A LinkedIn profile, why does it matter?

A LinkedIn profile is becoming of equal importance as a resume,?and I would argue even more important if you work in business and many other professions and that is for two reasons.?First,?when you apply for a job,?many employers,?yes,?look at the resume.?But they also head directly to your LinkedIn profile.?Because LinkedIn is a place where they can get a more complete picture of who you are.

The format is predictable and there's value in it being a public profile where I guess you're less likely to lie.?Second,?many recruiters skip over reading resumes of those who apply and simply hop on LinkedIn and type in a few keywords.?Of exactly these skills titles,?location of the person they're looking for.?LinkedIn pops out results.

These recruiters then approach those people.?If interested,?they interview them,?hire them,?and I have done years of recruiting myself and I would always read inbound applications,?but, as I've talked to many other recruiters,?a lot of people at other companies are not always like that.?They want to be as time-efficient as possible,?so they handpick candidates from LinkedIn and interview them and they also interview referrals from employees.?

First things first,?you must pop on that little setting on your profile that says that you are looking for a job,?it's an option on your profile that only you can see and that indicates to other employers,?not people who work at your company,?that you are open for opportunities to other employers with premium LinkedIn accounts.

If you want to get a job,?use the keywords associated with the role you want.?Okay,?so if you're looking to get a role in recruitment,?make your headline with keywords like ?recruiter?,??recruitment?.?LinkedIn is a search engine,?and you'll rise way higher in the results when you do this.?

Third,?your photo. On LinkedIn you need a photo. And some of you think you have a photo,?but you actually have your privacy settings buttoned up,?so make sure your profile is public.?Make sure your photo is also public.?A lot of people have it so that only their first-degree connections can see their photo.?So,?to the rest of the world,?it looks like you have an incomplete profile.

Regarding to your experience; only talk about the skills you have been building,?why you love that industry, and reference any personal projects in your field.?And put the accomplishments you have on your resume and put a description of the company you worked at and a few additional narratives.?

Now?go down to the bottom of your profile to the skills and endorsements section and don't just put in whatever skills LinkedIn suggests you to include.?Add the skills that show up in the job descriptions that you are targeting. As well as in your headline,?because this is the second most highly ranked place LinkedIn mines data from to get you to show up in searches.?So if you have ?recruitment? in your headline and in your skills section,?well you are flying way up to the top of the search.?

Also,?if you're looking to take your LinkedIn presence to the next level,?start writing posts and contributions.?Photographs, video's, text or what ever you feel comfortable with. Share your knowledge and experience so people will get to know your skillset.