With over 645 million users, it is no surprise as to why LinkedIn is so popular with professionals. It allows candidates to avail of job opportunities, engage with content from their sector and connect with other professionals within their industry. And with 122 million people receiving job interviews through LinkedIn, it is a very important platform for both employers, recruiters and candidates.
At GKR Search & Selection, our recruiters are trained to find the best quality candidates through a number of sources, including LinkedIn. We see a lot of profiles each day and know exactly how to make profiles professional and noticeable. Check out some of our tips below:
Profile Picture
A professional profile picture is the first step to creating the perfect LinkedIn profile. Consider investing in professional headshots and avoid using any inappropriate photos that you wouldn’t want your future employer to see. Your profile is 21x times more likely to be viewed with a professional profile picture and you will receive 9x times more connections. Keeping it professional will be an investment in your career.
Headline
Your headline is located directly below your name. This is key to making a strong first impression. Make it quick by summing up what you do in a few words. Keep it clear and professional and use keywords that indicate what exactly your current role is.
Summary
Your summary is where you can introduce yourself. Give a quick overview of your strengths, skills and attributes and use buzzwords like ‘skilled’ and ‘passionate’. Remember to start it strong. LinkedIn only gives the first three lines of your summary before readers have to click to ‘See more’ so be sure to sell yourself from the very beginning. Use keywords to get noticed and also speak the language of your industry.
Recommendations
Companies want to work with people who they can trust and who are good at their job. Recommendations can highlight your abilities to a recruiter so don’t be afraid to collect keywords from your past employers or co-workers.
Skills and Accomplishments
Your LinkedIn should indicate all of your strengths and skills to a recruiter. Recruiters often use keywords to find candidates so ensure that you are including all of your relevant skills for your current and past roles as they may get you noticed for your next role.
Detailed descriptions
Your LinkedIn is like an online CV, so it's important to describe what your responsibilities were in each role. Always refer to yourself in the first person, otherwise, it will sound impersonal. Use bullet points to keep it neat and clear. Include any accomplishments from your roles in each description for additional impact.
Open Candidates
If you are on the market for a new role then ensure that you have your page ‘Open to new opportunities’. This will signal to recruiters that you are interested in being contacted by them. You can also select the types of roles, locations and contract types that you wish to hear about. Recruiters will often use this feature as a further reason to contact candidates if they know they are on the job market. You can turn this on by clicking ‘Career Interests’ on the Jobs tab on your profile.
Engage
It's always good to be active on LinkedIn. Regularly check your InMail to see if a recruiter has got in touch about possible job opportunities. You should also engage with content that is relevant to your industry such as articles and debates. Reach out and connect with people in your sector and your workplace and engage with their posts. LinkedIn allows users to join up to 50 groups. Join groups that are relevant to your career and engage with the members and content posted within.
At GKR Search & Selection, we actively post our latest jobs and updates on LinkedIn which you can follow here.
You can also connect with our team of specialist recruiters: