How Can Job Seekers and Employers Use LinkedIn to Find Each Other?

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Finding a job in today’s world is often hard, but using LinkedIn to find a job may make the process a little easier than you expected.

Social networking sites let you watch funny videos, post comments, share images and stay connected with friends and loved ones around the world, but LinkedIn is a type of professional social networking site. Companies and individuals working for those companies use the site to form connections and find out about job openings. As long as you have an account on the site, you can use LinkedIn to your own advantage too.

Use the Right Keywords

When you create a LinkedIn account, you have the chance to fill in different sections and tell other users more about you. Using the right keywords can help you get interviews with some of the world’s top companies. Job recruiters search the web to find qualified applicants and often use a type of invisible search that won’t show up when you see who viewed your page. Those recruiters look for resumes and accounts that contain keywords relating to the skills they want in new employees.

Create a List of Hard Skills

Soft skills refer to those general skills you developed in high school and those basic skills that many job hunters have. A list of soft skills might include your experience as a team player, your problem solving skills or your time management skills. Instead of focusing on soft skills, make your LinkedIn account stand out with a list of hard skills you have. Hard skills include specific skills that relate to either the career you have or the career you want. You might make mention of your knowledge of web design software, search engine optimization skills or data mining experience.

Use the Job Board

You may find yourself so caught up in looking at who to follow and updating your page that you don’t even realize LinkedIn has its very own job board. You can access this section of the site via the “Jobs” link located on each page. The Jobs board lets you search for jobs based on type like sales, engineering or management. If you find a job that you like, you can even apply for that position with the information already available on your account. LinkedIn also offers help and guidance in the form of articles and resources on preparing for a job interview and conducting a better job search.

Follow Key Employers

Marie Claire recommends following all your favorite companies, key employers and your dream companies when using LinkedIn to find a job. In the same way that Facebook and other social networking sites update you when users make changes to their accounts, LinkedIn notifies you when each company you follow makes changes. This lets you know when a company adds a new department and when an employee decided to leave. You can use your insider knowledge to apply for open positions before others even hear about those openings.

You can send out hundreds of resumes without getting back a single response and search dozens of sites without seeing a job that appeals to you. Using LinkedIn to find a job lets you stay connected with top companies within your industry and hear about job openings online before other applicants do.

See also: How Does Social Media Affect a Human Resources Professional?

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