According to a recent study on LinkedIn, 70% of the global workforce are passively job seeking, 30% are actively searching, 87% of all candidates or open to new job opportunities, and the #1 reason people change jobs is a new career opportunity. Today we are going to discuss a proven strategy to expedite your job search.
The majority of job seekers look for new jobs through online job boards, social networks, and word of mouth. The very best way to find a new job is through a referral. And 75%+ of people who recently changed jobs used LinkedIn to inform their career decision and expedite the process.
There is your answer, now let’s discuss why LinkedIn is such an important piece of the puzzle.
You are 4x more likely be hired through your network and 3x more likely to get a job when you have connections on LinkedIn. As you are reading this article, there are more than 1.5 MILLION recruiters and HR professionals. Now, let’s get into the details and discuss how you can leverage your LinkedIn profile to expedite your job search.
Optimize you profile to boost your rankings
If you want to increase your chances of being discovered, then you need to write a KEYWORD RICH profile that sells you’re your experience from your heading to your summary, professional experience, and more.
The easiest way to ensure you are including industry specific keywords is adding the maximum 50 skills to the skills section of your profile. You can also work on gathering endorsements to strengthen the impact of these skills and boost your rankings during recruiter searches.
If you are a Software Engineer and you list Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) as a top skill with endorsements, it shows the hiring manager that you are a match for that skill. Start doing a bit of research right now to analyze the top 10 skills for your target positions.
Pro Tip: Make sure to include these skills in your profile. If you don’t have the right skills listed, then it will not be clear to the recruiter that you are a fit for the job. You could also consider using LinkedIn Learning to showcase your expertise for a given skills.
Many recruiters use the LinkedIn Recruiter dashboard to search for candidates using specific skills, keywords, certifications, degrees, and more.
If you are actively searching, I highly recommend using the “Open to finding a new job” feature. When you turn this feature on you can select job title, locations, start date, job types, and more. You can either select the option to allow recruiters only to see you are open to searching or everyone on LinkedIn.
You may also consider taking LinkedIn Premium for a spin because you have access to direct message recruiters, receive more applicant insights, interview preparation, salary insights, LinkedIn Learning, and more.
The Secret Ingredient: Keywords
One of the top ways recruiters search for candidates on LinkedIn is by using keywords. Selecting the correct keywords can make or break your job search because they allow recruiters (and others in your industry) to find you.
Start to do some research right now!! (Or after you read this blog). You should consider selecting keywords that align with the role and industry you are targeting. Analyze several relevant job postings, profiles of those in your industry, and relevant industry-specific articles to gather a list of keywords.
You could consider using LinkedIn’s Resume Builder tool to scan your profile for keywords and get suggestions of keywords that are not in your profile but need to be. You can actually get 15 more keywords by signing up for LinkedIn Premium, which can provide valuable information on identifying optimal keywords.
Now that you have a nice list, sprinkle them into each section of your profile including the headline, about, work experience, and skills.
The Importance of your Professional Experience section
Many job seekers complete the basic information on the Experience section, but they fail to include details and achievements. Consider writing a powerful summary with bulleted highlights of your major achievements to show recruiters, hiring managers, and potential future colleagues your unique value.
You’ve got Skills
There’s not a lot to say here, but to USE THIS SECTION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. This section has a major impact on boosting your search rankings as well as the jobs that LinkedIn recommends to you.
Now that you have a nice long list of keywords based on all of that extensive research (see section above), add those skills to the Skills section on LinkedIn! You can add up to 50 skills and you truly should use all of them.
If you want to take this even further, then step out of your comfort zone and start to ask your connections for endorsements for some of your top skills.
Research, analyze, and interact every single day
If you are job searching, then I highly recommend that you take 30 minutes out of your day to devote to research and interact on LinkedIn. You don’t need to devote hours to doing any one task, so be intentional about how you use your time.
A few ideas:
- Interact with, comment, and/or like relevant industry-specific articles.
- Connect with a new recruiter and interact with their content.
- Identify and connect with one new person.
- Follow a company page and interact with a recent post.
- Message a connection and ask a question.
- Research a target company.
- Write a status update and/or start a conversation.
Stay consistent, forge ahead, keep doing your research, and crush your next job search!
Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or directly through my website www.resumeassassin.com.