Whether you’re looking for a job or are happy with your current one, LinkedIn is a must have for people who plan to have a good networking source and a successful career. Founded in 2002, Microsoft’s social network is becoming an essential tool for interns, analysts or even CEOs: besides having more than half-billion users, according to Business Insider Intelligence, LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform amongst Fortune 500 companies.
However, LinkedIn is still seen as unnecessary or useless for most of millennials: as reported by Omnicore Agency, only 13% of millennials use the platform. That means that, if you’re between 15 and 34 years old, having a LinkedIn will definitely step up your game in networking and job-hunting.
Do companies really hire employees through LinkedIn?
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Many companies prefer to find employees via LinkedIn due to its capability to sum-up the candidate’s qualities and experiences. With so many 3-paged-resumes out there, LinkedIn provides an overview of candidates to HRs that are tired of looking at so many pages.
For Márcia Denes, Head of Human Capital at Red Ventures Brazil, LinkedIn is, today, one of the most important tools for HR hunting. Talking about the importance of LinkedIn to get a job, she says that almost 50% of the recent candidates hired at the company were found through the social network.
“I believe having a LinkedIn account is very important, especially if you’re starting your career. If I’m looking for a qualified position for the company, a good LinkedIn profile will stand out, because it shows that the candidate is interested and put an effort on it”, Marcia comments. Since LinkedIn is still an unexplored territory for most of millennials, the competition can be smaller than it would be on a resume kind of recruitment.
But, just like in an interview, recruiters are also looking for certain qualities and behaviors in someone’s LinkedIn. So, if you want to catch a recruiter’s attention with LinkedIn, there are some good tips to follow.
How to make your LinkedIn stand out
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1. Write a clear headline
At LinkedIn, your name is just as important as your headline. If recruiters want to fill a certain post, they will search for job titles and LinkedIn won’t rank profiles with unnecessary information in their headlines. If recruiters want to find the best suit for a Marketing intern, for example, they’ll probably look up for “marketing intern” or “marketing and innovation”. In this case, Marcia Denes explains that headlines like “seeking opportunities in marketing” won’t rank in LinkedIn’s searches.
2. Use the description box at your favor
Having an objective and clear description at the top of your profile can show a summary of your abilities and experiences to the recruiters. Just like headlines, descriptions also help on search ranks, so focus on writing the most important things you’ve done and what you’re good at.
3. Add bullet points to your job descriptions or experiences
Recruiters usually take a quick glance at profiles, so it’s good to have straight-forwarded job and experiences descriptions. The best way to do so is through bullet points, explaining what were your roles in a previous activity or job. If you worked at a small or medium company, is recommended to give an overview of the organization. Recruiters don’t necessarily know the company you worked for and won’t take the time to look that up.
4. Be an active user
Most of job recruiters use a self-explanatory LinkedIn platform called LinkedIn Recruitment, created to show the best profiles to the employer. Marcia Denes, an active user of the platform, says that the best-ranked profiles on LinkedIn Recruitment are active users. She says that
To determinate an active user, the network’s algorithm balances features of the candidate’s profile (like photo, description and competences) and response rate to messages. “When I search for a candidate, I only dig deep on candidates recommended by LinkedIn – the ones that are active users”, says Denes, that uses the platform to search candidates for Red Ventures’ brands like Azulis, IQ and Capital Research.
When well used, LinkedIn can be a true booster for your career. So take a time to improve your profile, add some good connections and be ready to network!