Ways to boost your LinkedIn profile to help recruiters find you
With the change in the market I have had a lot of people coming to me for career advice.
I have talked to people looking for a new job, people who want a promotion, and those who want a career change altogether. All of these are possible, and I believe there are specific changes you can make to your LinkedIn profiles to achieve that desired result.
- Get clear with yourself on what you actually want to do next. This is key because everything you do afterwards will be contingent on this decision. No decisions need to be hard and fast, but make one today so that you can start moving forward in that direction for now.
- Your title is key. When recruiters or hiring managers are doing a search in LinkedIn, they almost always will use ‘title’s’ as a search filter. Make sure to have the title of your job under your name on your profile.
- SEO and Key Words are huge with LinkedIn searches. Fill up your profile filled with the key words that the algorithm will pick up and you will land in the appropriate search criteria. For example, if you are an enterprise sales hunter, make sure some of those key words are in your profile. OR if you are wanting to make a career switch, highlight the activities you have done that better represent the new job you want.
- Give more description around jobs you have worked. I always say different titles mean very different things from one company to the next. When I look at profiles that are blank and don’t give much around exactly what they have done in the job, I immediately make assumptions. Give people a clear picture on exactly what it is you do, and examples of how you’ve done it well in short bullet form.
- Update your picture. No one ever wants to do this, because it feels like such a big task, but updating your picture every couple of years is always a good thing.
- Take advantage of your ‘About Me’ section of your profile. This is the perfect place to give all the onlookers a quick brief explanation of what you’ve done in your career, what you are looking to do, and fun facts about yourself. It shouldn’t be too wordy or professional speak, it’s just you casually talking about yourself and why someone should be interested in speaking with you! Not to mention we are upping our SEO search words in this space!
- Use your network. LinkedIn was literally created to network with people, so use it! Reach out to people you know or have worked with before asking for advice, a chat, or an intro. Join groups in your industry or the industry you want to get into, to learn more about the role, what’s happening or up and coming. Surround yourself with all the knowledge and networking capabilities LinkedIn has to offer!
Most of these are really quick changes that you can slowly pick away at one a day or one a week and you will see your LinkedIn transform to the profile that you need it to look like to land that next gig!!!
I hope this helped. 🙂