What recruiters look for in a LinkedIn profile: 8 tips
[Editor’s Note: This post is a part of a series on LinkedIn users sharing tips, tricks, and tweaks on getting the most from your LinkedIn usage. Today’s guest blogger, Matt Schwartz, President of MJS Executive Search, describes ways to stand out in a crowd when recruiters look for candidates to fill a job opening.]Do not fret. There is good news out there. Contrary to public sentiment, companies are hiring. One of our largest clients is a global Fortune 100 company that laid off 3,300 people in the fall of 2008. This was a very scary development; not only to those who lost their jobs, but also for our firm. Fortunately for us this company is reinvesting more than $1 billion into their business, and along with that will surely come added hires.
This just goes to show that recruiters like us do have jobs to fill even in turbulent economic times. Social media tools such as LinkedIn make our businesses more efficient and often allow us to find job seekers more efficiently, a topic of a recent post by Boris Epstein on Mashable.
If you are an active or passive job seeker, there is no better way to cut through the clutter and get yourself noticed than LinkedIn. Nowadays, most recruiters and companies are increasingly using sites like LinkedIn to identify talent. Given my experience looking for candidates, here are some key characteristics of a LinkedIn user that grab my attention when I make my daily picks:
1. Make your LinkedIn profile 100% complete
• Include all companies, education, and awards. These are the key items on which we recruiters search.
• References are very important. The more we know about you the better.
• The more robust your profile, the higher you will be in the Google search rankings.
• The more information a recruiter has upfront, the more efficient the search process.
• Update your LinkedIn profile here
2. Use a profile picture that you use on multiple sites
• A picture helps to create and reinforce your online brand
• It will help a recruiter identify you on the interview day at “Starbucks”
• Add a profile picture here
3. Use the “Specialties” box to fill in keywords
• List as many keywords as possible that are relevant to your roles, capabilities, and interests that will help you turn up on LinkedIn Search
• Update your profile summary and specialties here
4. Update your LinkedIn “Status” regularly
• Link to articles you have written or in which you are quoted
• Update status with your latest blog posts
• Discuss business accomplishments
• If you are actively looking for a job, tell people what you are looking for!
• Update your status on other social networking sites such as Twitter. Try services like ping.fm that allow you to update your status across multiple sites.
5. Make changes to your profile after every job change or promotion
• The recruiters you are linked to will notice these changes
• It is harder to be found if people don’t know where you are
• Update your LinkedIn profile as you would your change-of-address at the post office
6. Include your web site and blog links
• Add suitable weblinks to the “Websites” section on your LinkedIn profile
• This could range from your career blog to your Twitter profile. Alternatively, you can also link to a guest blog post you wrote recently.
• Update your “Websites” section here
7. Do not block incoming emails
• No matter how popular you think you are, you will not be overwhelmed. I promise!
• The LinkedIn community is all about participation so feel free to accept incoming communication from fellow LinkedIn users. Update your contact settings here.
• If a recruiter reaches out to you and you are not interested, let him or her know or better yet refer a friend
• LinkedIn actually allows you to control how you receive emails and notifications. Update your settings here.
8. Increase your number of trusted connections!
• Use webmail importer to bring your real world professional relationships online and to find your contacts who are already on LinkedIn.
• Depending on whether you’re a browser person or an Outlook person, check out the respective toolbars that will help organize your professional relationship either while you browse or check out your Inbox.
These are just a few tips that I’ve gleaned from my LinkedIn usage over the past year. If you’ve other tips that have helped you as a job seeker reach out to appropriate hiring managers or recruiters, feel free to leave a comment. Hope this helps.
Tags: corporaterecruiters, executiverecruiters, matthewschwartz, mattschwartz, recruiters, recruiterslinkedin
trackback
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Eric Matas April 9th, 2009
Good tips. Perfect for a friend who was just laid off. But also good for anyone in the career game.
I’ll spead the news of this blog.
How to Use AGBU’s LinkedIn Group « AGBU Blog April 9th, 2009
[...] to help you explain the ways to use LinkedIn, here is a great new blog post via the LinkedIn Blog suggesting some tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn experience and get the most out of the AGBU [...]
marosta April 9th, 2009
Great article, was looking for an application like Ping. Thanks a million!
Keith April 9th, 2009
Excellent article, excellent tips. Excellent thanks.
Oliver Gassner April 10th, 2009
links for 2009-04-10…
What recruiters look for in a LinkedIn profile: 8 tips
(tags: hr recruiting 2.0 web tipps **** linkedin networking business)
…
Tim Zuckert April 10th, 2009
Great information. I found this article really helpful, and have passed it on to a lot of people I know who only passively use LinkedIn.
Fred Held April 10th, 2009
Excellent tips on how to use LI for job searching. I will change my profile accordingly.
Is there any hope for a 71 year old up to date and with it executive with an excellent track record?
