3 Fantastic Free Tools for Job Seekers (Ad)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated (at no additional cost to you) if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. We only ever endorse products that we personally believe in and have verified.

The job market is competitive and it's getting tougher by the minute as more great candidates enter the fray.

Job postings receive an average of 250 applications. Not all candidates will be qualified for the role, however, many will be, and a majority of companies only interview between four and six individuals.

What does this mean? It means that it’s simply not enough to upload your CV, update your LinkedIn profile and hope for the best. In today's job market, the successful candidates will be those who work to maximise their chances at every single point of the process. A lot of tiny improvements can add up to a big result.

When working alongside clients, we look to help them improve and maximise each and every step of their job search strategy and there are three tools that we consistently recommend. The great news is; these tools are either free to use or have a free trial period, and if used well, they can offer a big boost to your job search.

Below, we have provided a brief overview of all three, tips on how to use them well, plus the links you need to access them.

?Number One: LinkedIn Learning and LinkedIn Premium

In many regions, LinkedIn offers a one-month free trial of their learning and premium benefits - an offer that all job seekers should seriously consider making the most of.

You may ask “is one month really worth it?”

A lot can be achieved in one month and this free trial gives you access to features that can really help propel your job search in the right direction. So, yes, if you make the most of it, this one-month trial can be really beneficial!

Here are six LinkedIn features that can help you fast-track your job search.

Five Free Inmails:

Used wisely, Inmails can give your job search a great boost! We see so many people sending out poorly written Inmails, some that simply say 'hi'. This is a waste of a great resource.

When using Inmails, we recommend you target companies that you want to work for and prioritise the top five on your list. Now, use LinkedIn’s excellent search feature to find the person in charge of recruitment or a line manager. If you are able to connect with them, do so and send them a well-crafted introduction message. If you are not able to connect with them, use one of your five free Inmail messages to reach out.

A well-crafted introduction message will be personal, focused on what you can offer them – not what you want, and will include a call to action, e.g. can we arrange a time to speak?

Profile Views Tracking:

LinkedIn Premium tells you who has been looking at your profile!

So what? Well, in the same that you will have been looking at profiles which you are interested to connect with, if someone is looking at your profile, it means they are interested in you.

These are the people you need to be connecting with. Again, if you are able to send a connection request, do so with a well-crafted, personal message. Alternatively, if you feel this person can help you with your job search, use one of your InMails to reach out.

Another great little benefit of this feature is that it allows you to understand if your profile is attracting the right people; people in your industry, recruiters who recruit within your industry, and hiring managers from the companies you want to work for.

If you are not getting the right kind of interest on your profile you may need to to make some changes. Small adjustments to your keywords can make a big difference. Focus particularly on your headline and about section and ask “what terms would people need to input into LinkedIn's search feature in order to find people like me?”

If the profile views reveal to you that the right people are looking at your profile, but they are not connecting or reaching out, then this can also be a signal that you need to take action. You may have the right keywords so that you are getting found, but something in your profile may be putting them off.

Open Profile:

The open profile feature on LinkedIn Premium allows anyone to reach out and contact you directly, even if they are not connected with you. This is exactly what you want as a job seeker! Set your profile to open so that recruiters, hiring managers and HR professionals can message you without any delay.

We always remind people that recruitment moves quickly so removing any barriers to delay is a marginal gain well worth investing in.

Premium Badge:

You have the option to let LinkedIn apply the premium badge to your profile. This may seem like a small insignificant thing, and in some ways, it is, however, the premium badge sends the message that you are taking your online job search seriously and gives recruiters and hiring managers confidence that they can contact you even if you are not yet connected.

It’s also much more professional, in our opinion than the ‘open to work’ badge that LinkedIn offers to non-premium members and again is another little tweak that when added to all the others can add up to a big overall improvement.

Keyword Insights:

LinkedIn Premium will help you build a resume on LinkedIn, but better than that, it gives insight into the keywords you need to be using to ensure that your resume is optimised for your ideal roles.

By clicking on the ‘Build a resume’ option, you can input your desired job title and it will suggest which keywords are important to include. With LinkedIn Premium, you will get much greater insight than without it. Even if you don’t use the LinkedIn-generated resume (which we advise you don’t), you can incorporate these keywords into your LinkedIn profile and your CV/resume.

