Recruiters use LinkedIn extensively for finding candidates. It is an easy way for recruiters to find potential talent, not only as a primary source for talent but also for networking. As a job seeker, here are some tips to leverage LinkedIn to make sure you are "findable" by recruiters and other people that are looking.
1) Just like Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder, and corporate candidate databases, LinkedIn allows keyword searching and matching. So it’s vital that you take advantage of this feature. (See my previous entry on effective keyword usage on your resume.) Here are the main fields that recruiters use in conjunction together:
-Title
-Company
-Location
-Education
-Keywords relating to functional skills (ie software coding languages/platforms, terms like GAAP or reconcilation for accounting, A/B testing or campaign for marketing, wireframe or usability for UX, roadmap for PM, calendar for administrative)
2) Profile as Resume: If you look on your profile page over to the right, there is a small icon for the Adobe PDF next to the printer. This handy dandy little widget converts a LinkedIn profile to a PDF document that looks remarkably like a…resume! I remember how enthusiastic I was when this was added, because it meant I could save the profile as a PDF to share with my hiring managers. SO, what does this mean? *treat your LinkedIn profile like a resume.* Follow the same rules of thumb you would with composing your resume. Don’t just list your company, title and dates of employment. Give some detail as to *what you do/did.* Help us find you, and make yourself appealing. You can also upload your resume TO your LI profile.
3) Websites: "My company", or "My blog". I’ve often managed to contact people from their "website" links. Sometimes it is a second business, or perhaps it’s a link to your blog with a "contact me" section. Remember, if someone isn’t in your first degree contacts, they cannot contact you unless you are a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) or enable open communication except if you are in …
4) Groups: when you join various "groups" on LinkedIn, especially professional or special interest groups, you can choose to let other members of the group contact you. For example, I belong to several groups such as Linked: Seattle and the Seattle Job Social and Amazon Alumni, where I can post jobs and connect up with other people. On top of that, each group has a "jobs" tab where recruiters or hiring managers can post their jobs. (It costs $195 to post a single job for 30 days in the actual "jobs" section of LinkedIn. The "jobs" tabs are a much more cost-effective and generate more interest.) Treat the groups as you would any other professional organization: as a great way to connect with other professionals and like-minded individuals. Join in discussions, make yourself a known quantity. Give people a reason to *want to get to know you* as a resource, and possibly even for generating some business or leads in your field.
5) Status: on your Profile page, you can update your status, and also share out that information as a tweet on your twitter account. This is a great tool because these updates come as email network updates to important individuals in your network, like former colleagues, recruiters, industry professionals, etc., and it integrates Twitter with your LI account. Remember: Twitter is an amazing platform for gathering information, disseminating *your* expertise and branding yourself. Having it integrated with LI is a brilliant move. Don’t just keep a "Steve Smith is seeking new opportunities" or "Jean Doe is available to help you with your staffing needs." Update your profile often; share interesting links to articles or updates to your blog (with the URL of course) about your industry. Keep it fresh and interesting.
6) Recommendations: I have heard of companies in Seattle that don’t ask for references any more. They only use LI recommendations. What does this tell you? That those recommendations are important. And that it is vital to get them *before you think you might need them.* Who should they be from? Managers, peers, clients. People that can attest to your work. The same people that you would use as references when asked for them. These days, many companies have stringent policies about not giving any sort of post-layoff references, so you should start gathering them well before you need them. In addition to your own references, if you get your network email updates and see someone you know is gathering references, it might be a clue that s/he is getting ready to start looking for a new job. Make sure that whomever you are asking/giving for references is someone with whom you have a solid working relationship. I recently was asked for a recommendation for someone that I have known for over a decade, but only socially. I told her I was not comfortable commenting on her work, as I’ve never worked with her (she also lives on the other side of the country and isn’t in recruiting.)
7) Put your LinkedIn profile URL on your resume and your business cards. Recruiters check LI profiles. Make sure your experience on your profile *matches* your resume. At this month’s Seattle Job Social, I was gratified to see very few resumes and lots of folks handing me business cards with their LI url’s on them.
8) Please don’t have multiple LinkedIn profiles and accounts. I know one recruiter I was looking up that had four profiles all under different email addresses. If I have to look *that hard* to find you I’m going to lose interest.
9) Speaking of email : Use *all your email addresses* to accept LI invitations. If you are actively seeking work, put your email address in your *profile* somewhere so that I can contact you easily. Create a job seeking email address if you don’t want to share your contact information with the world. BR />
10) Link to Recruiters. This should be a very basic no-brainer. Even if recruiters are out of work themselves, they still know other recruiters that have job openings.
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11) Be reciprocal. Don’t just ask and ask for people to forward *your* requests. Help others. Pay it forward. This is about building communities and networks.
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12) Check out other people’s profiles in your field. See what they are doing, what their updates are, what sort of articles they are reading. This is a way to learn about your own industry. See what groups they belong to and join them. If they list external blogs, go read it and comment. It helps build your credibility and gives you visibility.
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