EXPAND YOUR CONNECTIONS

According to LinkedIn, a candidate who completes their profile fully is 40X more likely to be found in searches! However, LinkedIn doesn't tell you why a 40x return actually occurs. In fact, most "fully completed" profiles don't get the promised discoverability because they didn't implement all of the 6 points that we are discussing in this GETTING DISCOVERED series. Today, we will chat about the next fundamental step that will allow you to get discovered: expanding your connections. I will also explain why it significantly improves your ability to get found for your next job.

Why Are LinkedIn Connections Important?

Connections drive a lot of added value in the form of new opportunities across learning, sales, networking, and more. However, if you’re in the market for a new role, the most significant value that connections bring to you are in the form of relationships and discoverability, which is your ability to be seen & found by recruiters.

Get In Their Network

Most jobs are filled through networking and relationship building rather than online applications. Hiring teams will ideally search throughout their network first for the ideal candidate before considering a public job board, so expanding your network via connections increases your chances of being successfully found by a hiring team. Candidates with a smaller network are significantly less likely to have new opportunities come to them.?

I tell my clients that the ideal candidate you are trying to hire is not actively looking for new opportunities; you must find them. So, as a candidate, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to discover you.

The Ideal Number?

LinkedIn recommends that you aim for 50 connections at a minimum, but I argue that you should aim to have at least 500, if not more. LinkedIn will display the number of connections on your profile, but they will only show up to the first 500. Achieving this number automatically gives off the perception to a hiring team that you have a high level of engagement, both professionally and on LinkedIn, and that you will more likely respond to a hiring team’s inquiry within 24 hours.

54% of people have less than 500 connections, and only 3% have more than 2,000 connections.

The Impact of Perception

The vast majority of people that I encounter have less than 500 connections, and I can easily place them into one of three buckets.

1. The Builder (400+ Connections) — they are building their network steadily, have detailed profiles, and are taking their professional presence seriously. If a hiring team reaches out to them, there is a high probability that they will respond quickly, e.g., within 72 hours.
2. The Curator (200+ Connections) — They are highly specialized professionals who only connect with other technical people in their community. They are engaged on LinkedIn but only focus on specific topics and are essentially curating their experience, so they only see discussions related to their field. They tend to be the CRèME DE LA CRèME of their respective fields and attract opportunities because the market demand for their expertise is high, e.g., brain surgeons, head of engineering, etc. They are the exception and not the rule, so if you are not in the 1% of highly specialized professionals, you should aim for 500+ connections.
3. The Disengaged (<100 Connections) — They tend to have incomplete profiles and don’t take LinkedIn as seriously as they should. They are essentially invisible to hiring teams because of their limited network, and a recruiter may hesitate to reach out to this type of candidate because they tend not to reply to messages for weeks at a time. In fact, I’ve seen many of them complain online about their job prospects while still not responding to new job opportunities for weeks.

Understanding Degrees

You want to avoid coming across as a disengaged candidate. Disengaged candidates are essentially invisible from hiring teams because of the nature of how ‘Degrees of Connections’ work on LinkedIn. Please see the image below.?

1st Degree — If you are connected directly to me, I become a 1st Degree Connection to you.

2nd Degree — If you are connected to my friend Sarah through me, Sarah becomes your 2nd Degree Connection.

3rd Degree — Now, Sarah’s coworker John becomes your 3rd Degree Connection, and so on.

The Invisible Line

The problem occurs after you reach the invisible line: Everyone after the 3rd degree. Please see the image below. LinkedIn severely restricts access and visibility beyond this point. If a hiring team is searching for a candidate like you, and you are outside their 3rd degree connections, you may not show up at all in their search.

There are two ways that this problem can be fixed:

1. The hiring team pays LinkedIn a considerable amount of money to gain access to all candidates globally, which many companies are not willing to do, OR
2. You prioritize building your network by expanding your connections and reaching the magic number of 500 minimum.

LinkedIn has over 50 million companies on their platform, so make it easy for them to find you by prioritizing your career success and expanding your network.

Recommended Approach

LinkedIn will allow you to send 100 connection requests per week. I don’t advise that you spam the process and get your account penalized, but instead, start by building your network with your friends, colleagues, classmates, etc., and then continue to build from there.?

The Process Works: Don’t Cut Corners

I’ve seen similar posts online discussing LinkedIn connections, and there is always someone who will criticize the post by saying, “I’ve seen people with a ton of connections that get no job opportunities.” My rebuttal is that many people will rarely execute all 6 of the points that we are discussing during this GETTING DISCOVERED series, and those that do, exponentially increase their success rate. To give a recent example, I’ve already received multiple messages from people who follow this newsletter stating how they listened, made changes to their profile, and received inquiries from recruiters. Having 3,000 connections will mean nothing if you try to cut corners by not implementing all the recommendations. They all work together in unison to drive your job search success.

Next week, we are going to discuss Increasing Your Accessibility.