LinkedIn premium will also give you further insight on keywords and how your profile ranks against other applicants when you apply to roles on the platform. Again, this is information that you should gather and use to create a profile which is a perfect match to your target role. The more information you have, the better placed you are to tailor your profile and target your dream job.

Keyword optimisation is essential to get found on LinkedIn. We advise everyone, even non-job seekers, to spend time working on this area. The whole point of your profile is to communicate to the right people what you do and how you can benefit their organisation.

Recommended Jobs:

LinkedIn Premium users benefit from LinkedIn's recommended role. Roles that it matches to you based on your profile. If you have done a great job of optimising your profile, this is a great way of keeping up to date with available and newly posted roles.

One great thing about this feature is that it often allows you to view the profile of the person who has posted the role. This enables you to either connect with them or send them an InMail to draw attention to your application and to briefly tell them how you can make a positive impact on their business. A well-written personal introduction can be very powerful!

Plus...LinkedIn Learning:

Besides LinkedIn's Premium features, a free trial also gives you access to over 16,000 online courses. These courses are a fantastic resource for keeping your skills up to date and many are even designed to help you land a new role.

Our recommendations for job-seekers right now:

• Learning Personal Branding – Articulating your personal brand on platforms such as LinkedIn is essential for today’s career professional. As mentioned above, it’s not always enough to be qualified for a role, you also need to be able to articulate what makes you different and the difference that you can make. This course will help you to define your brand and get it out there.

Click here to view the course (Affiliate Ad)

• Expert Tips for Answering Common Interview Questions – This course is a must for job seekers and anyone expecting to be called for an interview. Short and easy to digest videos cover everything from salary negotiation to handling difficult questions such as ‘what is your greatest strength?’ and ‘why should we hire you?’ If you are expecting to interview for roles, why not spend a month brushing up on your interviewing skills?

Click here to view the course (Affiliate Ad)

• If you have time for a third – We would recommend doing something within your field of expertise or within the field that you are looking to move into. LinkedIn Learning adds a certificate of achievement to your profile once you have completed a course and this is another great way of optimising your profile by demonstrating your commitment to continuous learning.

Click here to find out more about a free trial (Affiliate Ad)

Number Two: Grammarly

Grammarly is a powerful spelling and grammar checker that, quite frankly, every job seeker should consider using on their computer.

Grammarly is totally free to download and offers a more superior and accurate spelling and grammar check for all your writing.

Why do you need another spell checker? Grammarly is a lot smarter than most in-built spellcheckers, it spots mistakes which would normally slip through the net, and because it integrates with your web browser, it means that you can check your spelling everywhere you write.

As a job seeker, you will know that first impressions really do count. If you are sending out InMails, Emails and CVs with spelling and grammar mistakes, you are simply sending the wrong impression.

Grammarly will not only pick up on spelling mistakes but also highlights incorrect word usage and poor grammar and will then suggest alternatives. Grammarly can vastly improve sentence structure and the overall tone of your writing.

In our opinion, it is a must-have for anyone who is thinking of applying for jobs and contacting companies online.

We're big fans, did we also mention that it’s free of charge?!

Click here to install Grammarly for free (Affiliate Ad)

Number Three: Canva

Canva is a brilliant tool for anyone who needs to do a little graphic design work but doesn't know how!

Why would a job seeker need to do some graphic design? The number one reason is to make the most of that premium real estate at the top of your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn profiles that have an attractive, well-designed banner image are much more likely to catch the eye of a recruiter, trust us, we spent hours looking through search results!

The great thing about Canva is that it's full of templates that make life so much easier, simply select or search ‘LinkedIn Banner’ and Canva will provide you with a template that's perfectly sized for LinkedIn. You can use one of their pre-set templates, adjust it to your taste or design a brand new one from scratch.

Canva is really very intuitive so finding your way around takes very little time. Spending an hour designing something for your profile is another way of enhancing your chances of being selected from a long list of search results.

Making your profile visually appealing in this way not only helps you to stand out, it can also quickly and powerfully communicate some key information such as your area of expertise, key industry or what makes you different.

We created our LinkedIn banners using Canva.

Bonus tip, keep the bottom left-hand side clear of text as this is where your profile picture will sit.

Click here for Canva (Affiliate Ad)

So there you have it:

Three free tools that can help you make many small adjustments that could add up to a very big improvement in your job search.

For more content like this visit www.TheEnglishMeetingRoom.com or follow Hannah Mason here.