Have you ever wondered why you aren’t getting random calls from recruiters looking for someone with your experience and skills? I mean, the economy is coming back. Companies are hiring. And hiring managers are STILL struggling to fill positions. There should be a huge number of recruiters out there teaming to find people just like you!
Well, all of that is true. But chances are you are impossible to find!
Recently, I wrote a social media job search training curriculum for an unemployment organization. I had seven days to find trainers to subcontract and deliver it.
So I wrote up a job description and sent it out on my social media channels, emailed it to my network, and called a few friends. Five days later, I had no one, except a few pathetic emails from people who didn’t even send me their resume or LinkedIn profile link. The one resume that was sent in was so generic that I wondered if the person even read my job description.
With just two days left to deliver my candidates, I decided to do what most recruiters do in my exact situation. No, not start drinking! Do people searches on LinkedIn.
Several great candidates showed up as first or second degree connections. Of those, just one seemed to be available for contract work. So I InMailed her an inquiry, and she responded with a resume and video of her training. She was a perfect fit.
Life lesson: recruiting is hard work!
If you’re looking for a job, and you are reasonably smart, then there are recruiters out there who would benefit from talking to you. I’m guessing from my own experience, that they simply can’t find you. Or if they do find you, something about your LinkedIn profile turns them away.
In either case, you have more control over this situation than you think. Getting found by recruiters doesn’t have to be a passive strategy.
Here is a two part active strategy for getting found.
First, Get on Search Results
The first step to getting found by recruiters is to simply show up. Like me, recruiters are using keywords to search their LinkedIn profiles. Results will show up based on degree of separation and presence of the search term.
Tip 1: become 1st degree connected to as many recruiters as possible. They are the ones making the most searches. Having recruiters in your network increases your chances of popping up based on your degree of separation.
Tip 2: describe yourself as specifically and as accurately as possible. The well known social media strategist Christopher Penn uses his own profile as a great example of this:
My job is simple: get qualified leads in the door using Inbound Marketing methods such as social media, search, and email.
Not terrible, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s the much improved version:
My job is simple: get qualified leads in the door using Inbound Marketing methods such as social media, search, and email. In the first 8 months, I’ve helped to create a 10x increase in the number of inbound leads through organic SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and other marketing methods.
Tip 3: Adjust your profile for an upward trend in search appearances. Most LinkedIn users have access to a graph called, Appearances in Search. You can find it by going to your Home page and clicking on Who’s Viewed Your Profile. This is an area on the right side of that page, you can also get there directly by clicking: http://www.linkedin.com/wvmx/profile
On this page you’ll find the Trends box with a graph in it, see the chart below. By filling out your profile with specific and accurate information about yourself, you should start to see an upward trend in this chart. The better you write about yourself, the more this graph will grow. If you’re struggling with writing about yourself, there are plenty of recommended LinkedIn profile writing services out there.
Second, Make Them Click
Think of your profile not as an online resume, but as an advertisement. Once you start to show up on search results pages for recruiters, your next job is to get them to click on your profile.
Just like with other paid ads online, just showing up on the page isn’t enough. The ad headline and description text needs to compel you to click.
On LinkedIn your Photo, Headline and Recommendations have the greatest impact on click rates (from my own experience). See this screenshot:
By making small changes to these three elements, you will begin to see increases in the number of times your profile was actually viewed. This is the graph called Views from the page we just visited.
If you’re not seeing an upward trend, the fix your photo, headline or number of recommendations.
Third, Be an Internet Marketer
Simply by shifting your perception of LinkedIn from an online resume to an online advertising platform, you can approach your career opportunities much more quantifiably. First you have to show up on search results for the right people, then you have to compel them to click. Using LinkedIn’s two graphs, Appearances in Search and Views, you can measurably make improvements and increase your chances of getting recruiting to that dream position.
If writing your own profiles has been a bit frustrating, you are not alone. Many people struggle with writing about themselves. And your career is nothing to take lightly. If you’d like to see some stellar results from LinkedIn, check out my LinkedIn profile writing service.
Great information. I am part of the group of professionals who “made an stop on my career to raise children”. I had been out of the market for almost 20 years. I had been looking actively for jobs about 4 months. I started with the newspaper, then searching online on sites like monster, indeed. I had an employee from Job and family services help me write my resume and I did not learn about LinkedIn or other sites until a month ago. I actively wrote my profile using resume’s language and I learned about key word resume writing. It’s been 4 months but to me it has been so much what I have learned. I have landed 4 interviews over the phone and they have contacted me 3 weeks later to tell me I was in the final group but they think my gap (being out of the market for so long) is a risky decision for their company, so they decided to decline me as a potential candidate.
I am doing everything you have advised. I will be looking to search for an article written by you about professional moms who willingly choose “family” over a Management or Engineering position for a period of time. What is the best strategy for the “comeback”.
Thanks!
Virginia Holmes
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I’m a recruiter and I use linkedin almost exclusively to find my candidates. I often search by job title (past and present). Each position you’ve held is an opportunity to create a job title. Make sure you include job titles that are popular and widely used so you’ll pop up in a recruiter’s search. Also, hate to say this but if the first thing I see is, “Actively looking for new opportunities,” I assume you are unemployed and probably won’t click on your profile. Please don’t advertise that you are unemployed. There are concrete ways to “hide” this uncomfortable truth.
Awesome post, really solid and useful information. Only one problem, I now have to go to my linkedin profile and do some stuff I should have done a long time ago! Thanks for posting.