How To Make The Most of LinkedIn For Your Job Search

Long gone are the days where you asked to talk to a manager at a random company you wanted to work for, shake hands and fill out a one page paper application. Now, you have to play the recruiting game, and a big part of that is through LinkedIn. Around 125 million people per year land interviews thanks to the job networking site, and about 35 million landed jobs because of their profiles. Do you want to land your dream job without having to actively apply left and right? Here’s how to make the most of your LinkedIn profile when job searching.

5. Set Your Status

Are you currently searching for a job, but haven’t gotten any emails from recruiters on LinkedIn? That’s because your profile might not be popping up for them when they’re searching for new candidates due to your settings. You can change your work status through LinkedIn in just a couple of easy clicks. First, click on your profile picture, then select view profile. From there, click the ‘open to’ button on the introduction card, then select ‘finding a new job.’ Voila, recruiters will now be able to see that you’re ready to work.

4. Bio Essentials

By nature, humans are very visual creatures, and that includes those working in the recruiting field. Because of this, you’ll want to make sure that your bio on LinkedIn actually stands out. This means taking a nice, professional looking photograph to use as your primary profile picture, as well as a good background image to capture attention. You should also include a good summation of your work history without overusing the buzzwords that we’ve all come to be annoyed with over the years.

3. Detailed Experience

While you may have captured a recruiter’s attention with your bio, there’s nothing they love more than reading every minutiae of experience that you have. It doesn’t matter if you worked at a fast food joint, recruiters want to know exactly what you did while working there, what kind of awards you received and what you can bring to the table. This includes your educational experience, too. Don’t leave any details out as you’ll be able to fit into more spots and make the recruiting process much easier.

2. Link Everything

If you have links to anything, you’ll want to include them on your LinkedIn profile. This is especially true for those that are working in creative fields like graphic design. Recruiters are going to ask for your portfolio at one point or another, so it’s best to include that in your profile and skip the hassle. Links are also great if there is a news story about you, even if it’s on a local scale. This is tangible evidence of your accomplishments that don’t need to be researched.

1. Proofread

Finally, and this is probably the most important detail, make sure to proofread everything on your profile. Recruiters are instantly turned off with spelling and grammatical errors, and having to try to piece together details that may have been left out is time consuming. Even if you have to have someone else read your profile for you, it’s worth it in the long run as you’re setting yourself up for success and a new job.