LinkedIn Tips

Red About Town

I've recently joined LinkedIn and have updated my profile with my relevant skills, experience etc.

Can anyone give me any tips on how to ensure my profile gets views from recruiters that will possibly lead to job opportunity discussions?

I have heard from friends that recruiters search for certain words and that there are ways to make your profile stand out from the rest.

Any advice on how to do this would be much appreciated.

Stheno

Add in all of your different skills and qualifications

dreamers75

LinkedIn is only useful if you have a job and someone from another job knows you(that you deal with) and pushes you on to HR.


Not quite sure of what other usefulness LinkedIn has.

Stheno

dreamers75 wrote: »

LinkedIn is only useful if you have a job and someone from another job knows you(that you deal with) and pushes you on to HR.


Not quite sure of what other usefulness LinkedIn has.

I've been contacted cold on linkedin by HR and recruiters for roles based on my profile.

Op you could also join groups relevant to your profession

dreamers75

Stheno wrote: »

I've been contacted cold on linkedin by HR and recruiters for roles based on my profile.

Op you could also join groups relevant to your profession

Hmmm my profile is very basic simply cos my job made me go onto it.

All my offers are from customers, never seen the point of it tbh.

Mezcita

Red About Town wrote: »

I've recently joined LinkedIn and have updated my profile with my relevant skills, experience etc.

Can anyone give me any tips on how to ensure my profile gets views from recruiters that will possibly lead to job opportunity discussions?

I have heard from friends that recruiters search for certain words and that there are ways to make your profile stand out from the rest.

Any advice on how to do this would be much appreciated.

Your buddies are right. Basically put as much info as you can into your profile in order to get it up to 100% completion. The more info and specific key words the better because that's how you get yourself found.

Groups are also a good way hearing about roles that may be relevant to you.

Stheno

dreamers75 wrote: »

Hmmm my profile is very basic simply cos my job made me go onto it.

All my offers are from customers, never seen the point of it tbh.

Ah that's probably the difference, mine is fairly detailed and I'm fairly heavily involved in a couple of groups. If you are active in groups it tends to raise the amount of people looking at your profile and/or endorsing you

metamorphosis

If you have your profile up to date and end seen in searches, it's great. I was headhunted twice asked on my profile

Red About Town

Would you suggest putting in descriptions for all my previous roles or just the most recent ones?

3DataModem

Red About Town wrote: »

I've recently joined LinkedIn and have updated my profile with my relevant skills, experience etc.

Can anyone give me any tips on how to ensure my profile gets views from recruiters that will possibly lead to job opportunity discussions?

I have heard from friends that recruiters search for certain words and that there are ways to make your profile stand out from the rest.

Any advice on how to do this would be much appreciated.

Depends on your industry.

I get a lot of unsolicited - but relevant - approaches via LinkedIn. My profile also is pretty strong on search engines.

ie.linkedin.com/in/davidlyons1974

Stheno

Red About Town wrote: »

Would you suggest putting in descriptions for all my previous roles or just the most recent ones?

All the ones that backup your current one and provide details of your experience.

E.g. I don't have my part time jobs as a student waitressing in, I've used it to build up details of experience in my current industry (IT)

Red About Town

How do people feel about getting requests for endorsements/recommendations? I see they can look good on profiles but I'm a bit weary about requesting them from people.

Stheno

Red About Town wrote: »

How do people feel about getting requests for endorsements/recommendations? I see they can look good on profiles but I'm a bit weary about requesting them from people.

Most people who endorse you do it off the cuff as it's not that onerous a chore.

Recommendations you tend to have to ask for, only ask people that you genuinely would use as a reference/have given you feedback

Mr. Loverman

Just be careful you don't make a good LinkedIn profile and sit back waiting for someone to hand you a job.

LinkedIn should be part of an overall strategy which involves most of the following:

CV tailored for each job
Cover letter tailored for each job
Looking for jobs on job websites, company websites, etc.
Asking friends and family about vacancies, networking, etc.

I would think LinkedIn is probably the least important factor when trying to find a job, so make sure you don't give it too much time.

The Browser

I landed an unbelievably good job in Dubai thanks to being headhunted out-of-the-blue on LinkedIn. My take-home pay jumped by 225%. So I'm an avid fan.

• Be detailed in your profile
• Only list relevant skills and experience
• Connect with recruiters
• Get recommendations
• Monitor your Linkedin connections via Hootsuite
• Always reply to recruiters whether you're interested or not (you never know when you'll need them)

Red About Town

The Browser wrote: »

Monitor your Linkedin connections via Hootsuite

Can you explain what this means please?

The Browser

Hootsuite is a social media dashboard. You create a free account and sync it to your Linkedin profile (or twitter or facebook profiles if you wish). Then it creates an easily watchable stream of your connections' activities, including job postings made by recruiters.

For demos, search for how-to videos on YouTube.

