Most job seekers on LinkedIn, probably have their favorite tips and tricks that help them land their dream job – whether it be re-entering the workforce, making a career 180 heading into the new year or even if someone has just been laid off and looking for a new position. Here’s a comprehensive list of 10 steps one should take on LinkedIn while job hunting:

1. Begin your hunt early.

Give yourself at least six months before your desired start date. Take time to review your goals and decide on a feasible plan of action. If your new career requires additional education, then begin even earlier.

2. Revamp your professional toolbox.

Take a look at job descriptions you’re interested in and make a checklist of the skills and talents they require. If you have weak spots you may want to consider taking a class at your local community college. If you don’t have time to attend a seminar or class (or if money is an issue) another option is to browse and/or ask questions on LinkedIn Answers so you can get the info you need. Use Advanced Answers Search to find questions associated with specific keywords like, “marketing” or “venture capital.”

3. Be a news hound.

Read trade publications online and review the changes that are occurring in your industry. Staying on top of current trends and newsworthy events can often make or break an interview. Join LinkedIn Groups that are associated with both your old/previous profession as well as the new industry that you’re looking to join. See what news articles people in those groups are reading by clicking on the news tab in the group and submit links to articles that you’ve read to start conversations/network with others in the group.

4. Give your resume and your LinkedIn Profile a face lift.

Make sure that both your resume and profile reflect the changing times. Eliminate any terms that may have become obsolete. Use power keywords, words of action and words that show accomplishment and achievement – as opposed to words that merely describe what your previous role was. Also, if you’re currently unemployed list your current position as “open to opportunities.” Edit your LinkedIn Profile.

5. Update your Status

If you just recently lost your job, make sure you update your status field in your profile so your network know that you’re looking for a job. It’s a quick and easy way to let folks you’re connected to know that you could use their help. David Stevens, one of our users, updated his status upon being laid off. Within seven business days someone in his network knew of an open position, which Dave landed shortly thereafter.

6. Do your homework.

Sign on to LinkedIn and do a search for people that already have your dream job title. What positions did they hold beforehand? How long were they in their previous role? Information like this can be a valuable bargaining chip when it comes time to negotiate your salary. Also do search for your desired employer’s LinkedIn Company Profile. Company Profiles show career paths for people before/after they joined a company, recent promotions/changes, most popular profiles and other stats that will help you understand any potential employer (and its competitors) better.

7. Rekindle relationships/build your network before you need it.

Use LinkedIn to do a search for people that live in your hometown and work in your desired industry. Offer to take them to lunch near their office and learn more about the industry, their position, likes/dislikes and other firms in the area. New acquaintances help you expand your network giving you a broader reach into the job market. Use the networks of your friends and family since they are your best advocates.

8. Confidence counts.

Before your interview, check and see if the person who’s interviewing you is on LinkedIn. If they are, check for common acquaintances. Having a mutual friend or old co-worker is a great icebreaker and an awesome way to get your foot in the door. It’s also worth taking a look at the schools they’ve attended and what cities they’ve lived in since that may be another commonality. And, never underestimate the power that your favorite pair of shoes or a good power suit can wield.

9. Check your surroundings for other resources.

A number of communities offer resources for people returning to the workforce. If you think you may be lacking marketable skills, haven’t been working for five years or more or have never held a paying job, check with your state’s department of labor office. The Internet also offers a plethora of blogs, columns and publications that are geared toward helping you jump start your career so do a search for those as well.

10. Pay it forward – recommend an old friend or a colleague

And, finally, your LinkedIn profile is like a living, breathing resume; so ask friends and old co-workers to leave recommendations for you on your profile. That way potential employers can see them. Make sure that you ask references to comment on specific traits that highlight what a perfect fit you are for your new career and remember to thank them afterward.

If you aren’t looking for a job, but want to help a friend or colleague that lost their job leave a recommendation for them on their LinkedIn Profile. Recommendations spread virally, so if you leave Joe a recommendation on his profile all 65 of his connections will see a network update when they sign in showing that you just recommended his work. Your connections will also receive a network update saying that you just recommended Joe too so it’s a fast and effective way to let both of your networks know that this person is a hard worker and great person to work with.

* Feel free to share your favorite LinkedIn Tip on job hunting in the comments section

A couple of months ago, I blogged about enhancements to LinkedIn’s address book that allow you to add address book information, ranging from phone numbers to private notes. Now you can add, view and edit that information right on your connections’ profiles.

You can find the widget right next to the “How you’re connected to me” module on the right sidebar. The information you’ll find on the profile include primary contact info (email and phone) as well as your private notes, which you can now edit directly on the Profile.

Of course, we also allow you to bring up your full address book  information by clicking “View/Edit Contact Info”.

Stay tuned for more enhancements to your LinkedIn Address Book. Feel free to leave your feedback on this thread.

Since the launch of the Spanish language version of LinkedIn, we’ve had one consistent request from our multilingual users – how can I create a Spanish profile as well?

After all, if you’re a professional in today’s global world, your network may extend well beyond the borders of your home country. And if a Spanish-speaking contact comes to view your profile via the Spanish version of LinkedIn, shouldn’t they be viewing your profile in Spanish as well?

We, of course, thought this was a great idea. So today we’re rolled out the ability to translate your existing LinkedIn profile into any of 41 languages.

Once translated, your original profile remains unchanged, but members that prefer to use or search LinkedIn in a different language will see the translated version instead. So if you create a Spanish profile via the steps below, LinkedIn members using the site in Spanish will see your Spanish profile instead of your English one.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Creating Your LinkedIn Profile in a Different Language

Creating a translated version of your profile in a desired language is easy. Just click on the “Profile” link in the left hand side navigation and go to your “Edit My Profile” page.

