The job seeker's ultimate guide to LinkedIn

LinkedIn is home to over 55 million companies advertising more than 24 million job opportunities, and every minute, three people are hired on the platform.

The numbers paint a vivid picture: LinkedIn is the place to be for job seekers.

In light of this, it’s a little strange to admit that job seekers make up just 20 percent of the people I write profiles for – the vast majority are business owners seeking clients of their own. But it wasn’t always this way...

When I started my profile-writing business back in 2009, all of my clients were job seekers. I had just come out of 14 years in recruitment and, flattering myself as a bit of a future-thinker, recognised the potential of LinkedIn.

I taught my early clients how to reverse-engineer their success by showcasing their skills in an authentic way and appealed to their target audience. I also stressed the importance of proactively searching for job openings and reaching out directly to the people they’d like to work for.

But LinkedIn evolved, and so did I. The platform expanded, becoming, in addition to a job seeker’s paradise, a B2B networking event where leaders and innovators could secure investors, lock-in partnerships, and attract clients.

I may be moving away from working with job seekers, but job seekers haven’t moved away from LinkedIn. And rightly so.

In this newsletter, I thought I’d open the floor to some incredible people that live and breathe the careers space. They’ve kindly contributed lots of tips on how job seekers can squeeze every last bit of value out of LinkedIn.

Angela Farmeary

Like me, Angela spent over a decade as a recruiter. Today, she helps her clients navigate the highly competitive job market through individualised career coaching. Her goal: to ensure everyone thrives in a job they genuinely love.

The following tips are drawn from Angela’s article, How to Use LinkedIn Successfully in Your Job Search.

“I want to get my LinkedIn profile complete so that recruiters will find me and contact me about jobs.” That’s what many of my clients think their goal is – to finish their LinkedIn profile so that they can sit back and wait for recruiters to find them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Instead, you need to be proactive.

Once your profile is looking first-impression worthy, give these five things a try:

1. Create your hit list. Write down ten companies you’d jump on the opportunity to work at. What do they have in common with you? Do your values align?
2. Follow company pages. Head to each business’s LinkedIn company page and click follow. Now, you’ll get notified of new hires, promotions, changes at the company, and, crucially, job opportunities.
3. Connect with relevant people. Use filters to find the people who are relevant to you at each company. For example, if you are a marketing manager, you might refine your search using the keyword “marketing,” which gives you a list of marketing contacts. Also connect with your would-be boss and peers. Be sure to write a personalised note in your connection request – this significantly increases your likelihood of being accepted.
4. Set up your activity tracker. You’ve got your hit list. You’ve got your new connections. Now, transfer all of this data, plus your new connections' email addresses, into an activity tracker spreadsheet. (If you’d like a free template, reach out to Angela here). To find the email addresses of your 1st connections, visit their profile and click “contact info.”
5. Reach out via email. Not everyone logs into LinkedIn daily, so you’ll need to reach out to your new contacts via email. Make sure to record all correspondence in your activity tracker.

Clare Phelan

Clare is a career coach and job search strategist that guides you in becoming the CEO of your career.

Utilise LinkedIn recommendations. One feature that I always encourage my clients to utilise is LinkedIn Recommendations. They immediately increase the like, know, trust factor. If a manager or a person of influence that has benefitted from your work writes you a recommendation, this reassures those reading that you really are an expert in your field.

When asking for recommendations, reach out to those who been privy to your great work. If you are searching for roles with a particular skillset, ask your referee to focus the recommendation on your positive traits relevant to that type of role.

Aim for three strong recent recommendations.

Utilise LinkedIn messaging with professionalism. Being CEO of your career means having the systems in place to enable you to efficiently and effectively promote your value to potential employers. Messaging is part and parcel of communicating effectively throughout the job search process, however, getting this right can be overwhelming!

To help you, I have put together 12 free templates to use as a guide, these are extensive, and include how to: Tell contacts that you are looking for a new job, request an introduction, and request LinkedIn recommendations. You can access these templates here, just remember to edit them so that your connections are hearing your authentic voice.

Gillian Kelly

Gillian is a Forbes Council career coach, keynote speaker, and award-winning master resume writer.

