The Job Hunt: How to make companies come to you via LinkedIn

When I tell people that since graduating I’ve been headhunted through LinkedIn twice and continue to do so to this day, people are a little flabbergasted to say the least! I can see why you’d think that would only happen to senior execs, c-suites and the like but actually a huge amount of internal and external recruiters search for passive candidates on LinkedIn daily because they’re the ones you want to poach. There is a myth that there is a hidden job market and 80% of jobs are not advertised, if this is indeed the case networking, social media and personal branding is key. Time and time again I get asked by my readers “do you have any tips on finding a job/internship?” the answer is YES and you actually only need one simple tip that I’ve managed to get down to a tee. It requires very little effort whatsoever in comparison to sending out hundreds of generic applications because once you've done it maintenance is minimal and I'm going to tell you exactly how I do it.

Shop window

Your headline, summary, background photo and profile photo are your shop window and you better make sure it’s looking spick and span! Just as you would have a few seconds to make a first impression when meeting a recruiter or potential employer, the same goes for your LinkedIn profile. Your headline needs to tell me exactly who you are and what you do, none of that generic last job title malarkey. Your first two lines of your summary have to be captivating enough, with the right keywords, to make someone want to stay and click See more (enter your shop). Don’t worry about getting it perfect because you will continue to tweak as your career progresses but get something on there already! Too often I see blank spaces, which pains me, to me it translates as missed opportunities. I want to know what makes you tick, do I want to get to know you more and why should I hire you against someone with the same experience and qualifications?

Your network is your net-worth

You need to have the right people in your network to get noticed. I have almost every colleague I’ve ever interacted with, which means that when my ex-colleagues hit like, share and comment on my posts it rotates around the Foreign exchange LinkedIn network. Which means that you get noticed and eventually get messages from the likes of CEOs or other senior people in your industry (I've received two just in the month of April).

If you’re planning to change career direction, then start adding influential and senior people from the industry you want to get into, a quick personal message saying you’d like to expand your network with thought leaders goes a long way rather than just hitting connect. Don’t be fooled, the important part isn’t just growing your network by mass adding people you’ve actually got to cultivate it. This means engaging in groups, liking other posts, sharing content and commenting in conversations relevant to your area of expertise but more importantly doing it consistently. You’ll also inadvertently end up creating a tribe of people that share the same interests, values and ideals as you and will go onto expose you further.

The 3 R’s (Real, Relatable and Relevant)

In order to get exposure you need to produce content that people will want to read, find value in and will want to engage with. I started off writing on LinkedIn almost two years ago on all things career development related through the student editorial calendar. The more comfortable I got, the more I was willing to share and the more I wrote, the more my voice came through. More recently I started to write on books I’ve read, stories of people I met whilst travelling and lessons I’ve learnt from events in my working life. People started to follow, like, comment and re-share what I was writing for three reasons 1) because it’s authentic (real) 2) because it’s relatable and 3) because it’s relevant. The more engagement I got, the more I started to appear on people’s feeds and those of their networks, network and so on and so forth. Below is a good example that from a post on books and quotes I was reading whilst travelling landed me an interview on my return.

 Tell people

A simpler and more direct way of showing businesses you are available is to just simply do a status update telling people you are now looking for your next opportunity. Especially if you’ve built a strong network of people in your industry or in similar job roles to you, you’d be surprised how much people are willing to help and re-share. I’ve seen this time and time again and it’s actually really effective. It puts you at the forefront of people’s minds that might then refer you to one of their contacts or send you through a job description that might be of interest. Another way is making sure that you’re letting recruiters know that you are available by heading to Privacy & Settings, clicking on Privacy and enabling ‘Let recruiters know you’re open for opportunities'. For those that don’t want your current employers to know, it’s a very discreet way of being open to opportunities.

Recommendations and endorsements

People tend to make the mistake of asking for recommendations after they’ve left a business, my tactic is always to ask a few days after you’ve completed a large project, and/or if you’ve gone over and beyond for someone internal or external. It will be fresh in peoples mind and if they’re sitting a few rows away from you, there’s no escaping it! Recommendations are really important because if a recruiter stops by, they’ll see not only that you're credible but how you treat people, what’s your work ethic and what value you bring to others. Additionally you don't have to worry when your hiring manager then moves company and can no longer give you a personal reference. When sending the requests out to people personalise the message, it will be the difference between getting a generic recommendation back and a really personal one (see below an example).

As for endorsements, make sure you pick your top three (these can be re-arranged) and ensure that they are the top three things you want to be known for as the first three are the ones that can be seen unless people click ‘see X more’.

The truth is for those of you currently job-hunting you’re half way there by being on LinkedIn and reading this article. Even if you are not job-hunting I do advise you to still do the above as it will make it a lot easier later down the line when you do want to look for your next gig. More importantly, I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve been told “I have 10 drafted articles to post but none are quite there yet…” or “I’ve been meaning to update my LinkedIn profile”, my advice is just write, just share, just comment because you’ll always find an excuse not to. It is indeed frightening for some to ‘put yourself out there’, there is a fear of judgement “will people read this?” or “what if I sound stupid?” but what’s the best that can happen? There are tonnes of opportunities to be made around the corner not only from permanent work but also from speaking engagements, freelance side projects or opportunities to collaborate, the platform is yours to exploit and I always say it’s the best hidden secret!

Please note LinkedIn does not employ me (although it’s the one company that would tempt me over to the dark side) but just a mere advocate of its use! If you’d like any advice on any of the above or a more in-depth session I’ll be running a (London based) workshop in June on leveraging LinkedIn, so feel free to send me a message to be kept in the loop. 

#graduates #students #millennials #youngprofessionals #careers #gettingstarted #jobhunting #recruitment #personalbranding #networking #LinkedIn #LinkedIntips

This post was written as part of the #Graduation series, which is tied to LinkedIn’s student editorial calendar on #StudentVoices. Follow the stories here or write your own.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be continuing to write on different topics every week so please feel free to click follow, comment and share and have a read of my previous posts.