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10 Tips to Jump-Start Your Job Search on LinkedIn

February 9th, 2012 | Author:

Most peo­ple miss the pur­pose of LinkedIn.  They think the goal is to grow their net­work as quickly as pos­si­ble just to say they have 500+ con­tacts.  After that, they ignore the net­work they worked so fever­ishly to build. LinkedIn can be a gold mine for job seek­ers and career minded pro­fes­sion­als who are will­ing to put in the time to develop their con­tacts into long last­ing rela­tion­ships.  If your goal is sim­ply to amass as many con­nec­tions as pos­si­ble your efforts will be wasted.   There are many things you can do on LinkedIn to jump-start your job search beyond merely con­nect­ing with others.

10 LinkedIn Job Search Tips:

1. Nur­ture rela­tion­ships. Once you have made con­nec­tions and devel­oped a net­work on LinkedIn you need to look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to reach out to those peo­ple and con­tinue the con­ver­sa­tion. Start think­ing about how you can become ‘mem­o­rable’ to oth­ers and share your brand. The fol­low­ing tips will help you accom­plish this.
2. Share your brand in your pro­fes­sional head­line.  Become mem­o­rable by shar­ing your brand or your 5 sec­ond com­mer­cial in your head­line.  Rather than using a bor­ing job title try some­thing like this…’Professional Hard­ware Engi­neer whose bril­liance lies within  the box’.  If you are in tran­si­tion you could men­tion a con­sult­ing role or say some­thing like, ‘Net­work Engi­neer look­ing for next career opportunity’.
3. Engage your audi­ence in your sum­mary. So many LinkedIn users copy and paste their resumes in the sum­mary sec­tion.  Don’t do it!  There are apps for that.  Instead, tell a story of your career high­lights using key words and PAR’s (Prob­lem, Action Result) to make your sum­mary inter­est­ing and give it sub­stance.  Use the first per­son to make it per­son­able and engag­ing.  LinkedIn allows 2, 000 char­ac­ters for your sum­mary.  Don’t be shy.  Use them all!
4. Post sta­tus updates often.  Here is another great place to reach out to your net­work.  If you are in tran­si­tion let oth­ers know what you are look­ing for.  Say some­thing like, ‘Look­ing for a Pur­chas­ing Man­age­ment role in the South Bay – Who do you know?’ Your pro­fes­sional net­work wants to help.  This is the place to let them know how they can help you.
5. Net­work your way into com­pa­nies.  First, develop a list of tar­get com­pa­nies you are inter­ested in.  Under the ‘Com­pany’ tab locate net­work con­tacts who work in the com­pany you are inter­ested in.  See who in your net­work is con­nected to some­one in your tar­get com­pany and get an intro­duc­tion.  Under the Com­pany tab you will find  lists of for­mer employ­ees,  new hires as well as cur­rent employ­ees.  The com­pany tab offers invalu­able mar­ket intel­li­gence to help you get in the back door of com­pa­nies you are inter­ested in apply­ing to.
6. Much more than a job board.  LinkedIn ‘Jobs’ offers another excel­lent oppor­tu­nity for you to net­work your way into your tar­get com­pa­nies.  When review­ing a job, search for the name of the per­son who posted it.  From there you can see how you are con­nected and net­work your way to the per­son who posted the job.  Also, when you click on a job you are inter­ested in, a box pops up called, ‘Inside con­nec­tions to the com­pany’.  This shows you how many con­nec­tions you have inside the com­pany.  Why would you spend time on any other job board when you have this type of net­work­ing intel­li­gence at your fin­ger­tips?
7. Browse your net­work.  Review the net­work of any of your key con­tacts.  Who are you not con­nected to, that you would like to get an intro­duc­tion to, who could con­nect you with a hir­ing manager?
8. Give rec­om­men­da­tions. Unso­licited rec­om­men­da­tions are one of the nicest gifts you can give to your 1st degree con­tacts. This is another excel­lent oppor­tu­nity for you to nur­ture a rela­tion­ship.  Rec­om­men­da­tions must be solid, with PAR spe­cific exam­ples of the individual’s expertise.
9. Join new groups. Join groups in your tar­geted career field.  Here you can dis­cuss top­ics with group mem­bers and start dis­cus­sions of your own.  Group dis­cus­sions allow you to get your brand out in front of a wide audi­ence who share your pro­fes­sional inter­ests.  The other advan­tage of join­ing a group is that you can mes­sage peo­ple in the group with­out being con­nected to them.
10. Com­ment on another’s sta­tus.  Another way to reach out to your net­work is to view your home page reg­u­larly and look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to com­ment on oth­ers’ sta­tus updates. Con­grat­u­late them on a recent pro­mo­tion, a rec­om­men­da­tion they have received or a blog post.
Tak­ing the time to build and cul­ti­vate your net­work on LinkedIn is the most pow­er­ful way to jump-start your job search.  Take advan­tage of every oppor­tu­nity to reach out and engage your net­work because the time spent here will go a long way to help you secure your next job.  And just because you’ve landed that new oppor­tu­nity doesn’t mean you ignore your net­work.  Career man­age­ment is all about nur­tur­ing your net­work for the long haul.  Always stay LinkedIn!  Fol­low us on Face­book and Twit­ter.
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