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When you decide the time has come to look for your next career opportunity you will no doubt update your CV and, hopefully, register with a recruitment agency. Once you have taken those initial steps, be sure to also update your professional online profile too.
Recruiters and hiring managers alike use LinkedIn to find suitable professional candidates. Making sure you have optimised your profile and profile settings will increase your chances of receiving inbound communications about job opportunities directly from staffing agencies and business employers.
Below, we list 10 steps you can take to attract employers and to find jobs on LinkedIn.
1- Make sure you’re not invisible on LinkedIn
Change your visibility in the LinkedIn settings and make it public during your job search period. You can choose just how much of your profile will be visible in search engine results, such as your headline and summary, articles and activity, past experience and so on. If you have a website or blog, you can also create a badge in this section that can easily be embedded on it.
2- Set up LinkedIn alerts for jobs in your dream company
Is there a particular company that you would love to work for? Go to the LinkedIn page of your dream company, select the jobs tab and hit the ‘create job alert tab’. Note that you will only receive job alerts if that company has paid to advertise on LinkedIn, which not all businesses will have. As a fail safe, also check their regular posts to see what hashtag they use when posting about team vacancies or culture. You can then follow that hashtag and have similar posts delivered straight to your main feed.
3- Switch on ‘open to opportunities’
From your profile, select the Career Interests option and switch on open to opportunities to let recruiters and employers know your job seeking preferences. This can be seen by LinkedIn users with the Recruiter tool. When you switch on this setting, you will also have the opportunity to add a note to recruiters. Use this section to let them know what you are looking for, include your preferred job title, location, salary etc.
If you are at a stage where you are just dipping your toe into the job market, there is a dropdown option that lets you state if you are actively looking, casually looking or not looking but open to offers.
4- Advertise your readiness to work remotely
If you are open to working remotely, there is a button option in the career interests section that alerts recruiters.
5- Be upfront about your willingness to relocate
Similarly, you can also show your willingness to relocate and add a note to give details of where you are planning to relocate and your eligibility to work there. If you can’t see the willing to relocate option then there is a chance that it is not available in your country yet. Keep an eye on our LinkedIn page for updates on this.
6- Take the Skills Quiz
LinkedIn has stepped up its skills and endorsements section by adding a skill quiz for members. A handy addition for proving that you walk the walk and haven’t just listed a bunch of random skills to make yourself look impressive. Currently, skill quizzes are limited to tech (think HTML, AutoCad, PHP) and general skills like MS Excel and Quickbooks. Not a bad start, but we’re looking forward to seeing what quiz options will come next.
7- Add a photo
Do not underestimate the importance of a decent profile picture. Having no profile picture on LinkedIn screams ‘I can’t be bothered’. Your photo does not have to be taken by a professional photographer, but it helps if you look the part. Ask a colleague to take a quick head and shoulders shot.
8- Use your hard-earned accreditation
If you have a professional qualification CIPD, ACCA etc. Add these letters after your name and in your headline. You have worked hard for the privilege, please use it.
9- Check your experience and education match your CV
Check that all your experience is up to date and that it matches your CV. You don’t need as much detail in your professional experience section, but do include the most important things an employer would look for. They will be less interested in what your last employer did and more interested in what you did for that employer that will also help them.
10- Add your CV for more efficient applications
This is to help speed up the application process. In the settings, head to application settings section where you can upload a PDF or MS Word version of your latest CV.
For the latest jobs available see our website www.wallacemyers.ie/jobs or
email your CV to enquiries@wallacemyers.ie
