Whether or not you have bought in yet, LinkedIn has become necessary in your job search. Instead of complaining about LinkedIn being another social network, learn how to navigate it and use it to your advantage. LinkedIn has many uses beyond just keeping up with people you met from your last networking event. It can actually be the determining factor in helping you land your next job. Here are the top three tips on how to use LinkedIn for your job search:
- Update your profile. Recruiters and human resources professionals use keywords and boolean searches to find individuals that match a particular profile or skill-set. If your profile is not updated, you will not get contacted for potential roles. If your profile is stagnating with information from your previous positions, you will get irrelevant and unwanted calls for positions that are poorly-suited to your current expertise and potentially off-track from your career path.
- Do your homework. LinkedIn is a database of company and personnel information at your fingertips. You can discover current news and projects, tech innovations and sometimes, the very individuals working on these projects. Use this information in an interview to demonstrate your passion for the company, their product and services. Find shared connections and ask for introductions into the company with key decision-makers.
- Last but not least – APPLY. LinkedIn has a job search function where you can search and apply for positions just like other job sites and niche career boards. You can even set up a job search alert that lets you know when key jobs come available that match your job search criteria. Stop wasting your time searching for jobs, and let LinkedIn do the work for you.
Job hunting is never easy, but following these three steps can help ease some of the burden. Have more questions or need additional help? Be sure to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.