LinkedIn is the perfect channel for employers and recruiters to find out more about you and get in touch. So if you’re looking for your next role, or if you just want to be contacted when a perfect opportunity comes up, it’s important to optimise your profile.
There are three key stages a recruiter or HR professional takes when visiting your LinkedIn profile:
- Finding you
- Qualifying you
- Researching you
There’s a lot you can do to ease their experience at each of these stages – making it more likely that you’ll get relevant, attractive job descriptions straight to your inmail box.
Finding you
Recruiters and HR professionals often search LinkedIn for potential candidates, and there are several things you can do to appear in the right searches.
- Firstly, make sure that your job descriptions and summary include keywords that you want to be associated with. Pick several that are connected to what you’re good at and what you want to do in your next job.
- Secondly, get connected. You’ll appear higher on employers’ search results if you share connections or groups with them.
- Thirdly, be active. Comment in relevant industry groups, like posts and update your profile regularly. This will help you catch the eye of recruiters and employers.
- Finally, make sure you’re easy to identify. Use your full name as it appears on your CV, and your current job title or a concise summary of what you do as your professional headline (e.g. “Bio-Statistician specialising in Osteoporosis”).
Qualifying you
If you’ve contacted a recruiter or employer about a vacancy, they’ll almost certainly visit your profile. It’s important that job titles, dates and descriptions support what’s on your CV, or you’ll lose their trust. Any gaps in your employment history should be explained, either in your summary or a job description (i.e. “I left this role to travel for six months around Asia”).
Recommendations are great for giving you credibility, and are much more valued and personal than endorsements for skills. You can ask for recommendations from colleagues, managers and clients by going into your settings and clicking ‘Manage Recommendations’ under the Profile tab.
Researching you
You’re not confined to a few pages of A4 on LinkedIn, so it can be a great place to expand on projects and achievements mentioned on your CV.
Give examples of your best work in the projects section, making sure to include a concise description of the context, goals, actions taken and outcome. You can also add team members to demonstrate collaboration. If you have an interesting report or presentation to share, upload and attach this to the relevant position.
The publications section is perfect for listing and linking to articles and papers. However, bear in mind that many people won’t be able to follow links to subscription-only journals.
Finally, all LinkedIn users can now post blogs. If you have the time to write something valuable, this is an ideal place to show off your knowledge and expertise. It will also increase traffic to your profile and improve your visibility on LinkedIn.
Quick tips
- Always use a professional photo
- Don’t treat LinkedIn like Facebook. Keep updates work or industry-related
- Create a personal URL.
- Post relevant news articles to show you take a real interest in your industry
- Never leave your job summary blank. Use it for your 'elevator pitch'.
Want to make the most of your LinkedIn Profile?
We see a lot of CVs and LinkedIn Profiles so we’ve become experts in how to optimise yours to help drive your career in the right direction.
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