LinkedIn has become a disruptive innovation in social media world and for the job market, especially with the advanced people search and other features coming up in the future years. With a lot of recruiters on LinkedIn, it will be easier for job seekers to find a job as long as their profile can be found on LindkedIn. To ensure that recruiters will be able to find you and read your profile, here are the things that you should pay attention and improve.
1. Keywords
In order that your LinkedIn profile can show up in the LinkedIn search, utilization and maximization of LinkedIn SEO will be the key. Make sure your profile include keywords that employers are likely to type in the search box. Find 2 – 3 words that the recruiters might use when they search for candidates in your field. Place those keywords in the profile summary, job titles, job descriptions, skills, and education background or anywhere else that you think will fit.
2. Recommendation
Recommendation and endorsement will increase the attractiveness of your profile. They will boost your profile to appear in the search results. If you have achieved significant outstanding performance in certain projects, validate it by asking recommendations from your related supervisor and peers involved in the projects mentioning that you have expertise in those skills.
3. Connection
The more connections you have, the more likely you will be seen by recruiters since your profile will appear in other people’s profile. Sometimes, recruiters might try to find candidates from their connections’ connections who have similar characteristics and background with their connections. Therefore, find as many connections as possible to increase your visibility in the search results.
4. Photo
Based on a research by TheLadder that tracked the eye movements of recruiters when looking at resumes (online and offline) and LinkedIn profiles, recruiters spent a fifth of their time (19%) on a LinkedIn profile looking at the profile photo. So, make sure your profile photo is professional and up to date.
5. Profile Summary
This might be the part where a lot of job seekers always skip on. Meanwhile, actually this is the part that gives first impression towards recruiters and other viewers of your profile. Your summary gives a brief insight about your professional experience to recruiters. A well-written summary that contains powerful keywords certainly will increase your chance to appear in the search result. Look at the examples from those who have similar position as you and see their content, but don’t plagiarize their summary. You might also need to include your current title, your past title, your current company or your current employers, and in which organization or company you worked in the past.
6. Experiences and Accomplishment
The most important part recruiters see from candidates is of course your working experiences and accomplishment in the previous companies or organizations. Your employment history will tell whether you meet their standards and requirements or not. Make sure you write descriptions about your jobs and experiences, as well as the date you work in those companies or organizations. However, do not just copy and paste your resume. Well-written accomplishments and list of projects that you have done will work effectively in increasing your competitiveness in recruiters’ eyes in LinkedIn. It will be even better if you can quantify (mention in numbers) what you have achieved in your past performance.
7. Skills
Your endorsed skills will also be viewed by employers to measure whether you are qualified to proceed as a new hire. Review your job descriptions and see what kind of skills you have got with all experiences you have.
8. Feed
Your homepage feed shows whether or not you keep updating your LinkedIn. Those who post or like others’ articles or even write and publish their own articles show that they are actively present and keep updating their LinkedIn.
9. LinkedIn Groups
Joining LinkedIn groups that have the same field as you will also increase your visibility since recruiters actively search candidates from groups on LinkedIn. Joining alumni and interest groups can also be done to increase the opportunity of appearing in the search results. Moreover, participating in LinkedIn Groups will show that you are interested and passionate in the field. Involve yourself in the group discussions. Your opinion and answers might increase the chance of catching recruiters’ eyes and intention to contact you.
10. Career Agency
Connect your profile to career agency or job search companies who provide services to your specialty or field. This will make you be able to reach recruiters. If you are opened for opportunities, contact them and give them your contact number, then tell them what your field of interest is and what kind of work you enjoy.
11. Contact
Put your contact detail as complete as possible. You might not want to disclose some information due to privacy issue. Even so, email and contact number will be the most important ones since recruiters will need to be able to reach you through either way when there is a job opportunity. Make sure you put your professional email there, which is easier for recruiters to contact you once they are connected with you.
12. Other sections
The more complete your profile is, the easier it is for recruiters to get to know you. Fill in the other sections in LinkedIn as well, like Certifications, Language, Courses, and Volunteer Activities if any. The more you include anything about yourself, the more you will appear in search results and the wider the opportunities that you will obtain.
Improving your LinkedIn profile will always bring benefits. No one will ever know what kind of opportunities that will come to you.