On this page, click the “Create your profile in another language” link on the right hand side.

2. Beginning to Translate Your New Profile

After clicking the link above, you’ll be given the chance to kick-start the translation process by choosing the language into which you are translating and proving a translated first name, last name, and professional “headline”. Throughout the translation process we will show the content on your original (or as we call it, primary) profile to guide you in your work (it’s in blue below).

Once you complete the initial translation step above, you will be brought to the “Edit My Profile” page for the language into which you are translating your profile.

This page is just like the normal “Edit My Profile” page but is now editing the translated version of your profile in the language that you’ve chosen. Note that you can always return to this page (or find the “Edit My Profile” page for any language in which you’ve created a profile) by using the drop down in the upper right hand corner of the page.

3. Completing the Translation

You’ll notice that to keep things simple, many of the elements of your profile are shared across all of your profile languages and versions. If you add a position, for example, it will appear on your profile for all languages.

However, from the “Edit My Profile” page for the desired language, you can always click on any of the “Edit” links to adjust how that position, education or other piece of information appears in the language of your choice.

On all such resulting edit pages, we will always show you content from your original/primary profile (in blue) to guide your adjustments & translation. These pages will also show you the full list of languages in which you have profiles (and where similar adjustments may be needed) on the right hand side of the page.

4. How Others Will View Your Profile

As usual, throughout your editing/translating process, you can always review how others will see your profile by clicking on the “View My Profile” tab. We’ve added the profile language drop down to the right hand corner of this page as well, so that you can always review your profile in all the languages into which you’ve translated it.

Starting today, LinkedIn members that use the site in Spanish will typically see the Spanish version of your profile on LinkedIn. And as LinkedIn continues to move into other languages & markets, the correct translation of your profile will be shown to members using or searching the site in those other languages.

LinkedIn’s new Search experience will also allow members to find profiles in a particular language.

5. Now Tell Us What You Think

We’re still very early in adjusting LinkedIn for the needs of our multilingual and multinational professionals. So whether you find this feature useful or not, please let us know by leaving a comment on this post or clicking on the “Help Improve LinkedIn” link at the bottom of any page on the site.

Now, edit your LinkedIn profile in different languages

Getting a stellar new wardrobe can help you land your dream job, win a new client, land that promotion or impress an audience. Having a complete profile on a site like LinkedIn could also earn you a major business deal, help you build your own company or give you the power to network with decision makers in your business world.

Having a new wardrobe and a complete LinkedIn profile? Now that’s one heck of a professional power punch.

25 lucky LinkedIn professionals will each win a $1,000 wardrobe from Banana Republic as a result of a contest called the “Linkedin Profile Makeover” being held by LinkedIn and Banana Republic.

In order to enter the contest, all people have to do is simply make an update to their professional profile on LinkedIn. Even easy edits like adding your current work title, a past job position or your education earn you an entry into the contest. New users that create a profile and make an edit are also eligible to win.

…and just for taking part, everyone that makes an edit to their profile between today, October 29th and Saturday, November 22nd earns a free 25% off coupon that they can use either online or in a Banana Republic store.

If you’d like to learn more about the Banana Republic/LinkedIn contest details go to: makeover.linkedin.com

Now get out there and update your LinkedIn Profile so you can win one of those new wardrobes!

Edit your LinkedIn Profile and Enter the Contest

As many of you know, the Profile page is one of the most important pages on LinkedIn. It is how you present your professional background and identity to other LinkedIn members and it is what you look at first when you consider contacting or connecting with someone on LinkedIn.

Well starting today, the Profile page will have a new look. All the information & tools you’ve come to expect are still there, but the page now has a cleaner look with subtle enhancements.

Here’s what to look for:

1) A new visual presentation

We’ve taken this opportunity to clean up the presentation of the page — grouping related elements and tools, simplifying some editing prompts and tips, and making sure that the most important information stands out from everything else.

The “blue card” you’ll see at the top of every profile page is one way of doing this – serving to highlight and organize the most important profile information.

2) An enhanced Profile Completion meter

The Profile Completion meter is an ever-present indicator of the state of your profile throughout the site. Unfortunately, many of you have complained that it’s hard to know what to do to complete your profile and move that meter toward 100%. Today’s meter does showcase a suggested next step in completing a profile — but the suggested step may not always be an easy one.

The newly improved Profile Completion meter, however,  shows all the steps you can take to further improve the completion of your profile (and how much each step will move the completion meter). Hopefully, the additional options will help everyone on their way to 100% profile completeness.

3) A single location for all profile tools

Each profile you view gives you a set of actions you can take in relation to that profile and the member to whom it belongs. You can contact the LinkedIn member in question via InMails and messages, leave a recommendation for one of your connections, or forward the profile.

But, did you know that you can also print out a profile? Export a profile to a PDF file? Or as a premium account holder, quickly search for background references on any member whose profile you view? Many of you were not aware of these more advanced LinkedIn tools because they were not easy to find on the profile page. Well, once again, we’ve tried to fix all that — with all the available tools now appearing in the upper right hand corner of any profile.

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We hope these changes improve your LinkedIn experience. But as with any significant change, there may be small issues to fix or adjustments that still need to be made.

So, as usual, feel free to leave us any feedback by commenting on this post or clicking the “Help improve LinkedIn” link at the bottom of any LinkedIn page.