How to optimise your LinkedIn profile for job offers
How to optimise your LinkedIn profile for job offers
For me the most important third-party data source to find new candidates outside of the existing network and internal databases of our company is LinkedIn. It’s not the only tool, but it is the most important. In my daily routines I call at least one new candidate, usually more. And I use hours and hours a week reading profiles and trying to find new interesting candidates on LinkedIn. And many of my colleagues do the same in our company and in other companies as well.
Still, our aim is to, unleash potential. And there is a lot of talent ant potential out there that easily goes under the radar. Tweaking your LinkedIn profile will go a long way in making sure you’ll be of those I or any of my colleagues’ call.
Here are some practical tips:
Check that you have your position, company, skills & expertise and location updated on LinkedIn.
The more text you have on your profile, the easier it is to end up in my search results. (But it doesn’t mean, that you should have a novel on your profile.)
If you have some gaps in your working history, especially in recent years, tell something about it. Was it parental leave, sabbatical leave, something else?
If you are open to new opportunities, tell that in your profile. The best way to tell it to a head-hunter is to add info to your profile intro (Go to your profile - > Add profile section - > Intro -> Looking for new opportunities.) You can specify couple of things and decide, if your job seeking is open to all or only for recruiters.
It’s good to have a (professional) picture in your profile.
Unleash potential
There is no one single standardised formula, which I use when doing searches. If there were, we’d end up systematically excluding some talent. Not only that, we don’t want to simply filter based on a specific set of past experiences, certificates and education. Doing that wouldn’t be any better than a bot scraping the internet only at human pace. We want to form as full a picture as possible. That is not to say there is no logic or structure to the process. Rather, it means it is a process where skill and intelligence is applied. A purely standardised process can and surely will be automated, it is an excellent case for applying machine learning. But it is also hiding a risk of automating bias in recruiting. And so, as we take pride in finding and unleashing potential and driving diversity, processes do get tailored from case to case quite a bit.
As you can imagine, it’s difficult to say exactly, what you should have in your profile to end up to my call list. Usually I start my search by using job titles and interesting companies and maybe location and skills as well, depending on the position. If I have a lot of candidates for a given position, I will apply some other filters, such as industry, for example. I can also use some keywords, which can vary a lot; java, structured finance, project management, consulting, real estate, FMCG, again depending on the position.
So, in addition to having your previous positions on your profile, make sure that you have relevant keywords on your profile. Words, which tell about your experience and are relevant in the business you work in.
With my colleagues we are ready to unleash your potential – are you ready to help us do it?
Anna Haavikko
Researcher
