Making Yourself Recruiter-worthy on LinkedIn
September 30, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Every time I turn around the statistics get bigger. Last fall, the percentage of companies using LinkedIn to find new employees was in the high 80s. It’s now well over 90%. Today I’m going to address what companies look for on a LinkedIn profile.
As background for this column I talked with a couple of recruiters I know. These two have reviewed more LinkedIn profiles than they care to remember and they’ve seen it all.
The first thing they do is perform a screen. They take the basic search parameters and run an advanced search on LinkedIn. Let’s say they are looking for a PCB designer. And say their screen comes up with a list of 160 PCB designers all within a 30-mile radius of the company on whose behalf they are searching.
Next comes the “quick toss” round. All profiles with one or more of the following get tossed: No or very low number of contacts (might be a fake profile, also indicative that the rest of the profile won’t be worth reading), no photo (someone with no photo may have something to hide), and large gaps in work history (big unexplained gap equals something bad). Are these assessments fair? Maybe, maybe not. But human resources people and recruiters go with the odds. And if a profile has these problem areas, odds are they will not be good candidates. This gets a rid of a lot of profiles.
Second round is the quick scan of remaining profiles. This captures incomplete profiles--bad pictures, poor education matches, and one line descriptions (or no descriptions!) of jobs held.Now they should be down to a manageable number of profiles they'll read. The first pass in reading the profiles will be to ascertain that the minimum criteria that the company has set for the job are met by the candidates. Do they have the right education? How about the right experience and length of experience? Do their past job titles match the companies’ expectations? This process eliminates even more profiles.
What they are left with should be a small number of profiles that can be read carefully. Now they are looking for responsibilities and accomplishments as a career has progressed. They are looking at the persons’ recommendations: Do they recommend specific traits and skills by talking about specific accomplishments? Or are they vague, “Bob is really good at what he does,” recommendations? They will look at the persons’ groups and interests from a professional standpoint to see how they support the career arc. And if there is a summary, does it support the career arc?Now the searching firm has a basis to either rank the candidates and approach them, or decide to go back and start again if none of the candidates measure up.
So, knowing all this, how can you take advantage of this information as a possible job candidate?Well, it starts with a great profile and there’s a secret to top-notch LinkedIn profiles:Have a great headline.In updating your profile, you should look at yourself as a brand and think of the value proposition of that brand. This goes in your headline and becomes the guiding light for everything in your profile. For example, many people would just use their title as their headline. Big mistake. Your title will automatically be lifted from your current (job) experience and appear under “current.” Your headline should be your value proposition. So your title may be “Director of R&D,” but your headline could be, “Fourteen years in R&D focused on managing RF product development, with six successful product lines and extensions.” And that headline, appearing right below your name, is going to grab everyone’s attention.With your headline as your signpost showing you the way:
- Have a picture that makes you look like a professional.
- Fill out your education where it supports your brand. If you have a Master Degree, great, list it. But only go deeply into what you studied if it supports your brand. Some people disagree with this approach, but I never want the focus taken away from my value proposition.
- The same goes for your experience. You are allowed 2,000 characters for each experience section. Take the amount of space necessary to tell this part of your story as it supports your brand.
- Get recommendations and word them in such a way that they support your brand too. If you have to, write them yourself and then send them to the recommender for their stamp of approval (sending suggestions to your recommenders isn’t “cheating,” it’s just smart).
- Join whatever groups you like. Sewing? Great! Model boat builders? Sure. But then edit your profile so that these groups don’t show on your profile. Only have groups that support your value proposition be visible on your profile.
- I recommend you write your summary last. As with your experience sections, you are allowed 2,000 characters here. I recommend you write it in thirds. The first third should be about your current job and your responsibilities. The second third should be about why you love your current job--the challenges and rewards. And the third part should be about what you aspire to be doing one or two years from now. This shows you have ideas for bigger and better things.
A few words about keywords: Keywords are important to LinkedIn’s search algorithm. Figure out which keywords you would like to be found by, and make sure they appear in your summary, your experience (especially job titles) and ideally in your headline.
Now you’re looking good.
Action this day: It’s a good idea to review your profile every few months to make sure it reflects what you want the world to see.Bruce Johnston is a sales consultant specializing in social media and especially LinkedIn. He has over 25 years experience in high tech sales and management. He can be reached at brucej@practicalsmm.com or through his profile on LinkedIn.