How to Effectively Use LinkedIn to Find Your Next Job

LinkedIn is a favorite social media network for 87% of recruiters who want to evaluate potential candidates before hiring. By comparison, the next in line are Facebook and Twitter with 43 and 22 percent, respectively. And in this ever more digital world, having a LinkedIn presence when looking to get a job, is no longer a fad but an absolute necessity.

Nevertheless, many job seekers do not take full advantage of what LinkedIn has to offer, even if their profiles are up there for the world to see. Many users look at LinkedIn as a sort of digital resume -which it is to a certain extent - but it can be much more than that. Below is a comprehensive list of the steps to take when starting on your search for a new role:

1. Keep your profile up to date. LinkedIn members with a profile picture (see my latest post on photos) are 14 times more likely to receive page views, while those who post skills are 13 times more likely to have profile views compared to those who don't.

2. Be comprehensive about current skills and objectives. To ensure you’re using LinkedIn to find a job correctly, don't leave anything out about your current skills and objectives.

3. Highlight recent experience.

4. Update your headline. Your headline should stand out and highlight what you do or what type of position you're looking for.

5. Let people know you're available. For example, "Asset manager seeking new challenge ona consultancy basis" might catch a recruiter or hiring manager's attention.

6. Build your network to the 1st degree. Your connections can exponentially increase your exposure and access to other connections. LinkedIn makes it easy to connect with people you know by importing your contact lists from sites such as Gmail.

7. Research the companies you're interested in and follow them.

8. Use the Advanced Search. Use LinkedIn's Advanced Search option and do a search on your most desired companies.

9. Ask for an introduction. Once you're ready to reach out to your chosen company, you can ask your connection(s) to make an introduction to someone they're connected to within the firm.

Now for the techie stuff to supercharge your chances of search success:

Boolean Modifiers

Searching for potential job openings on LinkedIn can quickly turn into an arduous process. With innumerable companies out there, sifting through the many options available before finding the job offering you are looking for, can take a lot of time and energy. Nevertheless, there is a method that can shorten this search time by a significant margin. Known as Boolean Modifiers, or more commonly referred to as Boolean Strings, this is a method that most LinkedIn recruiters use in their day-to-day activities. Operators and their respective properties:

AND - this modifier will only generate results that include all items in your string. For example, programmer AND manager AND ruby will only generate pages that contain all three keywords.

OR - is used as a means of broadening your search results. You can use the OR modifier to include one or more items in a list. For instance, marketing OR advertising OR sales.

NOT - when typing NOT immediately before a keyword, that term will be excluded from all of your search results. If you type sales NOT marketing, for example, you will not get any results that contain the word marketing.

Parentheses ( ) - you can use parentheses to refine your search even further, especially when using different operators at the same time. Just like in maths, a string like accounting AND finance NOT (marketing OR advertising) will only generate results that contain the first two keywords, while excluding the ones in parentheses.

Quotation Marks “ ”-  quotation marks can be used either as stand alone, or in combination with other modifiers. Their purpose is to search for exact phrases such as “product development” or “cross-departmental teams.”

Conclusion

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for managing your professional connection and landing career opportunities. By using these Boolean Modifiers, you significantly increase your chances of finding your dream job in only a fraction of the time. For more information, you can message me here, email me at melanie@trevisansocial.com or schedule a call with me directly by clicking here: https://calendly.com/melaniegoodmantrevisan/call