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The competitiveness of today’s job market can improve career options for jobseekers, but it can also make it much more difficult to actually be called in for a job interview. The goal is to be contacted by a recruiter and get an interview, you need to help them find you. You need to convince them that they should call you for an interview, and the best way to do this is with a really great LinkedIn Profile.
Recruiters Pay For Special Search Engines To Find You
When recruiters are looking for talent on LinkedIn, many of them will utilize LinkedIn’s paid-for search tools, LinkedIn Recruiter or LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Think of these tools like Google on steroids for recruiters. They are search engines within the LinkedIn platform that allow recruiters to filter through every single profile on LinkedIn, using keywords. Top recruiters use these to find LinkedIn profiles that have their ideal search criteria, and cut a list of millions of LinkedIn profiles down to a few hundred potential ideal candidates. This means that no matter how good you look on your LinkedIn profile, if you don’t show up in these searches, recruiters won’t be able to find you.
How Do LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator Work?
Both LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Sales Navigator search with boolean filters that apply an exact keyword search to the different sections of a LinkedIn Profile.
This is what it looks like.
To build a good candidate pool, recruiters look at certain qualifications or criteria. What most of them focus on first are:
Current Title
Location
Keywords related to the job
If the information in these specific sections of your LinkedIn profile are out of date or have information that isn’t geared towards your current job search, you won’t even show up on a recruiter’s list or make the first cut.
What To Write In Your Title
Your title on LinkedIn does not need to have the same exact wording as your current internal title. LinkedIn is your professional social media page, not your resume. You should keep in mind the following things:
Write it the way it is most commonly written
Reflect the work that you do
If possible, keep in mind the job you want
Often, people get hung up on what their title is within their company. However, it is essential to note that titles that are important internally, may not have the same recognition outside of your company. For this reason, it is best to edit your title on LinkedIn to gear it towards recruiters.
For example, your title within your company might be “Python React Developer”, but if you have experience with other languages and want to market your wider skill set, “Backend Engineer” would be a broader title to get you called in for more interviews.
Location On LinkedIn
This is very basic, but make sure your location on LinkedIn is the same location that you’re looking for a job in. If you’re within commuting distance to a larger city, your location should be the greater area of that city, like “Greater New York City Area”. Writing this instead of the smaller town your work in will maximize the search area you will be found in.
If you’re looking to relocate, one of the simplest mistakes you can make is not updating your location to where you want to relocate to. You will not appear on a recruiter’s list unless your LinkedIn location is within that boundary they’re looking in, so be sure to keep your location current.
What To Write In Your Headline
Your headline is absolutely crucial, it can affect the roles you are found for, similarly to your title. However, you can customize and maximize this so that you show up on more recruiters’ lists. I will be writing about this extensively in my next article.
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Helping recruiters find you and identify you as a candidate is a critical step for finding your next job. Appearing within their LinkedIn search is the only way to be found. In the next article of Syfter on LinkedIn, I’ll dissect how your title and headline affect your chances of being found, and how to adapt to LinkedIn’s own search sensitivity, so that you can be called in for the interview of your dreams.
This article is the third in the series, Syfter on LinkedIn. In this series I will be pulling back the curtain to show you the industry tricks to land your next dream job. I’ll tell you all the dirty secrets of recruiters and show you how to make your LinkedIn pop to land the big interview.