How to Find A Job Using Linkedin

Many of us has seen posts on linkedin asking to like or comment the post to apply for a job, however with my experience I have had very little success in following these posts and I am sure many of you are frustrated when you don't get an answer after commenting and liking all those posts.

I have been using linkedin since 2009 and from the past four years I am leveraging this social media site also to get jobs. Since then I have never updated my naukri/moster/shine profile. I have had more than 15 job offers in the past four years only through linkedin, I don't know if it is a good number but it sufficed my need of options to select form.

Though I still use websites like glassdoor, naukri, shine and linkedin jobs but only to find the job description, I never apply for any job on these portals. I follow a very simple process of contacting the function owner of the JD on linkedin. This makes the process very simple and your profile automatically becomes a priority for the recruiter working on that JD.

Most of the big companies uses a process for hiring called ATS (applicant tracking system). It is the same system used by the candidates when they apply for a job under the career page with the candidate interface. This is not only an automated function to get the best candidate's profile landed on the recruiter's  screen but also a brutal filtering process where the system seeks for specific keywords/strings to qualify a resume/profile for the respective  JD, so if your resume is not talking the ATS language your profile never lands on the recruiters page hence you end up waiting forever or you receive an automated email where the company regret to tell you that you are not fit for the position applied, sadly you cant reply that email either. 

So the best way to avoid filtering your resume from an ATS is to have your profile routed to the recruiter form a different path. Once you get the details of a job opportunity in a company, get in touch with the function owner or the manager working in the same function where the job opening is, there are chances of you contacting the hiring manager directly depending on the company size and structure. Here you just ask the manager/function owner to guide you to apply for this position. She/He might start talking to you directly or will route you to the recruiter working on it, in both ways you will by pass the ATS and would at least get into the interview process.

I have been very optimistic in writing this article however every company's structure, process and ATS are designed as per their business requirement, this is not a guaranteed process but still worth a try.