Looking for a job? If you work in a professional field, then LinkedIn is a great place to find your next career. It’s the most popular social networking site for professionals with hundreds of millions of users, so with patience and persistence, you can make the necessary connections to open new doors to employment opportunities.
Follow the five tips below to help you find a job using LinkedIn.
1. Make Your Profile Stand Out
When you create your LinkedIn Profile, make sure you include as much information as you can to create the strongest profile possible. Use all of the sections available to you. Most importantly, lead with your strengths. Make sure the information at the top of your profile is most relevant to the type of job you want to get. Use keywords in your title and profile description, so it’s easier for people to find you when they search for users with those skills.
Once you’ve created a comprehensive profile, take some time to search for people you know and make strategic connections. When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, they are considered a First Degree connection, and all of their connections become Second Degree connections for you. It’s these degrees of connections that help you expand your own LinkedIn network and your exposure by introducing you to a larger audience.
Post content, comment on content published by other users, and in time, you’ll build meaningful relationships with other users. You never know what opportunities those relationships might uncover!
2. Get Recommendations
LinkedIn Recommendations are like testimonials of the work you can and have done. They’re a form of social proof that didn’t exist 10 years ago, and you’d be crazy not to use them.
How do you choose new products to buy? Do you ask friends and family for testimonials and referrals? Most people seek out opinions from people they know when they’re making important decisions. This is true for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business purchases. In fact, research has found that 84% of B2B buyers start the purchase process with a referral, and 90% of their purchase decisions are influenced by their peers.
The same holds true for hiring managers. They’re influenced by recommendations, too! With that in mind, reach out to your LinkedIn connections and ask people who you’ve worked with to write a recommendation for you. Be sure to reciprocate and write recommendations for your connections, too! LinkedIn is not a one-way community.
3. Join Groups
Search for groups related to the type of job you want to get and join groups that are active. If a group is very small or no one posts anything to a group, then it’s not worth your time. You can join up to 100 groups with a free LinkedIn account.
Once you join a group, not only can you participate in the conversations, but you can also connect with all of the other members of the group. Suddenly, your LinkedIn network has grown significantly! More connections equate to more opportunities to find a job.
4. Search for Jobs
Did you know that companies post jobs to LinkedIn constantly? You can search through those job postings using a wide variety of search criteria. Just visit the Job Search page by logging into your LinkedIn account and clicking the Jobs link in the top navigation bar shown in the image below.
Enter your search criteria as shown in the image below, and you’ll instantly receive relevant results.
Some job postings allow you to apply for the job without leaving LinkedIn. When you find jobs you’re interested in, apply for them. When you find companies that interest you, be sure to follow their LinkedIn Company Pages so you get on their radar screens and can stay on top of news and updates from those companies.
5. Create Job Alerts
To save time, you can automate your job search using LinkedIn. Simply create email alerts so you automatically receive an email when jobs that you might be interested in are posted to LinkedIn. It only takes a few seconds to create an email alert, and you can create as many as you want.
To create an alert, sign into your LinkedIn account, and conduct a job search as discussed in #4 above using all of the search criteria that you want. In the results screen, you’ll see a Create Search Alert button in the right sidebar (shown below).
Click the button and a new pop-up window opens (shown below).
Select how often you want to receive email alerts from the drop-down menu in the window (you can choose daily or weekly). Next, choose whether you want to receive email alerts by email or mobile and desktop notification (or both), and then, click the Save button. When you receive an email or notification that includes a job that’s right for you, follow the link to get all the details and apply.
The Key Takeaway for Job Seekers
Research shows that 93% of hiring managers use social media sites, including LinkedIn, to find new employees and evaluate them before interviewing and hiring them. Follow the tips above to create a killer Profile that makes you irresistible to recruiters and you’ll be able to find a job using LinkedIn!
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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