How to use LinkedIn in your job search

As experienced recruiters, Explore CRS consultants have spent hours searching for candidate profiles on LinkedIn, so we know what makes a good profile! Here are our top tips for making sure your LinkedIn profile is effective as possible.

Start with a picture

To start, pick a professional and friendly-looking picture. It’s what people searching for your profile will see first. To give the best initial impression, don’t use a passport picture as they can sometimes appear too serious and lacking in character. Recruiters are more likely to click on profiles that show smiling candidates as they give off a positive attitude, and a warm and friendly personality.

Fill your profile out

LinkedIn profiles are quite easy to complete. You can personalise the sections you want to use and decide what you want to highlight. Most importantly, have enough information so that others can understand your career path - don’t forget about your educational background or fail to explain your experience. Although not essential, having a succinct and interesting two-to-three-sentence summary about yourself often helps attract busy recruiters’ attention.

Keep your profile updated

If you have recently changed to a new job, update your profile. Recruiters will see you have just started a new position and that you are probably not looking for the moment. This might help also if you regularly get messages asking about your availability or interest in new positions.

Open to opportunities?

You may not know about this function on LinkedIn, but it’s a useful tool. If you have decided you are definitely interested in finding a job and that you want to hear about open vacancies, you can make your profile ‘open to opportunities’. This will alert recruiters to the fact you are searching.

To set this up, go to your privacy settings and scroll down to ‘Job seeking preferences’. From here, you can change and edit various parts of your profile to allow recruiters and HR personnel to see you are available. Be aware though that while LinkedIn gives you the option to hide this information from your current boss, it is not guaranteed that he or she won’t see it.

Get connected and be active

You have your profile ready, now it is time to connect with people from your sector or learn more about topics you are interested in. Reach out and connect with people you’d like to network with, and be courteous if people reach out to you.

Make sure the content you interact with is professional and share only information that might be relevant to your followers. Be as active as you can. Sharing information, posting articles and liking other people’s posts are all great ways to get your profile noticed and built up a solid online network.