Employment agencies, recruiters and career experts are of the uniform opinion that LinkedIn is a remarkable and highly rewarding job search tool. Through LinkedIn you can instantly spread word to thousands of potential employers about your academic distinctions, work experience and service record.
Your LinkedIn profile can also support your job search as recruiters and hiring managers use the site for sourcing the right candidates. But you must know the essentials of putting together a profile and making the most of it.
LinkedIn is more than a decade old and boasts of more than 300 million members. Most professionals on LinkedIn know how to set up a profile and build connections. This is not difficult once you know the technique.
A growing number of recruiters use the site for talent hunt and potential employers routinely check LinkedIn before they make recruitment decisions. Make sure your profile is complete in all respects and free from redundancies.
It is necessary to customise your URL that is the address of your LinkedIn page on the Web. Customising it will push your name upwards to the top of a Google search.
Write a well-worded, succinct and yet detailed summary of your career. Try to contain the summary to less than 300 words but do not omit any salient facts. Use appropriate keywords and key phrases that would help the recruiters’ search.
Elaborate on your work experience. This is your golden chance to write an impressive online résumé. Take the time to list the jobs that built your career in chronological order. Try to be simple and truthful and avoid using superlatives. Make a modest mention of all your accomplishments but do not brag. You can skip mentioning any trivial jobs you might have held that are not going to help you get your future job.
It is critically important to list all your skills. LinkedIn has introduced a new feature “Skills & Expertise” and it is up to you to make full use of it. Spend time to list all skills you think will be relevant for the future job you are seeking.
This section offers a synopsis to tell potential employers what you are capable of doing. It also gives your connections the opportunity to “endorse” you for those skills. Unfortunately, some aspirants find this feature annoying and meaningless but never skip this section as it is your responsibility to let the recruiter know about some special skills you possess.
Make sure to get at least 4 to 5 recommendations. Recommendations are helpful because they show up on your LinkedIn page and also appear on the page of the recommendation writer, and his or her connections can all view them.
A full profile does wonders on LI 😉 Thanks for the tips!