The job market is where employers search for employees, and employees search for jobs. For some, the job market is fluid, meaning if you don’t like your current employer (or have been fired) you have the ability to get another job quickly. However, for more, the job market is not fluid. It is difficult to find good jobs, especially since the pandemic.
There are many ways to search and get jobs. LinkedIn is one of the most popular ways to get jobs nowadays. It is quicker and more reliable for employers to post jobs on LinkedIn and once the responses start rolling in, the candidates’ LinkedIn profiles serve as their respective resumes. And that cuts down the time taken to select the right candidates to interview.
On the other hand, employees no longer have to go from website to website searching for jobs and researching about their prospective employers. Everything is there in LinkedIn itself. You can turn on the job search feature on your profile and start looking at the available job postings. If you like something, you can research the position as well as the employer right there in LinkedIn, and if you’re ready, you can apply for the jobs you’re interested in.
No need to Google anything or anyone!
But there is definitely high competition to get jobs via LinkedIn. It’s particularly difficult to get jobs via LinkedIn, if you’re not following any one of the following best practices:
Updated Profile
Keep your LinkedIn profile updated with as much information as possible. Add the most recent work experience. Share the latest news about you and your work. Showcase yourself as an expert in your field.
And don’t forget to use a nice professional-looking picture as the profile picture. You don’t want a casual picture on your LinkedIn profile. You want to convey that you are a reliable professional that can do the work as claimed in your profile.
Focus on your headline
Have you noticed how your profile picture shows up with just a headline (or tagline) when someone is searching for you?
That’s why having a decent profile picture and an impactful headline is so important to make the right first impression on your prospective employer.
This is one of the most overlooked best practices – people simply ignore to fill out the tagline or make it impactful. You want your headline to showcase you as an expert in your field or industry. So think hard and fill it out.
Turn on features
LinkedIn offers you features like “Open to work”, “Open to hiring”, etc. that you can turn on to share with the world that you’re looking for jobs or hiring. If you click on “Open to work”, you can choose to keep this information visible to only recruiters, or make it public.
Get networking
Build your network on LinkedIn by starting out with your friends and family. Use Advanced Search to go beyond this level of connections. You can also ask your existing connections to introduce you to the connections on their network.
So once you find the job you’re really ready for, you can look for the people associated with that company. Then you can find any links to your own network. If there is, then you can ask your connection to introduce you to those people. Or you can try the free trial of LinkedIn Premium to use InMail and send a quick introductory email.
And you’re set!
Now, over to you..
Which of these best practices do you follow on LinkedIn? Is there anything else you want to add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.