How to use LinkedIn to find your dream job
The social network for business can be your secret weapon if you know its best practices
So you want a new job? If you’re like more than 450 million others on the planet, you’re going to turn to LinkedIn. More and more businesses are using LinkedIn as their primary or sole job-posting site, so you have to learn how to play the game.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Teddy Burriss, social media strategist and LinkedIn coach and trainer, says the first thing to do is make sure the job you’re seeking is in your wheelhouse, meaning “that it’s highly relevant to who you are and what you do.” If you’re an administrative assistant, it’s foolish to apply for a risk management position.
“You’re just shooting at opportunities,” Burriss says, “wasting a hiring manager’s time and tarnishing your own reputation.”
Your profile must also demonstrate that you are “relevant” to the position — it needs to show the recruiter or hiring manager that you have the requisite skills, talent and experience. That takes us to Burriss’s next recommendation: Your profile must use key words relevant to the position you want. Before you apply, bake those words into your profile.
KEY WORDS
Well, that sounds easy-peasy, right? Not so fast.
“Key words are not common sense,” Burriss says, because hiring managers are often idiosyncratic in the language they use to describe a position. Study each job description and use the words it uses in your profile and résumé.
Trudy Steinfeld, associate vice president and executive director of NYU’s Wasserman Center for Career Development, also stresses using key words because that’s how “applicant tracking systems and LinkedIn work — you have to use those exact same words to beat it.”
Burriss’ third suggestion is perhaps most likely to help you succeed: Even if a position sounds perfect for you, don’t just apply for it. Burriss says you first need to build a relationship with individuals in the companies where you want to work.
GROUPS AND INFLUENCERS
While you are on LinkedIn but before you begin your job search, start a business conversation — not a job conversation — that shows off your smarts. NYU’s Steinfeld recommends joining relevant groups and following people on LinkedIn who are connected to your career interests. This will let you comment on relevant topics in public forums, which might get you the attention from so-called influencers that you’re seeking.
To join a professional group, Burriss told me that a high number of jobs are what he calls “hidden” ones—they’re not publicly posted. If you’ve developed multiple relationships over time with the right people, they will come to you with these job openings. How great — and what a trick — is that!
YOUR PROFILE
Steinfeld has some other tricks up her sleeve. Make sure your profile’s headline “reflects the job you’re seeking, not the job you currently have.” That’s the biggest mistake job applicants make, she says. She also urges applicants to maximize the power of LinkedIn by joining their college page, former employer pages or professional/trade associations.
Keep up with your connections even when not seeking a new position, she urges, which will make it easier to ask for introductions when the time comes. More than anything, Steinfeld stresses the importance of having a connection with someone at the organization where you want to work.
PHOTO, LOCATION, COLLEGE
Matthew Schwab, who blogs about career management, says to make sure you have a great professional profile photo — likely not the same one you use on Facebook. He recommends paying a professional photographer.
If you’re seeking a job in a new geographic area, update your location in your profile before you apply. Otherwise you’re likely to be filtered out “over concern about nonexistent relocation expenses,” he wrote on his blog.
Schwab had one last suggestion to game the system. Because recruiters filter job résumés for prestigious colleges, he recommends taking a professional development class at a top-ranked university and including its name in your profile. Most colleges, even the top-tier ones, offer courses at reasonable prices, some online, and without the usual admissions.
More businesses are using LinkedIn as their primary or sole jobposting site.