Wednesday, June 23, 2021

5 tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile from a director of recruiting

 Anna-Louise Jackson@aljax7

If the novelty of baking bread has grown stale and you’ve binge-watched every TV show and movie of interest, add this activity to your stay-at-home list: Update your LinkedIn profile.

Whether you’re still working full time, you’ve been laid off or furloughed, or your job seems like it could be at risk, it’s a good idea to be prepared for a potential job search. That’s because the job market is likely to become more competitive in the months ahead.

More than 22 million Americans have filed for jobless benefits in recent weeks, and the unemployment rate — previously at a 50-year low of 3.5% — could rise to as high as 32%, according to projections by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Many experts are forecasting that a global recession is all but inevitable.

So now is a good time to update your LinkedIn profile and ensure you make a positive first impression to hiring managers or recruiters, says Casey Hasten, a director of recruiting at VIP, an executive search firm. Paying attention to some small details can make a big difference, agrees Kylan Nieh, who works in product management at LinkedIn Profile.

“Listing your professional industry on your profile makes you up to 38 times more likely to be discovered by recruiters,” Nieh says. “If you don’t have a lot of job experience yet, consider adding any volunteer work, internships, or extracurricular activities, which gives recruiters more insight into your background and increases profile views up to 29 times.”

Here are five tips from Nieh and Hasten for optimizing your LinkedIn profile.

1) Put ‘some meat’ on your profile

There are several sections to a LinkedIn profile, including a summary, work experience, education, skills, endorsements and recommendations, and interests. The more detail you add, the more likely you are to be discovered by recruiters who use the platform to find potential candidates.

That’s why Hasten is looking for “some meat” underneath a candidate’s title. “You want your LinkedIn profile to mimic your resume,” she says. She recently hosted a podcast on the do’s and don’ts of using the platform to support your professional goals.

Be detailed about your work experience and make sure you include relevant keywords that recruiters might be seeking in potential candidates, Hasten says. She and other recruiters are often looking for someone with a unique and particular set of skills and experience: “I always joke that I’m looking for a purple squirrel.”

Keywords are so important because people like Hasten use LinkedIn recruiting to screen for potential candidates, “and if you don’t have your keywords on your profile, then you’re not going to turn up.” Be sure to update this information as you add new expertise. “Don’t underestimate the importance of using all that information,” she adds.

Finally, don’t forget about the skills section. According to figures from LinkedIn, 87% of recruiters say the skills a candidate lists are crucial. “List your strengths on your profile and start with the top five that are most relevant for your job or the job you want,” Nieh says.

If you have some time on your hands these days, this may be a good opportunity to brush up on skills or even learn new ones. LinkedIn Learning offers more than 16,000 courses and is currently offering more than 275 of those for free to help people navigate new working environments or land a job in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Nieh adds.

4) Signal to recruiters that you’re open to job opportunities

One of the easiest ways to pop up on the radar of recruiters is by letting them know you’re open to job opportunities. This is a setting you can enable within your profile. 

“If you’re job seeking, absolutely turn that on,” Hasten says. “There are times when I’m doing a search and 100 people come up, and 20 of them are open to opportunities, so I’ll talk to them first.”

Be sure you’re offering this information to the right audience. There are two options: You can let all LinkedIn members know that you’re open to job opportunities, which can mean people at your current company, even your boss, could see, too, or you could limit that notification to recruiters.

What’s more, you can specify the type of job and location you’re interested in so that your profile appears in search results for recruiters, Nieh says. And if you’re a business owner or freelancer, you can list services on your profile that indicate to your network that you’re “open for business,” he adds.  

See all 5 tips and the complete grow.acorns.com article


 

 

 

 

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Does Your LinkedIn Profile Prove Your Credibility? 5 Boxes To Check

 William Arruda

Now that your first impression is likely to be delivered online, you need to focus your attention on your LinkedIn profile. That’s because it’s the place people will go to learn about you when they’re checking you out in a professional capacity. And that’s great news. It means you don’t have to Tweet like Kim Kardashian and publish YouTube videos like Justin Bieber to influence those you seek to impress. By focusing on just one social platform—  LinkedIn—you can deliver a powerful, authentic and differentiated first impression. A compelling profile sits at the intersection of likability and credibility. In this previous post, I shared ideas for upping your likability on LinkedIn. In this article, I focus on the things you need to do to make sure your profile exudes authentic credibility. Here are the five areas to pursue:

1. Are you professional?

Nothing screams “unprofessional” like a profile that’s not complete or is riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Your credibility wanes the second people spot that first glaring typo which screams “this person does not possess the brand attribute “attention to detail.” And a profile that’s not complete or is out-of-date says that you aren’t taking your career seriously.  To make sure your profile looks professional, check it several times or have a professional copy editor look at it. You can find inexpensive copy editors on sites like Upwork. In addition, make sure your prose is properly formatted and has the right amount of white space (in your About, for example) so it makes it easy for the reader to consume. And lastly, take the time to complete all relevant sections of your profile. It’s an investment that will pay off.

3. Are you an expert?

One way to show people you are a leader in your field is to be clear about your expertise. That means not trying to touch all bases—that makes you a jack of all trades but an expert in none. Make it crystal clear in your profile what your expertise is. Make sure your top three endorsements are for the skills for which you want to be known. Also include all relevant details in the Experience section of your profile to reinforce your expertise—using all the right keywords that will reinforce your domain. Don’t just make a generic one-sentence statement. Be specific. And use the Accomplishments zone (certifications, courses, awards, projects, publications) to highlight those activities that feature your expertise. 

See all 5 areas and the complete Forbes article