Sunny Dayz

Is LinkedIn just for recruitment? I'm quite happy in my job. But because it's a very small office I haven't many people to bounce things off, discuss issues etc. Over the years I've lost contact with most of the people I worked with in larger orgs. Is LinkedIn a good way of making new contacts and having discussions?

LinkedIn is brilliant and I recommend everyone complete their profile and take it seriously. I've been offered interviews by LinkedIn/Facebook/Google through it and if I didn't have a LinkedIn profile, I'd never have been contacted. I do work in an industry that is booming and where there is a skills shortage but from a personal branding perspective you need to have a LinkedIn profile. I recently read that it's a recruiters best friend for sourcing candidates and I can see why.

Eoin

Sunny Dayz wrote:

Is LinkedIn just for recruitment? I'm quite happy in my job. But because it's a very small office I haven't many people to bounce things off, discuss issues etc. Over the years I've lost contact with most of the people I worked with in larger orgs. Is LinkedIn a good way of making new contacts and having discussions?

They have tons of groups to discuss various topics, as well as an open questions section, so it's not all about recruitment.

dreamers75 wrote: »

LinkedIn is only useful if you have a job and someone from another job knows you(that you deal with) and pushes you on to HR.

Nope, they provide a headhunter service designed for HR staff to search for and approach candidates, so they can skip going through an agency.

Esse85

3DataModem wrote: »

Depends on your industry.

I get a lot of unsolicited - but relevant - approaches via LinkedIn. My profile also is pretty strong on search engines.

ie.linkedin.com/in/davidlyons1974

You look like you've seen a ghost.

Any particular reason you went for this photo?

3DataModem

Esse85 wrote: »

You look like you've seen a ghost.

Any particular reason you went for this photo?

Hmmm. Good question. Alas, that's what I loo like.

I haven't had much luck so far with LinkedIn. I've asked for a couple of recommendations and was told, no problem, but I think the people forgot about them and I don't want to badger them. I've joined a few relevant groups but not really sure how to proceed. People keep telling me I need a profile photo - is that really important? I've had issues with an old colleague who stalked me online and had to be reported to the police - I wouldn't be a fan of having my photo online tbh.

3DataModem

Esse85 wrote: »

You look like you've seen a ghost.

Any particular reason you went for this photo?

Now replaced.

Ty

seablue

I think Lindedin is useful for keeping in contact with former colleagues but the new system of endorsements is a joke.

To recruiters I'm sure it looks good but there is no way to verify these endorsements. For example, my last (crap) manager has loads of endorsements, but none of them are from people he works/worked with.

Mrs OBumble

seablue wrote: »

... the new system of endorsements is a joke.

+100

I'm apparently a whizz with PowerPoint, according to some people. And those who've endorsed me for requirements work don't work in IT or have a clue what it means.

Red About Town

I've started to get a number of random connection requests from people I don't know. Is this normal and would people recommend accepting them?

Also, what is the best visibility setting to have?

The Browser

Red About Town wrote: »

I've started to get a number of random connection requests from people I don't know. Is this normal and would people recommend accepting them?

Also, what is the best visibility setting to have?

If they're recruiters, a connection request is often a prelude to an offer. If they're other professionals with a good profile, accept on a case-by-case basis. If they have a poor profile, I never accept. I often send a short mail when asking to connect; and on my profile, I ask people to tell me why they'd like to connect with me if they're thinking of sending a request.

RainyDay

Is anyone else hugely frustrated with LinkedIn's latest tactic of automatically unsubscribing me from group digest emails for groups that I haven't visited in a while? The reason why I don't visit is because I use the weekly digest to scan the discussions. If I don't see anything relevant, I don't click. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to continue to get the weekly digests. It's very patronising and annoying.

Red About Town

Bumping this as have query.

How can I have my settings that updates don't appear to my connections? Want to make a good few changes to my profile but don't want others seeing them just yet.

3DataModem

Red About Town wrote: »

Bumping this as have query.

How can I have my settings that updates don't appear to my connections? Want to make a good few changes to my profile but don't want others seeing them just yet.

Turn off notifications that you’re making changes to your profile, by going to the Settings tab (mouse over your name on upper right hand corner) and then going to Privacy Controls (middle column on bottom half of screen), clicking “Turn on/off your activity broadcasts,” and unchecking the box to “Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies.” That way you can make changes without telling the world.

April O Neill

dreamers75 wrote: »

LinkedIn is only useful if you have a job and someone from another job knows you(that you deal with) and pushes you on to HR.

Not true. My boyfriend DID have a job, true, but got contacted to interview by a company where he knew nobody. He starts there in a week and a half.

April O Neill

seablue wrote: »

the new system of endorsements is a joke.

Agreed, I was once endorsed for PCR (polymerase chain reaction), a technique I have never used in my life. And it came from someone who has never been in a lab with me. I deleted it.

Red About Town

Is it worth upgrading to the account you pay for?

Ethan.Saaris

I have a medium profile - http://www.linkedin.com/in/popescuciprian - and I'm looking for a job. I'll see if I find something via LinkedIn, because I got lots of endorsements and I connected to several HR people.