Three Tips for Using LinkedIn for Your Job Search

Three tips for using LinkedIn in your job search are to build an exemplary profile, a relevant network and an operational research foundation. With LinkedIn, you can find a position in your current field or look into a new career path.

Getting started on LinkedIn is easy, especially if you have a résumé ready. Your profile is not set to publish immediately, so take your time and make sure it meets your expectations. To ensure you have everything you need, follow these tips to build your profile:

1. Upload a professional-looking headshot.
2. Transfer a keyword-rich résumé to your profile.
3. Provide a creative headline with an informative tagline.
4. Add portfolio links and upload documents to highlight your work experience.
5. Upload company links for each position.
6. Add social networking links.
7. Choose skills that relate to your current work and future career path.
8. Swap your numerical URL for a personalized one and add it to your business card.
9. Proofread your work prior to activating your profile.

Now that your profile is complete, the next step is building your network. This can be time-consuming; however, LinkedIn provides helpful, expedient ways to accomplish this task.

1. Use your current e-mail contacts to invite former and current colleagues to connect.
2. Join groups, answer questions, post significant articles and review group job offerings.
3. Follow company pages, engage in discussions and scan company job descriptions.
4. Draw LinkedIn members to your profile by posting professional industry-driven articles.
5. Sign up for e-mail alerts about jobs, companies and groups.
6. Make endorsements and recommendations about former colleagues' work.
7. Share relevant articles with open-ended questions to specific groups to increase article reach.
8. Personalize LinkedIn invitations to connect with former colleagues.
9. Ask connections to introduce you to members in prospective companies.
10. Respond to invites and messages promptly.
11. Review information regarding new LinkedIn members to grow your network.

By navigating through group and company pages, you can gain insight about a prospective company's culture and make beneficial network connections. This, in turn, will increase your chances for obtaining a desired position.

While some job seekers do not require anonymity, others prefer to keep a job search quiet. By using LinkedIn search or LinkedIn partners, you can create a tailored job search. You can also check out the jobs tabs on company pages and group discussions. The advanced search option features a filter for jobs, titles, locations and recruiters. If you want to make your job search secret, you can turn off your activity broadcasts and select who can see your activity feed. You can choose to keep a group affiliation secret. Furthermore, you can prevent updates from appearing on in-group newsfeeds as well as personal page feeds.

These measures can advance your job search with LinkedIn as your job-search resource. With a professional LinkedIn profile, you can attract employers and former colleagues to assist in your job search by building your profile, networking and connecting with past, present and potential companies and employees.

("LinkedIn Endorsements + SML Thank You!" by See-ming Lee licensed by CC BY 2.0)