Leverage LinkedIn
Take advantage of social networks in your professional life and on your job search journey. Networks give you access to information and allow you to share information with others, learn from others and gain new perspectives. They also connect you with people and give you access to opportunities that you might not know about otherwise. LinkedIn is the leading professional social media platform for networking with professionals in your industry.
What are the benefits of LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a networking and job search platform, which recruiters also use to find professionals. Your LinkedIn profile acts as an up-to-date digital CV that gives you more credibility as a professional and makes your skills known to potential employers. Use your profile to advertise your experience, competence and achievements.
Build networks, stay up to date on relevant news and phenomena and showcase your expertise by taking part in conversations. Connect with recruiters and executive search consultants to find out about hidden vacancies.
Spruce up your profile
Here are our top tips for enhancing your LinkedIn profile:
Profile picture and contact information
Add a good-quality profile picture focusing on your face. Fill in the Contact Information section and, if you want, add your contact details at the end of the About section as well.
‘Headline’ summarises your skills and interests
Create a headline that gives a snapshot of who you are professionally and what your aspirations are. If you do not edit this section yourself, LinkedIn will automatically use your latest job title as your headline.
‘About’ describes your competence and goals
Use the About section to give a first impression of yourself, similarly to the introduction at the start of your CV. Describe your most important skills and professional goals. Let your personality shine through.
Keywords help people to find you
Boost your profile with keywords that are typically used in your industry. You can find examples of terminology in job postings and on organisations’ websites.
‘Experience’ showcases your work history
Complement each of your past job titles with keywords that describe different aspects of the role. Give details about your experience and use active verbs: what and how you do things, what you have achieved and who you have worked with.
‘Education’ highlights your qualifications
Instead of just listing your qualifications, degree titles and educational institutions, remember to also say something about your thesis or what your studies entailed. This is especially important if you have only just graduated or do not yet have much work experience.
‘Skills’ communicates your skills and competence
Use the Skills section to give a comprehensive view of your skills. Mention both generic abilities and more detailed, specific competencies. Use terminology typical of your industry and include keywords that recruiters might use to look for professionals like you. Remember to add your language skills to the Language section of your profile.
‘Recommendations’ can be used to include references
Ask your managers, partners, colleagues or customers to write a recommendation and offer to write one for them. Recommendations add value to your profile in a way that is not possible in a CV or a job application.
How to leverage LinkedIn when you are actively looking for a job?
Mention your job search in your profile
Tell your network that you are looking for a job so that your contacts know your situation. You can also make a public post about your job search. Use LinkedIn to find information. Look for vacancies in the Jobs section or set up an alert to stay updated with new job postings.
Enhance your profile with a background image
Add a background image to your profile to achieve a polished visual appearance and give a professional impression.
Be proactive in connecting with new people
Send connection requests, follow up with a message and respond to requests that you receive. Follow organisations that you find interesting and network with the relevant people in those organisations. The number of contacts directly affects your visibility.
Maintain an active presence
Like, share and comment on other people’s posts or publish your own articles if it comes naturally to you. Even if your profile is in English, write your posts and comments in the language that you use to communicate with your professional networks. Being active on LinkedIn makes you better known and improves your chances of being discovered.
Did you know?
In addition to the official Jobs section, you can also find job postings in LinkedIn groups and on other users’ profiles.
Exercise 1: Ask a friend to critique your profile
Objective feedback can give you tips for making your LinkedIn profile appear more professional.
- Select a few of your friends or colleagues to perform a quick ‘mirror test’ on you. Ask them to look at your profile for a few minutes and then answer the following three question:
- How do I come across professionally?
- What are the strengths of my profile?
- What information is unclear or missing?
- Write down the answers and compare them against your own views and objectives. If the message that you want to communicate is not coming across to the reader, you will know what to improve.
Exercise 2: LinkedIn challenge
The LinkedIn algorithm gives preferential treatment to active users. Finding the ways of staying active that feel natural to you can be a process of trial and error but will be well worth it in the end.
- Challenge yourself to be active on LinkedIn for one week.
- Set yourself a goal, such as three comments, two posts of your own and five new contacts in one week. Use the LinkedIn analytics tool to see how your activeness is affecting the number of views on your profile and your visibility otherwise.
- Which change in your behaviour was the most effective? Did any of your comments spark a conversation? Did you notice an increase in the number of times your profile was viewed after a particular post?
- Which behaviour felt the most natural to you: commenting, networking or posting? How do you intend to stay active on LinkedIn after the challenge?
- What do you want to do next? Set yourself a goal for each month (such as one post of your own every week or 20 new contacts per month). Make a note of your goal and track your progress.