Listening to Recruiters—Your LinkedIn Profile Is Important

After hearing a recruiter give advice in a recent job hunter’s support session, I realized that the LinkedIn profile I had thought was so great could really use some revision if recruiters were going to find me. So, I have made a few already.

 

She had some other helpful insights as well. For instance, she told the group that recruiters at her firm, which specializes in filling creative, marketing and web-based positions, check LinkedIn more often than massive job boards such as Monster or CareerBuilder to identify and screen candidates. LinkedIn members, she noted, represent an overall higher caliber of professionals.

Here are some of her other tips for jobseekers who want to be noticed:

• Add language to your title that tells people you are available, such as “Open to New Opportunities.”
• Add your email address to your title or name, if you want people to contact you directly. This also implies you are an open networker, which you may or may not choose to be. If you do, it will lead to a larger network.
• Make sure your profile summary tells visitors:
• Who you are
• What you do
• Why you are on LinkedIn
• How to contact you
• Under Specialties, list as many key words as space allows so you will come up in more searches.
• For descriptions in the Experience section, cut and paste from your resume, so they match. If you later change your resume, also change your LI profile.
• In your Contact settings, include an email address, but make it a professional address via a current email provider, such as Gmail or Yahoo, rather than AOL or Earthlink. Because these latter providers are not mainstream anymore, they imply you are out of tune with today’s wired world.

If you are not on LinkedIn or have done little with your profile, check the LinkedIn Learning Center to discover the basics to making it a proactive tool in your career, whether you are a jobseeker or currently employed.