Why LinkedIn is Still Critical to Your Job Search Strategy

Continuing my series of articles supporting candidates with market engagement insights (see 4 Insights for Candidates Looking for the Right Recruiter and Top 4 Tips for Discussing Salary With Your Recruiter) this article focuses on using LinkedIn itself as a tool for success.

This may seem like an overdone topic but I still regularly encounter candidates who are active job seekers who are not fully utilising the power of this platform. This is understandable for those that have not had to embrace LinkedIn as a tool for their profession or those that have not had to actively search for an opportunity for some time. However, in short, whether you are actively or passively pursuing your next role then you absolutely need to harness its potential.

If you want to be found by both agencies and in-house recruitment teams alike, you should ensure that you are easily identified as an expert in your field. Whilst LinkedIn is not the only way that recruiters will find you, it is one of the easiest. It also puts you in control because it means recruiters will engage you in conversation and you can then decide whether it is appropriate to release your full resume at a later stage.

A well-positioned LinkedIn profile is the perfect tool for the passive job seeker. You don’t have to include your full/detailed resume but a good exercise is to think about how recruiters might find you. Think about the key words they might use to find someone of your experience or for the job you are ideally seeking and then actually run that search. If you don’t appear on the first few pages then you have some work to do - revamp and repeat. In terms of crafting your content, you will find many resources online to guide you.

Of course, you need to be conscious of how you are perceived by your connections when you make changes to your profile. An update to your profile can send the signal that you are becoming more active in the job market which is something you are unlikely to want colleagues, managers or the HR function knowing about if you are gainfully employed. If you go to settings and select the relevant privacy options then you can be sure your updates will not be announced to your connections. Equally, under the privacy settings you can use the 'job seeking' setting to actively announce to recruiters that you are open for a change without notifying everyone.

If you are in active job seeking mode then you will also want to use LinkedIn to make connections and proactively reach out to relevant contacts in your field. You will find that you will gain much greater traction if your profile is meaningful and clearly articulates who you are as a professional.

This article is an opinion piece and this general insight has helped candidates I have worked with in the past so I hope this proves useful to you. I am always happy to hear from professionals in the Asian markets, whether you are interested in career opportunities, finding talent or just want to discuss recruitment or the markets more generally. Feel free to connect via [email protected]

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