7 Unconventional LinkedIn Hacks to Attract Recruiters and Secure Interviews

I preach the value of LinkedIn for job seekers ALL. THE. TIME. I’m completely convinced that job seekers could use only LinkedIn in their job search and land their next great role –– IF, and only if, they’re leveraging all the tools, features and best practices LinkedIn offers. The problem is that most job seekers aren’t aware of all the different ways they can use LinkedIn to find their next great role. In this article, I share 7 unconventional LinkedIn hacks to attract recruiters and secure interviews.?

Let’s jump in.

Update your LinkedIn headline

Your LinkedIn headline is one of the first things a recruiter reads about you. More than that, though, it’s an important part of search results. When a company uses LinkedIn Recruiter to search for candidates, the information in your profile’s headline weighs heavily in search results. Optimizing your headline is like optimizing your entire profile for better placement results when recruiters run a search.

My favorite formula for a LinkedIn profile headline is:?

TARGET JOB TITLE | 3 HIGH-PRIORITY SKILLS | PERSONAL BRANDING STATEMENT

Let’s break down each one.?

First, you want to use your target job title. If I’m a recruiter running a search on LinkedIn for a client services manager, I’m going to use this position title to pull profiles of candidates who are already in this role or have past experience in this position.?

Second, as a recruiter, I’m going to include certain skills in my search that are critical to success in the role. I might use “customer relations,” “sales,” or “operations.”? This will give me a list of candidates with the relevant experience and skills required for the role.?

Third, the personal branding statement is your chance to convey value to the hiring manager. It’s what gets them to click on your profile and read it, versus another candidate. It’s your unique differentiation factor. On my profile, I use this personal branding statement: I help executives attract better job offers with personal-brand-focused resumes.?

This branding statement communicates who I help (executives), the value I deliver (attract better job offers), and how I do it (with personal-brand-focused resumes). Those three elements combine to create a unique value proposition.?

When creating your personal branding statement, include who you help, how, and to what end.?

I used this headline template to update my husband’s profile last year when he launched his job search. He received a message from a recruiter within 24 hours of his headline update. Melissa, one of my LinkedIn Unlocked course students, saw a 1,277% increase in profile views after updating her headline.?

Check out my LinkedIn Unlocked course for more strategies and hacks for leveraging LinkedIn.

Use the “Build a resume” feature to identify the best skills for your profile.

This is my absolute favorite LinkedIn hack. This is the one that increased my husband’s profile views 8,500% and skyrocketed every LinkedIn Unlocked student’s profile views by at least 1,000%. Needless to say, it’s incredibly potent, and I recommend stopping what you’re doing to go try this — right now.?

Go to your Profile homepage.

Click on the More button.

Select Build a resume.

Click on Build from profile.

Input your Target job title.

LinkedIn will populate your profile in the form of a resume. Our goal isn’t to use our profile as a resume, though. Our goal is for LinkedIn to tell us the most important keywords for that target role.

On the right-hand side, you’ll see green checkmarks for your skills that match the job title you used.

Below that, you’ll see LinkedIn’s recommendations for additional keywords.

These are keywords that LinkedIn has culled from the millions of job openings and profiles of people with the same job title. They deem these the most important.

You should see about 10 keyword recommendations if you have a standard profile.

If you have the Premium version of LinkedIn, you can see 15–25, depending on the role and how many keywords you already have that match the job.

Look through the list; if there are any skills that you possess that aren’t listed on your profile, make sure that you add them immediately. And obviously, don’t add any that you don’t possess.

?When it comes to skills, you want to ensure that these hard skills are in your headline, summary, position description, and skills section on your profile. If you place them in these areas, your profile will be optimized for recruiter searches, and your views will increase. You’ll start having more people reach out to you about openings.

