6 Steps to Unlock Your Dream Job on LinkedIn

At any point in time, millions of professionals globally are looking out for their Dream Jobs. This post of mine, will help you leverage your professional network on LinkedIn, to connect with the right opportunities, in line with your career aspirations.

It's a fact that while we might know which companies we might want to work it, it's not easy for us to know or remember our connections at those companies. One thing we all know for sure, is that a referral is considered as one of the best ways to apply for a job, increasing one's chance of getting hired, as companies trust the referrals, in terms of cultural fitment and professional value being brought to the team. Well, LinkedIn has made it easy for professionals to discover their connections (and reach out to them) at their dream companies, increasing their chances of getting hired in their Dream Jobs.

Let me showcase this with an example. Let's assume I am keen to work at Facebook. This is how I would go about finding how good a place it is to work, its culture, people, workplace, relevant career opportunities, and my professional network working there, to understand all of above first hand, before applying (getting referred) for my dream job.

Step 1: Go the Company Page of Facebook on LinkedIn, by searching for Facebook in the search bar (top left corner) and click enter.

Step 2: Once I land on Facebook's Overview Page, I scroll up and down to read the latest updates posted by Facebook. These updates provide me valuable insights about Facebook's products, thought leadership, technology, employees, culture, workplace etc.

Step 3: From the updates on Facebook's overview page, I realize that the kind of work being done there interests me. But that might not necessarily mean, that it's a great place to work. So, I jump to Facebook's Life Page, to explore more about why employees love working at Facebook, and deep dive to understand their culture, workplace and potential colleagues. I get to experience how it is to work at Facebook, with the use of impactful messaging, images and videos, which convince me that this is the place I would love to truly belong.

Step 4: Now that I know that I want to be working at Facebook, let's see if they have any relevant jobs for me to apply for. So, I toggle to Facebook's Jobs Page, which showcases 1333 jobs currently available at Facebook. But then LinkedIn doesn't expect me to go through all the jobs. It showcases the most relevant jobs right on the top. Relevancy is the key, for me to continue being engaged and conclude what I came to the page for (i.e. applying for my Dream Job at Facebook).

Step 5: I click on the job which resonates the maximum with me. It takes me to a page, which showcases the Job Description in detail and how relevant are my skills to the role which interests me. At the same time, by clicking on the Messaging window (on the same page) shows my connections on LinkedIn, who are working at Facebook.

Step 6: Once I am convinced about the company and the role, I drop a quick note (using instant Messaging on LinkedIn) to one of my connections at Facebook, requesting him time to have a chat, to learn first hand his experience of working at Facebook, and the feasibility of him referring my candidature, if our discussion concludes on a positive note.

Hope you found these steps useful. Please do try this approach, with your Dream Job hunt on LinkedIn, and experience success first hand. Wish you all the best!

About the author - Being an ardent advocate of "#SocialMedia being the ultimate competitive advantage in today's world", I coach Thought Leaders, to build Enterprises, which Hire, Market, Sell and Learn with a Social Mindset. I share and publish actively on Social Media, about #EmployerBranding, #EmployeeAdvocacy, #ContentMarketing, #SocialRecruiting, #SocialSelling, and #PersonalBranding; with an intent to positively impact the lives of professionals and students globally. While doing so, I am also contributing to developing the world’s first #EconomicGraph, which is about realizing LinkedIn’s vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. You can follow my thoughts on LinkedIn and Twitter @adileonegi

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