How to increase your chances to get hired via LinkedIn?

I often see ranting posts on LinkedIn from candidates who are utterly disillusioned by the platform and question if anyone has ever got any job offer via LinkedIn. Very often, I too speak with many of my TA colleagues who question if LinkedIn is effective at all for hiring.

I beg to differ on both of these aspects…both from the candidates as well as from the recruiters points of view. It’s like, say, I own a very high-end smart phone and had paid an obscene amount of money for the same but I haven’t spent enough time understanding the features of the phone. So for me this phone is as good as my humble handheld that I owned previously at ?th the price because both of them serve my basic and primary purposes. So it will only be fair that I won’t appreciate the features of the new one as I don’t know what it is capable of delivering. Hence, the actual value of a product is very people dependent...the same product can give different value to users based on how the user uses the product.

In my previous roles as well as the current one, maximum number of hiring that I have done (right from an intern to a Sr. Director/VP level has been via LinkedIn) and I am in love with this platform. While we pay through our noses for this product :-), to me, it does add a lot of value. However, to derive this value, we tend to do things a bit differently and am assuming those steps have worked for us. I have hired both active and passive candidates for my organization via LinkedIn and hence I have managed to picks up some tricks in the process.

Also when I view profiles for potential fitment to a role, some profiles do stand out amongst the others because they have certain characteristics that make them more desirable for a particular role.

In this article, I have tried listing some basic activities that can make your profile stand out in the crowd of underrated or mostly overrated profiles. In the next one, I will try to list some of the action steps that has helped us as Recruiters to get the best talent via this platform.

So what can you easily do to make your profile unique?

1)   Keep your profile updated and real: The first and foremost, keep your profile updated and be honest about your skills and achievements. I see many fancy introductions which sound good at the first glance but doesn’t help us as recruiters to understand your profile. You may be a Project Ninja or a Tech Ninja but how do I know what you do? Also keep your profile picture professional. It is indeed safe to say that selfies are a huge let down. Stay active and relevant throughout, even when you are not hunting for a job. Read news feed, share content, comment—it shows a level of professional engagement.

2)  Apply for only relevant roles: On any given day, when I look through the applications, almost 60-70% are irrelevant. They have no relevance with the job posted. Many of you may say that there is nothing wrong in being aspirational and applying to a job that we are not qualified for as yet. Yes! there is nothing wrong in that. But there has to be some common base between your skills and the role that you are applying for. While some may think, it’s just a one click apply....so there is no harm. However, let me tell you what happens after you apply. Once a recruiter logs in and evaluates the applications, he/she starts tagging or labelling all irrelevant profiles as not suitable for that particular role. As a recruiter, I can very clearly see how many times you have applied to roles in my company, and what are the reasons the profile has been tagged non relevant in the past. A repetitive history of applications to non-relevant roles to me comes across as a very unprofessional behaviour. Remember that this is not only a matter of applying to a job and trying your luck, it is also about investing on a planning process on how your career will shape up. It is all about investing time and effort to find that right career for yourself that you are passionate about, where you will excel, and this, my friend, cannot be a casual task. So do take this very seriously.

3)   Help Recruiters to help you: Most of the time I get direct messages from candidates with statements like “Do you have any job opening for me?”. Well one might say, its pretty okay, it is a simple question. However, such statements lower your chances of getting on top of the crowd. The reason being, every time we post a job, we get on an average 200-300 applications in 2 to 3 days' time or even more and then there are Employee referrals and profiles via direct messages and also from consultants . As a recruiter using the LinkedIn platform, I am not obliged to respond back to each message (while doing so helps and I will write more on this in the next article for recruiters). So such an open ended question to me means I need to do the following. From my inbox (where am reading your message asking if there is any suitable role for you), I need to open your profile and then I also need to know the details of the JDs of all the open roles in my org and then if I see a fitment, get back to you! With 300 odd applications at any given point in time and with a natural tendency to save time and effort, I will tend to look at only those profiles which are complete and which I can evaluate faster. So instead of asking if there is any open position, look at suitable roles yourself. And if you see a fitment, reach out to the given connections stating that you would fit in and ask to be evaluated for that profile. Also don’t forget to attach your updated resume. The moment you do, you are saving a recruiter quite a bit of time. He/she can be reading your message, looking at your resume and evaluating the profile at the same time. Remember the objective is to ensure your profile doesn’t fall in the gap.

4)   Leave professional and positive footprints on the platform: Many of us at times forget that there is a difference between LinkedIn and other social platforms. We also forget that everything that we do and say or write can be tracked. We see some posts on our feed and can’t resist sending that “nasty comment” just because trolling is so much fun. Anyways who's tracking it? Surprise! One can check all the activities of the candidates. The kinds of stuff you shared, comments that you made, posts that you liked and roles that you applied for in a particular company can all be tracked. While a recruiter may not do this type of sleuthing for all levels of hiring, but for mid and senior level hiring a lot of checks are being done these days. Avoid that instant urge to put a nasty comment on a post on your feed only because you didn’t have anything more pressing to do at that point in time. Also just be nice; positivity goes a long way, any day. If you have nothing good to contribute on a post, scroll to the next update on your feed. Call me myopic, but I will think twice before hiring someone to lead a huge team if I see him or her making a nasty comment on any or every kind of posts.

5)   Make your profile interesting: Get recommendations from stakeholders whose own profiles have significant value. Recommendations do work. Recommendations should not be about how great a friend or colleague you are or have been but those which show how good your work is or has been. Try getting recommendations from people who matter in the industry, not your friend whom you had given a glowing recommendation some time back and you know for sure he or she is obliged to give one in return.

6)   Build your network: Can’t stress more on this! Build your network and build a relevant one with people who matter in your area of expertise and career.

7)   Share your expertise and experience: Any knowledge kept to oneself is a secret. Share relevant content that would help others. However, ensure that you are not giving out your business trade secrets in your excitement of sharing relevant information for the world to know. Had that been the case, we would have all known the secret recipe of KFC by now :-)

8)   Make the right first impression while reaching out: Reach out directly to the people who are hiring and do spend a few more moment on the email that you are shooting out to them. Copy paste is also an art when gone wrong can leave a very bad first impression. It is a real let down when I get messages which is addressed to someone else and job application is for some other company/role. Many applicants miss changing the names of the connections in their messages. Many times they miss updating the name of the company.

9) Justify your profile: A fancy profile might land you a call with the recruiter /Hiring manager but if there is no relevance in what you have learnt or skills that you possess, the ball stops rolling right there. So before investing time in building your profile, don't forget to build your skills.

10) Keep other options open: Lastly, do not pin your hopes only on LinkedIn. It works for a lot of people and a lot of times. However, many a times, it does not. So do not start resigning from your current job only because you read an article on how to make job hunting work via LinkedIn. Job search is a process in which the best result is achieved only when you are not in a rush.

I sincerely hope that these steps will help some of you in acquiring your dream job. Wishing everyone a happy hiring experience!