Jeff Nergman April 10th, 2009
Thanks Matt,
It helps to have a better understanding of how to use LinkedIn.
Kevin B. O'Reilly April 10th, 2009
I disagree that you should necessarily update your status frequently via LinkedIn. If you’ve already got a Twitter account, why inundate your followers/connections with redundant updates? Part of appropriately utilizing social media is to avoid abusing people’s time and attention. If someone is interested in status updates from you, s/he will follow you on Twitter rather than rely on LinkedIn’s far inferior status-update service. And if s/he is not interested, then why pester them with updates?
The Closer April 10th, 2009
Great article. Linkedin is especially common with the sales folks for finding prospects and their next employer:
http://iloveclosing.com/2009/03/17/ahhh-surviving-your-sales-midlife-crisis/
It’s great to see some actionable recommendations from this list.
Happy Hunting
The Closer
Andy Pollack April 10th, 2009
Great tips! Seems like they work for being found for getting business as well.
Robert zum Tobel April 10th, 2009
Excellent. I will review my current profile and double check. Some of the hints I already followed but you never stop learning.
Looking forward to read more.
Cheers Robert
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Darton Group April 11th, 2009
This is a great post with tips that are “spot on”. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Sean Rehder April 12th, 2009
Nothing on recommendations? To me that’s extremely important.
I would tell every job seeker to get in the habit of sending out requests for recommendations from not only their workforce peers, but their management also. The more directly related to one’s performance the better.
And be ready to follow up on your requests. Speaking of which, I know what I need to do this week.
Torben Rick April 12th, 2009
Thanks for some good tips.
It is also important to get as many recommendations as possible – it makes your profile trustworthy.
Best regards
Torben Rick
http://www.torbenrick.eu
Dirk Frey April 14th, 2009
If you are having problems receiving a Customer Service response to your submitted ticket you may check for one of the following: 1) Security settings have recently been released in browsers that may require you to identify LinkedIn as a safe site. Consult your browser settings. 2) You may have received a response but your email application has placed it into your junk mail folder 3) Speak with your IT group to see if our responses are being allowed to cross through your firewall.
Syed A Arifuddin April 14th, 2009
Thank you for some good suggestions.
Elyse Williamson April 15th, 2009
Great post, Matt.
An additional tip I’d add: be sure to customize your Headline. This appears just below your name on your public profile. Use strong descriptive phrases.
Headlines are visible in search results for recruiters and HR professionals, before we’ve even connected to your public profile. Take advantage of that!
Tom Racculia April 15th, 2009
Great tips – I tweeted your link a few days ago!
Tom
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomracculia
Jeff Goldman April 15th, 2009
I would also join and participate in groups that focus on your particular expertise or industry. This will help you connect with others who may have opportunities and recruiters who are looking for people in that particular field or with your expertise.
Also, when dealing with recruiters and connections you can use LinkedIn as a CRM, customer relationship management, tool to stay organized. Here is access to a simulation on how to do this – http://www.minutebio.com/LI/PowerTips.htm
Gunnar Krogh-Tonning April 16th, 2009
Dear Matt,
Great article! Of cource, absolutely! :)
Good luck all LI-users!
All the best, Gunnar (headhunter for 24 years, national and global.)
Cincy Recruiter's World April 17th, 2009
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Zina Rambo April 17th, 2009
Great article. This tips were right on target.
Pam April 19th, 2009
Matt,
Thank you for the great tips. I will use them to help in my job search.
Pam
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Bear April 24th, 2009
If your LinkedIn profile shows a Facebook or Twitter link, be sure to clean them up so that no unprofessional comments appear (or remove the links).
Also see http://plasticskyscraper.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/top-social-media-sites-for-job-searching/
for more social networking sites
Dave Kerpen May 7th, 2009
Terrific points, Matt. Only thing I would add is answer questions in groups that showcase your expertise :)
Shah May 9th, 2009
Superb.Really appreciated the guidance “how to tool …. for linkedin.com”. Thanks Matt.
Rick Caminiti dotCOM » Post Topic » What recruiters look for in a LinkedIn profile: 8 tips May 11th, 2009
[...] was a great article on LinkedIn that I thought I would share. I’ve done most of this and I’m ALWAYS getting LinkedIn [...]
LinkedIn SuperGuide -Tutorials, Tips and Tools May 12th, 2009
[...] What recruiters look for in a LinkedIn profile: 8 tips From the Official LinkedIn Blog: Advice from Executive recruiter Matt Schwartz on some key characteristics of a LinkedIn user that grab his attention. [...]
Jim July 1st, 2009
Matt,
Thanks for some great tips. I need to get myself to the 100% profile completeness. Your advice is very helpful for a jobseeker such as myself.
Regards,
Jim
Lori Lozen July 6th, 2009
This is very helpful information in understanding how Linked In is utilized and viewed. Thank you for taking the time to offer up this data for new users.
Best Regards,
Lori
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