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How To Use LinkedIn To Find The Perfect Job

26 Apr 2016

LinkedIn have just launched a brand new app for students who are looking to start a career after leaving university, so we thought now would be a perfect time to show you exactly how to use LinkedIn to find the perfect job – and we’ll be pulling in a couple of bits of extra advice from the LinkedIn itself.

While other social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter can also be useful in the job hunt, LinkedIn is specifically geared towards finding you the right vacancies – or even being headhunted for them if you get your profile absolutely spot on.

And that’s mainly what we want to help you with today…getting your LinkedIn profile completely up to scratch so that you can find your perfect job – or, even better, let the perfect jobs come and find you.

So, in case you need any convincing as to why you should spend some quality time on your LinkedIn profile, here are just a few reasons:

Just A Few Reasons To Sort Your LinkedIn Profile…

  • Around 100 million monthly unique visitors view LinkedIn profiles
  • HR teams check out your LinkedIn profile
  • Head hunters could also be looking in
  • LinkedIn profiles are searchable
  • A good LinkedIn profile is essential for networking
  • You can apply for jobs directly on LinkedIn
  • Your LinkedIn profile doubles up as an online CV

Hopefully, that should be enough to persuade you that, when you are looking for work, you simply can’t afford to not be making full use of LinkedIn.

So now, let’s get started on your LinkedIn profile…

Complete Your LinkedIn Profile To Stand Out From The Crowd

It’s no good doing these things half-heartedly…

If you are going to take the time to get yourself on LinkedIn, then take some extra time to really get things right. With over 400 million users (and growing) there’s a lot of competition on LinkedIn, so you need to do something to make yourself stand out impressively from your peers.

Here’s a checklist of the most important things you need to do to make your LinkedIn profile really shine…

  • Fill out as many sections as possible (complete profiles receive 40 times more opportunities)
  • Use a professional head-shot photo (makes you 14 times more likely to get found)
  • It may sound obvious – but make sure your LinkedIn profile is public
  • Write your LinkedIn profile in the first person
  • Focus on how you specifically could help a company
  • Put contact details in your summary
  • Use relevant keywords in your headline summary
  • Hyperlink to relevant websites of previous experience
  • Add some volunteering experience
  • Include all of your best achievements on your LinkedIn Profile
  • Use media (photos, videos etc) to paint a picture
  • Share content related to your preferred industry

In case you like things visual, here’s a great infographic cheat sheet which should help you craft your perfect LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Profile Infographic

Source: Hubspot – ‘Linkedin the ultimate cheat sheet’ (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/linkedin-profile-perfection-cheat-sheet)

But, if you’d rather hear it from the horse’s mouth, here’s a handy slideshare from LinkedIn themselves…

 

You’ve Got To Network If You Want To Net Some Work

Okay, so you’ve got your LinkedIn profile all spruced up – time to sit back, relax and wait for the jobs to come rolling in, yes?

Well, of course not…

To put yourself in prime position to land your perfect job through LinkedIn, you really need to make as many connections as possible. Obviously, the more connections you can connect to within your own chosen desired sector or industry the better, but there’s no such thing as a bad connection on LinkedIn – so try to hook up with everyone you already know on there, and then boost things even further by trying to get them to give you solid recommendations:

  • Connect with as many friends/family/work colleagues on LinkedIn as possible
  • Ask colleagues, ex-bosses for recommendations (try offering them first and asking for one back)
  • Give other people Skills & Endorsements to try to receive more for yourself
  • Join groups and follow companies
  • Promote your profile outside of LinkedIn (eg Facebook, Twitter, your blog)
  • Consider a paid account

Here’s another section of the infographic cheat sheet which should give you some good ideas about how to network on LinkedIn:

LinkedIn Recommendations InfographicSource: Hubspot – ‘Linkedin the ultimate cheat sheet’ (http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/linkedin-profile-perfection-cheat-sheet)

And here’s another slideshare from LinkedIn about using their site to network your way into a perfect job:

 

How To Use LinkedIn As A Research Tool

Now we are really making headway!

We’ve sorted your LinkedIn profile and hopefully we’ve got you all networked up with decision makers in the industry you’d like to work in. With any luck the people that matter should hone in on your profile and ask you to apply for one or more of their jobs.

But, in the meantime, you should take matters into your own hands and use LinkedIn to research the companies you’d like to work for and see what current jobs you could apply for.

Here’s what you can do…

  • Perform advanced searches in the LinkedIn ‘jobs’ section to find companies that fit your criteria
  • Save job search and create job alerts to track opportunities
  • Apply for jobs directly through LinkedIn
  • Using your list of ‘target’ companies, either ‘inmail’ relevant head of department directly (you’ll need a premium account) or find their contact details on the internet and send an speculative introduction email (You’ll be surprised at how many times people respond. It shows initiative and a desire.)
  • If you have an interview, research your interviewee

As part of the brand new LinkedIn For Students which has just launched you can find a good number of resources to help you with your job search. Of course, employment4students will always help you to track down the best jobs in your chosen field, but it certainly does no harm to use complementary tools like the new resources on LinkedIn For Students – and one that you might find useful is part 2 of their ‘Student Job Hunting Handbook’ which focuses on Job Searching for Students & Recent Graduates.

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