How to Use LinkedIn to Find Your Dream Job

Thursday, February 18, 2021

As recruiters, we are driven by helping people find their dream job. LinkedIn is just one of the social media platforms that can help you get noticed in the job market. In this post, we’ll explain to you how to draw up the best possible LinkedIn profile.

If you’re looking for a new position, it’s very easy to let Recruiters on LinkedIn know without your current employer finding out! Here’s how:

  1. On the LinkedIn navigation bar, click "Jobs".
  2. Click "Career interests".
  3. Toggle "Let Recruiters know you're open" to "On".
  4. Change your status to whichever option best describes you and add any extra information you want recruiters to know.
  5. Sit back, and let the jobs come to you!

These are the four major factors that will truly help your LinkedIn profile stand out from the rest: profile picture, industry, summary, and work experience. Here’s how you can make the most of them:

Profile Picture

Your LinkedIn profile picture should portray you as a professional. This doesn’t mean you can’t show some personality, simply that it should be shown in a professional manner. As recruiters, if we have to choose between two profiles, the profile picture will always be a deciding factor. Look at the examples below:

  

These two pictures, despite both being of myself only a few years apart, give off very different impressions.

The one on the left shows me as a keen professional who enjoys working, with no background, making me the only item in the photograph.

The one on the right shows the more personal side of me, wearing everyday clothes with a busy background.

Your LinkedIn photo needs to show you as professional, because it is one of the first pictures of you that a recruiter or potential employer is likely to see, as we all know, first impressions count.

Here’s how you can change or update you profile picture:

  1. Sign into LinkedIn.
  2. Click on the “Me” icon in navigation bar and select “View profile”.
  3. Click on your profile picture.
  4. Click on “Change photo”.
  5. Upload your new picture.
  6. Make any necessary adjustments.
  7. Click “Save photo”.

Industry

You might have updated your LinkedIn profile perfectly in order to start your new job hunt, but what good will that do you if recruiters don’t know what industry you’re looking for work in? Fortunately, updating the industry you work in is very easy:

  1. Sign into LinkedIn.
  2. Click the “Me” icon in the navigation bar and select “View profile”.
  3. Click on the “Edit profile” button (it looks like a pencil).
  4. Scroll down to “Industry”.
  5. Find and select the industry you work in.
  6. Click “Save”.

Summary

Your summary should be concise. LinkedIn gives you 2,000 characters. Do not use all of them. The best way to think of this is your online CV’s personal summary. The catch is, however, that whilst your CV’s summary should be targeted for every job you apply to, your LinkedIn summary should target a much broader range of jobs without being too unfocussed.

Unfortunately, there is not one clear-cut way to write your summary. A lot of what you write will come down to the image you want to get across of yourself, which will depend on a variety of factors including, but not limited to:

  1. Your position
  2. The industry you work in
  3. The company you work for

For inspiration, I recommend Aja Frost's post, 7 Creative LinkedIn Summary Examples to Help You Craft Your Own.

If you think your summary could be improved, here’s how you can do just that:

  1. Sign into LinkedIn.
  2. Click the “Me” icon in the navigation bar and select “View profile”.
  3. Click on the “Edit profile” button (it looks like a pencil).
  4. Scroll down to “Summary”.
  5. Edit the text in the textbox and click “Save”.

Work Experience

Recruiters want to know your history. Having a complete work experience section on your LinkedIn profile lets us understand what you’re looking for, as well as get to know you as an individual. If your work experience isn’t up-to-date, here’s how you can fix that:

  1. Sign into LinkedIn.
  2. Scroll down to the “Experience” section of your profile.
  3. Click on the + button on the right.
  4. Fill in the vacancy details and upload any relevant media (this a great way to show examples of your work).
  5. Click save.
  6. Repeat until your work experience is up-to-date.

Your LinkedIn profile is your online CV. Information should always be kept up-to-date and professional, especially if you’re looking for the next step in your career, or a new position. Recruiters and potential employers will use your LinkedIn profile as part of their screening process, so it’s your responsibility to ensure that it is well-maintained.