Don’t run behind recruiters and job openings, let them come to you!
In this article, we’ll go through 8 tips that will skyrocket your LinkedIn profile. If you let recruiters come to you, you have a competitive edge: you’re the reward!
Knowing that you are a desired professional, puts you in a position to ask for more benefits! On the other hand, if you apply for a job position, the role is the reward, which puts you in a poorer position to negotiate.
1. Location
Change the location of your LinkedIn to a big city near you: Big companies hire third-party recruiters (sometimes in other countries). These recruiters look for people in a certain locality. Take advantage of that, what are the probabilities of a recruiter looking for people in a town rather than in a big city? This has helped me land the last two jobs.
2. Use the headline to your benefit
DON’T put your current profession in the headline, put what you want to become, and use keywords/buzzwords like PMP, Data analyst, etc. To know what the most searched keywords are, first look for open positions on LinkedIn using those keywords and compare the number of results.
3. Professional picture
You are selling yourself on this platform, you are the product. Therefore, marketing and first impressions are very important.
Go to https://pfpmaker.com/ and remove the background of your profile picture:
For example, this is my picture:
You can even find a pattern for your LinkedIn banner:
Final result, a clear LinkedIn profile in less than 2 minutes:
4. Skill assessments
Do the skills assessments of LinkedIn! This helps you to appear in front of everyone when a recruiter is looking for candidates.
5. Keywords are your friends
Use the description section to your advantage: Use keywords here and write at least 300 words.
6. Increase your social selling index and network
Add random HR/ Recruiters, this will help with two things: Increasing your Social Selling Index and it will also increase your network.
The Social Selling Index (SSI) is an indicator that tells you how well you are using the LinkedIn platform. This index will help you to know how good or bad are you doing against your network and industry. Here is the link to see your own SSI: http://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi
7. Don’t be needy
Remember: the hiring process is a negotiation process.
Therefore, DON’T EVER use the “open for work” banner in your profile image, this shows desperation and neediness.
If you use the “open for work” banner, it shows that you have no better alternative, hence, you have no leverage in the negotiation process.
8. Have your own brand
Your LinkedIn profile URL has random characters by default. You can edit your own LinkedIn profile URL to make it more professional and start building your own brand.
In my case, I have my email address in my URL, which shows consistency in my different communication channels.
Have these tips helped you? Please comment if you have more LinkedIn tips.