Share resume data with all recruiters

This is a new feature to hit LinkedIn this year. By turning on this feature, recruiters can view skills and experiences from your saved resumes within the past two years when they search and view profiles. It’s another important way to optimize your profile for recruiter searches. Here are the instructions from LinkedIn on accessing this feature:

After applying for a job on LinkedIn, you’ll be presented with a prompt to share your resume data with all recruiters, and the Share resume data with recruiters toggle will be turned on. You can either turn it off from the prompt or the Job Application Settings page.?

To opt in/out of resume sharing from your Job Application Settings, take the following steps:?

- Navigate to the Jobs tab.

- Click on Application settings.

- Toggle on Share your resume data with recruiters to access the resume sharing feature.

- Toggle off Share your resume data with recruiters to stop sharing.

To manage your resumes through your Job Application Settings:?

- Navigate to the Jobs tab.

- Click on Application settings.

- Upload a new resume by clicking Upload resume.

- Delete a resume by clicking on the icon and clicking Delete.

Signal interest to recruiters

LinkedIn’s Job Alerts have been around for years, but the ability to turn on and off signaling interest to recruiters is brand new (as of August 2023). This feature notifies recruiters when you’ve set up a job alert for their company.?

Let’s say that you apply for a job with CVS Pharmacy. When the recruiter views your application and profile in their dashboard, it spotlights your profile as someone who is interested in opportunities with the company.? This is another way you can stand out and attract interest from recruiters. You can turn the feature off and on to reset the signal every few weeks.?

Share profile with job poster

This feature is also in your settings and privacy tab. Go to Settings & privacy > Data privacy > Job seeking preferences. There, you can turn on the feature to share your profile when you apply for a job posting. The benefit to turning on this feature is that whenever you apply for a job on LinkedIn, the recruiter can view your whole profile.?

You want the hiring manager to have access to more information about you than what is included in your resume. With skills, endorsements, and recommendations all being a part of your profile, this is the exact information you want in their hands to support your personal brand and positioning as the ideal candidate.?

Engage with Company posts

When you engage with LinkedIn Company posts, it spotlights your profile to recruiters with an “Engaged with brand” badge. This is another indicator to recruiters that you’re more likely to respond if they reach out to you about an opening.?

Recruiters are keen to save their InMail message credits for candidates that will respond to them. This is where the Engaged with brand spotlight comes in. It’s another way to stand out and signal to recruiters that you’re interested in their company. This works for Company posts and ads that they post to LinkedIn. Any time you like, share, and comment on a post or ad, it will signal your interest to recruiters.?

The “I’m interested” feature

Companies can turn this feature on for their Company pages. You will find it in the About section of their LinkedIn Company page. Not every company will have this feature turned on. It’s relatively new and not every page has access yet while it rolls out. Also, not all companies know about it. From what I’ve seen, though, most large companies — think Fortune 500s — have this feature turned on.?

To know what you’re looking for, head over to LinkedIn’s Company page and click on the About tab. Scroll down, and you’ll see a small section with the subtitle I’m Interested. Click on it, and it will signal interest to the recruiter to let them know you’re a candidate interested in roles with their company.??

The point of each of these features is to get the attention of recruiters. While one feature alone can increase your visibility to recruiters, combining them gives you an excellent competitive edge over other candidates.?

Imagine optimizing your profile so that when a recruiter searches for your job title and related skills, your profile pops up on the first page of search results. Then, picture how your profile will stand out when the recruiter sees that you have an alert set up for their company specifically, you’ve alerted them you’re interested in jobs at their company, AND you’re actively engaging with the company’s content on LinkedIn. You’ve effectively communicated to them that you not only possess the skills for the job but that you’re excited about the company and the role. This is one of the BEST ways you can stand out on LinkedIn.

Now that you know how to get attention from recruiters, what about converting that attention into interviews? What do you say? How do you respond? What are the next best steps to take to get more job interviews and offers from your efforts on LinkedIn? I’ve got my LinkedIn Unlocked course for that . A 3x sell-out, award-winning course, it’s open now for a limited time. Enroll now — before it sells out for the fall session!

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