Tips For Using LinkedIn Features and Resources For Job Seekers

by Kevin T. Buckley, CPC

LinkedIn is a valuable resource and tool for connecting with a wide variety of hiring managers in those industry sector in which you have experience. These are some concise tips on how to use this site to best advantage. More employers routinely check the social media profiles of applicants including LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, among others.

Consider the following as a primer to introduce you to the site. For extended information, there are many blogs and of course LinkedIn's own learning sections.

Editing Your Profile:

This is your image to potential employers, it needs to be concise, informative and focused.

Brief points that are easily read, where the reader doesn't have to wade through a sea of text.

Use appropriate industry key words in your profile to enable search engines to identify them in search results just as you would on your resume.

Edit your resume text to truly focus on accomplishments and significant responsibilities and functions.

Choose and upload a photo that projects a friendly image and is clear, uses good lighting and is business oriented.

Note your present and past employers and associations, memberships and social or community involvements.

Note your industry education designations prominently so the reader doesn't have to hunt for them in the the text of your  job descriptions.

Solicit Recommendations from trusted clients, ex-superiors and colleagues to enhance your Profile as they serve as mini employment references and serve to increase the appeal of your profile to viewers.

Import your email contacts info from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. or by exporting your address book into a .csv or.txt file from your email program to your desktop then uploading/importing it to your Connections section - a ready made connections list to send Invitations from.

If you use Twitter, remember that you can use a hash tag: #in and your tweet will appear in LinkedIn - choose what you tweet so it enhances your business profile - things like article and site URLS, industry events you have attended.

Turn on the Job Seeker's Badge under the Edit Profile section to alert hiring managers that you are looking for a job and it will appear next to your name in search results.

You can Send Inmail from a job posting, profile or search results page - make sure the subject line clearly identifies the reason for your message - Premium account required.

Check the Featured Applicant box when applying to a job posting and your application appears at the top of the hiring manager's list.

Use Profile Organizer, clicking on Contacts to save the profiles of hiring managers or search results and use Notes to record details of your conversation or questions for follow up.

Save your Profiles into folders by Company, Job Title or other selected criteria.

Activate the Open Link Network in the Edit Profile section as this allows others to freely contact you with no cost to them, allowing open access from hiring managers and recruiters, the Open Link icon will appear next to your name.

Ensure that your Profile's working experience dates of employment match that of your resume submitted to an employer.

Who's Viewed Your Profile allows you to see who has reviewed your profile, limited access in the basic account, expanded in the Premium account.

Sign up for the Lindsey Pollak 60 minute training seminar to learn the latest strategies and tips for using LinkedIn: http://learn.linkedin.com/jobseeker/ .

The Premium Job Seeker account provides more features such as Premium Search to search according to multiple criteria.

Apply to join Groups that apply to your industry or vertical market or business focus which you can find through the Groups Directory.

The more Groups you join the more ideas for contacts you will discover through their member listings and the easier you will be able to reach out and add people to your Network and Connections.

Within each Group you will often find a Jobs section where relevant jobs are posted that you can then apply to.

You can adjust Settings in your individual Groups to allow for daily or weekly message digests to be sent to you, as well enabling group members to send you messages without cost.

Groups can be geographically based as well as by job function if you make the appropriate selections in your Search criteria.

A good series of videos on youtube that introduces you to using LinkedIn can be found at http://butterscotch.com  hosted by Molly Macdonald, it is a series of 10 videos - in Youtube search
box type: butterscotch linkedin .

LinkedIn profiles gain ranking in Google search results, select Full View in your public profile and customize the URL to your own name, this will increase your visibility on the web.

You can sometimes find out who used to hold the position you are applying for at a given company by searching Job Title and Company and uncheck Current Titles Only in the search criteria, contact past employees if you are so inclined with an Expertise Request to ask for potential insight into the opportunity.

When you know the name of the interviewer check and see if you share common schools, interests or acquaintances in their Connections.

How is the company doing? do a Search for the Company Name and uncheck Current Companies Only box, view the movement of people from the company - is it stable?

Use LinkedIn Answers to ask questions of your network and people outside your network, this is found by hovering your cursor under the More link.

Checking the profiles of people from a specific company may provide clues in their previous positions about other employers in that industry sector as people often move around to/from recognized competitors in their industry.

Company Pages on LinkedIn include a New Hires section which may let you know who has been hired recently and, in turn, their profiles will tell you where they came from - more potential options in a specific industry sector.

Make sure that you investigate those people who are two degrees away from you (a connection of a conection) - this means you know someone who is connected to the person whom you want to approach. You might want to ask for an Introduction through your first degree connection.

Check the Companies in Your Network area of the Job Search Results page.

Search the names of executives that you find in Industry Associations in your sector for more contact/connections options then search for them under People.

Check this site for the latest developments about LinkedIn:
http://linkedin.alltop.com/

This is one in a series of articles that we are doing on LinkedIn.

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