a good profile picture are to make sure it is crisp and not blurry, your face is well lit, and your head and shoulders take up the majority of the area. And a smile doesn't hurt as well.
Learn more about the do’s and dont’s of LinkedIn profile photos.
Background or Banner
The other visual element people see immediately is your background or banner. Having one makes your profile stand out among the sea of profiles with the default LinkedIn blue background. Add a picture, quote, or even marketing information to personalize your profile to engage the audience. Canva is a great place to make your background.
Headline
You have 220 characters available to you to tell the LinkedIn community about you. I would advise against just using the default <job title> at <employer> headline. The headline is where you want to tell all about what you do, how you do it, and even your accomplishments. It is also a great place to add important keywords (see below for more information on keywords).
These are examples of headlines that effectively tell a brief but compelling story that is more than just your title and employer.
Vice President | Innovative B2B leader in global sales, account management & business development | Transforms vision into reality for the world's leading companies, including leading pharmaceutical organizations
Or
Project Manager | Program Manager | Sr. Business Analyst | Product Manager | Drives projects to success on time and on budget
Featured Section
This area allows you to add media to your profile that is important information for your audience. It can help enhance your professional identity. You can add posts you have written on LinkedIn and external media, including documents, videos, and links to websites.
About Section
With a 2,600 character limit, you can give the community more information about you beyond just a list of your jobs. Unfortunately, many people do not use this section to their advantage. Use this space to tell the reader what you do, why you do it, and its impact on your employer. Make your first few sentences attention-grabbing so the reader will want to click on the see more link. Also, do not shy away from using the first person in your storytelling - it is your career, after all. Do not be afraid to add any personal details that your audience might find interesting and relevant. You should also add a Call to Action - what do you want people to do, such as connect with you and how. The About section is also an excellent place to add your contact information, as well. Just be sure that you do it in a way that does not get you in trouble with LinkedIn. As an example, my email address is shown as letshelleyhelpyou (space)@(space)gmail(space)com. Humans can read it easily, the bots, not so much.
Experience
Like on a resume, people want to see more than just a list of job duties in this section. While your resume should go into more detail about your experience than what you put in this section, you still want to showcase significant accomplishments. If appropriate, provide additional information about your job title or the work that you do/did. Don't forget that you can also add media, so if you have work that you want to showcase, take advantage of the opportunity.
Skills
You can add up to 50 skills to show on your profile. All job seekers should have close to that number since the skills section information is used in recruiter searches. By default, the top three that others have endorsed you for are visible without clicking on the Show more area. You can reorder your skills, so others skills are visible, especially if you feel other skills are more highly regarded or you are attempting a career pivot.
Recommendations
Recommendations give social proof that you have delivered on what you say. It is vital to have a variety of recommendations from your professional network, especially from those that have managed you, as these often carry more weight. If you do not have many written recommendations (or those that you have are over a few years old), my advice is to provide recommendations to others. Likely you will get some in return.
Your LinkedIn Dashboard
If you are looking for work, you should be checking your dashboard periodically. It will tell the number of people who have viewed your profile in the past 90 days (you want to see an upward trend) and the names of the last three people. If those that have looked at your profile have not tried to add you as a connection (and look like a good person to add to your network), reach out. Send an invitation with a short note as to why you would like to connect.
You also see the number of times you appeared in searches in the past four weeks. Again, as a job seeker, the higher the number, the better. You will also get information on where the people worked, what they do, and the search terms used. As a job seeker, it is good to know the background of people looking at your information.
Learn more about how to get your LinkedIn profile viewed.
Keywords
Having the right words in your LinkedIn profile is a must if you want to be found. Keywords can include terms relevant to the work you do or industry, such as search engine optimization in marketing. It can also be skills that would be important for the type of job and level you are in your career. An entry-level position may focus on data gathering and running reports while a higher-level position may be tasked with analyzing those reports.
When someone is using the LinkedIn search feature, whether on a paid platform such as LinkedIn Recruiter or through the free search, there are certain areas that the search term will be looked for in a profile. These areas include your Headline, the About section, your Experience and Skills areas.
Knowing how to set up your LinkedIn profile correctly and fully will help convey your professional brand, and assist with getting more readily found on LinkedIn.
Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.