We’ve all been between jobs at some point. It’s not a lot of fun. Without getting too depressing, let’s just say that not having a job while still having financial obligations… sucks. This is also why job hunting is so stressful.
That’s where online platforms can really help. LinkedIn, for all its quirks, is actually quite useful when it comes to getting your professional profile ‘out there’, because it is pretty much ‘Facebook for Professionals’. But more importantly, LinkedIn offers the added bonus of giving you access to companies that you might want to work at someday, as well as any open positions they are advertising.
The trick is to get recruiters to notice you, and fortunately, there are things you can do to your LinkedIn profile that can land it in front of the right eyes (in addition to doing things like letting AI help you draft cover letters for job applications).
This article will cover some of those things, with the aim of giving you the tools you need to get noticed and, potentially, a foot in the door at your next gig.
On to the tips!
Use the Jobs tool
When looking for jobs, engaging with any online platforms with sections labelled “Jobs” is wise, and that’s exactly what LinkedIn offers. At the top of your LinkedIn page, you’ll see a briefcase icon called “Jobs”. It’s here that LinkedIn will show you positions that are currently available that more or less match your current profile. You can refine your search using the search box, and you can set up job alerts that will notify you when employment matching your ideal criteria becomes available.
Show that you’re ‘Open to work’
A neat way to tell the LinkedIn world that you’re available to be hired is to set your profile to ‘Open to work’. That way, recruiters and the people in your network can tell just by looking at your profile pic that you’re looking for something new.
To do that, follow these steps:
- Login to LinkedIn
- Click on the ‘Me’ icon at the top of the screen
- Click View Profile
- Where you see ‘Open to’ on that screen, click on it and set it to ‘Finding a new job’.
- Specify when you’re available, the job descriptions you’re interested in, the type of employment you’re looking for, and set the visibility of your quest for a new job.
If you choose to make your job seeking visible to all LinkedIn members (as opposed to recruiters only), your profile picture will have a little green strip on it that says #Opentowork.
If you have a current employer, maybe choose Recruiters only, as that will reduce the chances of your current employer finding out you’re looking around. #justsaying
Join LinkedIn groups specific to the industry you work in
Find and join groups that have anything to do with the industry you work in. Browse those groups regularly, post questions, engage with other members, and make yourself known. Keep an eye out for job openings posted by other group members. This is a virtual way to network yourself, and it could well pay off in the future.
Get endorsed
When others endorse your skills, that reflects well on you and makes you more desirable for recruiters. It’s the difference between you saying “Hey I can do this!” and someone else saying, “This person is really good at doing this!”. The more people that endorse your skills on LinkedIn, the more you appear like an employee a company should want to hire.
To do this, all you need to do is ask people you’ve worked with in the past to endorse you on the platform. Easy!
Add new skills
Companies want to know what you can do for them, so keeping your list of skills updated is incredibly important to any job search on the platform. The magic number of skills you should have on your profile is “more than five”. Recruiters use skills to narrow their search for their ideal candidate, so if your skills match what they’re looking for, you’re golden.
Follow the companies you want to work for
This seems like a no-brainer, but we’ll say it anyway: find companies you think you might like to work for and follow them and their key people on LinkedIn. And do the same you’re doing with the industry groups you’re already following: engage by posting comments on any content they post, and like their news stories. The aim is to make yourself known and possibly have someone from the company click on your profile to learn more about you.
Add a professional photo and a nice background photo to your profile
As with other people-finding platforms (*cough* Tinder *cough*), profiles without a photo of you are about as useful as a government ethics committee. Be sure your profile has a professional headshot or, failing that, a presentable selfie.
A nice touch that could give your profile the edge is an attractive background to go behind your headshot. Find (or create) an attractive image with the magic dimensions of 1584 x 396 pixels, and a magic file size of less than 8MB, and add it to your profile by clicking the Edit button at the top right of your profile page. Here, you can crop the image you’ve chosen so that it fits if you can’t find one with the exact dimensions above.
Keep adding connections
“It’s not who you are, it’s who you know” is right on the money when it comes to finding work. To keep your network full of people who might know of an opportunity, or who know of someone who knows about an opportunity, or know of a person in a company you like who knows people looking for someone like you, you should keep adding connections to your LinkedIn profile. It could be your way of getting a foot in the door somewhere.
The world is your oyster
There are more things you could do, but these pointers alone should be enough to elevate your chances of being noticed.
As lame as LinkedIn can seem sometimes, it’s also pretty useful when it comes to things like finding work and making new business connections. Don’t underestimate the power those connections have to connect you to your next gig, and never discount the chance of the perfect job landing in your lap as a direct result of the work you put into your profile.
And, lastly, don’t give up. Perseverance is the key to any successful job search, and as long as you’re consistently putting in the effort, you’ll find what you’re looking for sooner or later.
We wish you all the best! May your profile polishing bear fruit!