Analyse your profile through the eyes of a hirer. Hirers want people who offer value to their business. What does your target hirer see when they look at your profile? Are you following their business online? Are you interested in and engaged with their business posts? What shared connections do you have? How deep, wide, and valuable is your professional network? How relevant are your skills to their business? What impression do your headline and photo make on them? How credible are you in your subject area or field? What does the tone of your past posts say about your communication style and values?

Recognise that using LinkedIn is a skill. Some people intuitively tap into LinkedIn’s search and relationship-building capacity, but it’s a skill that improves over time for most people. The best way to get the most out of its immense career management features is to use it consistently. The more effort you put into it BEFORE you need it for job search, the more you’ll reap the rewards.

Don’t confuse visibility with credibility. Use LinkedIn well, and your actions can help you stand out to potential hirers. Abuse it, and it can damage your job hunt. Be strategic with what you post and how you communicate. Don’t damage a relationship by asking for favours too early. Respect others’ time, opinions, and rights. Consider how posts or comments may impact your brand. Visibility is not the same as credibility.

Rebecca Jarvis

Rebecca was awarded LinkedIn Top Voice 2020. A recruiter for the tech industry, Rebecca offers career, leadership and culture coaching. She is passionate about helping individuals and businesses stand out and achieve success.

Stand out with your About section

Imagine a recruiter looks at five-plus people, all with similar skillsets. How will they decide who to call? I call it “getting your character off a page.” If your character seems interesting, you are more likely to get the call.

Shilpa Kulshrestha

Shilpa is a career strategist, coach, and best-selling author and speaker that helps people who are stuck create impactful careers.

Three mistakes job seekers should avoid:

1. Do not try to be someone that you are not. It will come back to bite you in the face. Or it will push you towards the restlessness of being an imposter. Your authenticity can be your biggest magnet on this platform.
2. Do not ask for help. Instead, add value without any expectations. You will create some beautiful relationships. I have got my best employees and 90 per cent of my clients from LinkedIn.
3. Do not get caught in rules. There are none. Never hold yourself back from expressing, of course, in a respectful way and doesn’t stir in religion or politics.

Jo Green

Jo is a career change coach helping people work through career transformations without stress.

Look for people, not jobs.

Lead with your curiosity by finding people on LinkedIn who work in companies you are interested in or careers you want. Get in touch to organise a quick chat or send them a few questions when you connect. Be honest and authentic about why you are reaching out.

The information they give you will help you understand the job market, the companies you are interested in, and new areas you might want to move into. And your new contacts will know you are looking for a role. They may even let you know if they hear of anything.

Through making these types of contacts, my career change clients have learnt about careers they knew little about, and discovered roles that weren't advertised!

Karen Thompson

Karen is a connector, marketer, writer, and career and business strategist, helping her clients communicate their authentic personal and professional brand.

Use every section of your profile to its fullest potential:

• Background photo/header. Make sure you have a good headshot with a friendly, welcoming smile. Many people have banners from their employer or their business if they are self-employed. You can quickly create a banner in Canva with images or colours that suit you.
• Headline. The headline on your LinkedIn profile is one of the first things people see. It needs to be impactful and must highlight your skillset. If you’re an active job seeker, it should be relevant to the position you want.
• Vanity URL (customising your LinkedIn public profile URL). Customise your URL and get rid of the random characters. Use your name, and if you have a common name, add your location, profession, or something else relevant.
• Featured section (top of your profile). If you are creating content or appearing in the media, the featured section is a great place to highlight your work.
• Volunteer section. Volunteering shows your commitment beyond what your employer pays you to do. If you are on a board or committee for an industry association, mentoring through a formal program, or giving time to support a worthwhile cause, let your reader know.

Even more advice for job seekers

As Angela Farmeary wrote here, most jobs are found through weak ties, and LinkedIn is a Rolodex on steroids. Not only does the platform give you access to key people, but it also empowers you to shape your own reputation.

A huge thank you to all who provided tips for this article. If you are a job seeker or looking for a career change, it is well worth following each contributor – they have so much more valuable advice to offer.