Are you struggling to get noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn? It's time to start thinking like a recruiter! By understanding how they search for candidates and what they're looking for in a profile, you can optimize your own to increase your chances of being found and contacted for new job opportunities.
In this blog post, we'll dive into how LinkedIn Recruiter works, how profiles are ranked, and how to improve your SEO on the platform. Let's get started!
Think like a Recruiter
Now that you have your LinkedIn profile polished it’s time to think like a recruiter.
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How LinkedIn Recruiter works
LinkedIn offers many different types of premium accounts, one of them being LinkedIn Recruiter. It’s a tool that helps companies scour the vast forest of professionals that is LinkedIn to find suitable new potential employees.
This is what it looks like.
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How are these profiles ranked?
Ever heard of the term Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? For a website, it means “optimizing your website and content so that a search engine (for example Google) is more likely to show it as a top result when searching for a certain keyword”.
LinkedIn works in a similar way!
LinkedIn ranks profiles based on keywords. The more optimized your profile is with the right keywords, the more likely you are to be found and contacted by potential employers.
In fact, in LinkedIn Recruiter, users can actually search by putting a string of keywords. See the example below!
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How to improve your LinkedIn SEO (or your chances of being found)…
Here’s an example search from a recruiter 👇
1. Open to new opportunities
As a recruiter, you want to increase your success rate by reaching out to people who are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. The “open to new opportunities tab” filters the search results by whether a person has indicated that they are potentially available.
We want to have this function turned on!
2. More likely to respond
How on earth does LinkedIn know that we are more likely to respond to a recruiter’s message than to other people?!
LinkedIn tracks your response rate to InMails. InMails are an exclusive feature for LinkedIn premium accounts that enable the user to send private direct messages to a person outside their network. That’s how recruiters are able to reach out to you without connecting.
Every time we don’t respond to an InMail, our response rate goes down.
So while you’re job seeking - make sure you reply to InMails 😉
3. Optimize your keywords
This is how a recruiter sees your profile.
What’s the difference between the normal LinkedIn profile view and this one?
- All important keywords are marked in bold and yellow. As a recruiter, you have a lot of profiles to scan. Therefore, you want to spend ideally as little time as possible on a profile to identify whether the person could be a great fit for the position. Having all things you’re looking for “pre-marked” helps you direct your attention to the things that matter.
- There is no cover picture. This condensed profile view contains only the most important information.
- Recruiting Activity. Here you can see whether another recruiter from your company has already interacted with the profile and to what extent.
🤔 What does all of this mean for us?
Keywords. Are. Important.
👇Consider the following when building your profile:
- What are the important keywords for your discipline and/or desired job?
- Where can you put those keywords? Header, About section, Experience, Education, Projects
🎯 Mini-task: What Are My Keywords?
In order for us to know what keywords we need to include in our profile, we need to do a little bit of research. What is the market demanding?
- Go to the LinkedIn “Jobs” section
- Find 3-5 relevant vacancies in your area (For example search for: Sales Development Rep / Business Development Rep / Account Executive)
✅Analyze the vacancies and try to identify the 10 most important keywords for your discipline. Write them down.
So, there you have it! By thinking like a recruiter, you can boost your chances of getting noticed on LinkedIn and snagging that dream job. Just remember to sprinkle those all-important keywords throughout your profile and make sure you're showing off all your best bits. Oh, and don't forget to keep your response rate up to those pesky InMails! Trust us, it'll be worth it in the end.
So, go forth and optimize that profile, and let's see what amazing opportunities come your way. Good luck with your job hunt!🚀
This article belongs to the ultimate guide to securing your dream job in 2023! Join us as we embark on a journey of exploration and discovery, diving into the secrets of building and promoting a standout professional identity, mastering the art of crafting a winning CV, LinkedIn profile, and networking strategy, and learning the best strategies for finding opportunities, acing interviews, and making the right career choices. Check the complete series here out!
Get ready for our next article where we'll be sharing valuable insights on how to effectively network for a job through a little fun challenge. Don’t miss out!
