Posted on January 13 2015
73 per cent of HR professionals have sourced potential candidates via social media sites, with 79 per cent of them turning to LinkedIn.
This will not only add colour to their page, but also helps potential employers get a better sense of the person behind the profile and what they know.
Grab the headlines
Each LinkedIn profile allows users to include a “headline” about themselves that neatly sums up what they’re all about. Some people use this feature during their job search to concisely state what they’re doing now, and what they’d like to do next, which sends a clear message to potential employers that they’re on the lookout for a new job. Obviously, it’s not possible for everyone to be so overt about their desire to change careers, particularly for those in long-term employment, but we’d still advise making use of the headline feature as it provides another means of flagging what you can do.
Make connections
If IT pros can count the number of LinkedIn connections they have on one hand, any blogs you write or statuses you share won’t be seen by very many people, and that defeats the point of joining the site in the first place. To increase their pool of contacts, job seekers should search the site for friends, former colleagues and any other industry contacts they know to build out their networks. From here, depending on how forward they are, they could privately ask their connections to introduce them to other industry-types they feel might be worth getting to know for career progression purposes.
Follow the firm
Often people have in mind a company they’d love to work for, if an opportunity were to arise. LinkedIn allows users to “follow” companies they might be interested in working for (or tracking for competitive reasons) so they can keep abreast of all the latest developments. For example, a company might use their channel to announce their expansion plans, product launches, staffing changes and new job opportunities. So, it makes sense for job seekers to use this feature to keep tabs on any companies they might be interested in working for one day in case an opening arises. Provided they’ve paid attention to what’s been published, this means they should be well-versed in what the company does and what they’re going to do next if they do end up bagging an interview with them.
Join groups There are thousands of IT-related groups on Linkedin, and signing up to a few, contributing to discussions or simply soaking up what’s being talked about can all help in the hunt for that elusive dream job. By becoming an active group participant, job seekers might find themselves on the radar of a potential recruiter and may also benefit from accruing even more industry knowledge. Rightly or wrongly, some members choose to post job ads in groups, so it’s worth checking in every so often just to see if any new opportunities have arisen.
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