Seven Strategies for Finding a Job – How to Use LinkedIn.com

(This is the second article in a series of seven offering a professional job-hunt strategy that will bring real results.)

LinkedIn is an online network comprising over 20 million professionals and 150 industries. Here’s how to use LinkedIn to find jobs. It is an incredibly useful network to find your next job. To access the network, you must register and create a profile that describes your skills and accomplishments. This profile can then be found by former co-workers, clients, and potential new employers. Through LinkedIn, your connections are “linked” to the connections of everyone on your network, the people they know, and so on. You can see how this network ultimately connects you to thousands of other individuals. You can use LinkedIn to find business opportunities, jobs, potential clients, and service providers. The more connections in your network, the greater the chance that recruiters and employees will see your profile when they are looking for candidates. According to LinkedIn’s own statistics, individuals with more than 20 connections are 34 times more likely to be contacted about a job opening than those with fewer than five connections.

The single most important thing to do when registering with LinkedIn is to spend time creating the best possible profile. Your profile is the first thing people will see, and it is the element that makes you “findable” by potential employers. Posting a profile at LinkedIn increases your visibility in the job market.

A good profile covers your current and past employment, education, industry of interest, and any websites you are associated with. You should also consider adding a photo; a headshot is recommended. Then include all the keywords and skills you’re using in your resume to make it easy for people to find you. Adding recommendations from previous employers is highly advisable, since these tend to have considerable weight with potential employers.

You can improve your “connectability” at LinkedIn by writing your profile as if it were an executive biography, including details about your work experiences, names of companies you’ve worked for, information about your education and professional affiliations, and relevant activities. You should also place a link to your profile in your e-mail signature.

It’s also possible to use LinkedIn to do research about a potential employer or company and discover the names of the specific individuals you should contact about job positions at a chosen company. The Advanced Search feature of LinkedIn allows you to improve the relevancy of a job search by finding people with similar educational and work profiles and learning where they work. Use the job search feature to find job listings.

LinkedIn can be used to contact former bosses and employees, to request endorsements from past employers and clients, and to find people in your local area that work in the industry you’ve targeted for your job search.

General Tips

1)Make it easy for people to contact you by adding your e-mail address to your last name (as in YourName(linkedin@myemail.com)
2)Include information about things you’re passionate about. Let the people reading your profile know something about you beyond your work experience.
3)Add information about your education to your profile.

This is Article Two in the series “Seven Strategies for Finding a Job.” These strategies have proven effective, and if followed, will lead you to a new job in less time than you might expect.

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