Why not to play hide & seek on LinkedIn.

Being in my 5th year of recruitment on the corporate governance market, some of the best relationships that I hold today are due to having open & honest conversations with my clients or candidates. One particular conversation that has been ongoing over the last few weeks is how people feel about checking profiles on LinkedIn prior to having an interview.

I have to be honest, hearing someone say that it looks suspicious to check a profile completely threw me off. I thought to myself straight away 'but I use LinkedIn daily, why is looking at someone's profile a bad thing?!' I couldn't understand this initially but after numerous conversations and concerns people had, I started to understand the other side of the debate.

Straight away, I knew I wanted to educate those who thought it was a negative thing and get everyone to see the positive side to this! I decided to create a poll to understand the wider market and gain a broader perspective of exactly what people think about this.

So…in the last two weeks, you might have seen that I created a poll on my LinkedIn to understand what the audience think about searching for a LinkedIn profile. The responses were overwhelming & the poll created some very interesting statistics which I felt were worth sharing with you all!

I asked hiring managers the following: "When conducting an interview, do you check the potential new employees LinkedIn profile?"

* 86% of hiring managers thought it is a great way of finding out more about the candidate.

* Whilst only14% of hiring managers felt that it was suspicious.

 The candidate market was also asked a similar question: "When completing an interview as a candidate, do you check the hiring manager(s) LinkedIn profile?"

* 92% said yes it would tell them more about the interviewer.

* Only 8% of the candidate market thought would look suspicious! 

From the data mentioned above, it is a strong indication that viewing a LinkedIn profile prior to an interview whether you're the hiring manager, or a candidate is a positive thing to do! Previously if you doubted yourself about viewing someone's profile, I’m hoping that the information that I'm giving to you today, is able to provide you with some guidance and reassurance. It's also great to see that the majority agree!  

As a recruiter, before I speak to any hiring managers or candidates on the market, checking their LinkedIn profile is the first thing I do. I personally feel that it’s so important to know who is on the other side of the table or video call in more recent times! It has also been something I strongly advise my candidates & clients to do prior to the first stages of an interview process.

I also feel passionate about the term "LinkedIn stalking" it creates negativity to a process that is so straightforward - someone simply planning & conducting their research!

The benefits of viewing profiles are:

* It gives you some background knowledge about the other person.

* It allows you to build rapport quickly & effectively.

* It allows the other person to know that you have put the time in to do some research.

* It identifies that you both might have something in common. (e.g.: attending the same university or having a mutual connection).

After all, LinkedIn is a tool that is available to use to your benefit! Happy LinkedIn viewing everyone!

Lastly, thank you to everyone who took part in voting!