Make The Most Out Of LinkedIn During Your Lockdown Job Search
Why You Should Stake Everything On LinkedIn Right Now
Disclaimer : This story is inspired by this excellent New York Times article.
The worldwide lockdowns have created a massive tsunami on workplaces : numerous unhealthy companies have received the final blow, other promising startups have seen profits skyrocket and are experiencing a historical boom.
Let’s try to look at it from a positive point of view : economic crises are always good times for new beginnings. Obsolete branches collapse, others emerge, century-old giants with feet of clay file for bankruptcy, and time is ripe for renewal and innovation. In the turbulence and turmoil, you may well be able to play your cards right ; this is a crucial moment to polish your presence on the world’s largest professional forum.
Yes, you can update your profile on a daily basis
Finding the perfect headline, the best experiences to highlight, the right part of your education to put forward isn’t straightforward and it’s okay if you change your mind now and then, remove one thing or add another. If you’re afraid of spamming your network’s feed with your tiny updates, you can easily disable the “share changes with your professional network” feature.
However, you should absolutely keep it up-to-date. LinkedIn is not the funniest place to be, yes it’s not TikTok, yes you’ll not come across dancing cats videos, but it is of vital importance today if you want to make the most out of your online presence.
A well-tended LinkedIn profile is an important way to stay relevant.
Also, and that’s something I find to be a bit of a paradox, a professional photo is an absolute must-have. I am not at all a big fan of photos on CV — I never put mine on my résumé — but on LinkedIn however, as it is a social media before anything else, that is of vital importance. Choose one but choose well, it’s not Facebook and you will not change it everyday (you should not).
Don’t be modest. Showcase your skills.
“LinkedIn members who have at least five skills on their profile are 27 times more likely to be discovered by recruiters,” said Blake Barnes, who oversees the strategy and development of new tools and products at LinkedIn.
Consider your LinkedIn profile just as your résumé. Indeed, in more and more job applications, you can submit your profile link instead of a résumé, so don’t be shy and don’t skimp on the skills section. Everything you put on your résumé, put it there.
Be cautious with the endorsement feature : in my humble opinion, it’s a very good point if former colleagues and/or managers endorse you for some of your skills (especially with a personalized comment relating your performance on a given project for example), but when it’s just you and your old schoolmates endorsing each other, it does seem a bit — well — ridiculous.
I’m not sure of the LinkedIn test feature, either. Indeed, in a given field, experiences can be so varied and different that assessing a given skill — let’s say, Python for example — with a uniform test seems to me a bit dangerous. Indeed, the experience of a data scientist with Python would not at all be the same as a physicist, or an application developer.
Engagement is the ultimate key
From my personal experience, it’s nearly impossible to predict beforehand if a post will be the next absolute trend or will make a flop. Regular engagement, therefore, is the key to discovering by yourself what works and what doesn’t, what people in your network are interested in and what leaves them totally indifferent.
Post things that showcase your interests : research articles that you liked, recent innovations that you found interesting, inspirational posts that moved you… Avoid blankly resharing others’ posts or articles without explaining why you feel it’s important to take a look on, always write a line or two to convince the people seeing it in their feeds that it should raise their legitimate interest.
Be very careful though : this is not a traditional social media. Never, ever, dwell on commonplace politics (except from a business-oriented point of view), on religion (except maybe on some special occasions, wishing well on Eid or Christmas for example), or on your private life (except for big changes impacting your professional life, like taking a parental leave). Always remain professionally minded, never say something you would not say at work in front of your colleagues (because, well, your ex-, present and future colleagues are here).
Be aware of posting hours : it’s best to be exposed on Mondays at 8 a.m. than on Saturdays at 9 p.m. Avoid external links, as the LinkedIn algorithm will strongly penalize your post’s visibility. Try, as often as possible, to include an engaging photo to catch the scroller’s eye. Beware of misspellings and colloquial language, as if you were writing a professional e-mail… Well, in the end, the rules are not so different from Medium curation guidelines !
Connect with people you wouldn’t talk to in real life
The great thing about LinkedIn, as with all other social media platforms, is that it enables you to become acquainted with people that would never have crossed your road otherwise. If you’re looking for a job and have target companies, don’t be shy and connect with their employees. Keep an open mind, be interested in others and you might meet incredible people with inspiring stories where you didn’t expect to find them.
Be a diplomat : always keep in mind that people love talking about themselves. Ask your new connections about their jobs, about a content they published recently, show interest for their path. Never despise anyone, after all the professional world is small and you might very well meet this person again in the future in a least advantageous situation, or he/she could have something of deep interest for you that wasn’t exposed on her/his profile headline…
Don’t look desperate, but show you’re open
People won’t come to you if you don’t invite them to. There are several options to label your profile as job-seeking, some will provide you more exposure than others — you don’t have to publish a post telling the world how you got laid off because of the crisis, but that’s an option if you find yourself in dire straits. However, writing such a post is a delicate process : you don’t want to look desperate, but rather highly motivated for a new adventure.
People won’t think badly of you for doing so, after all that’s what LinkedIn is for. I have seen wide support for these open calls lately, and that’s a sign the community is showcasing strong solidarity. Begging repels, dynamism appeals.
A silver lining of the pandemic is that it has stripped away some of the awkwardness around admitting you’ve lost your job.
If you’re not at ease with such exposure, or don’t want your colleagues to hear that you’re seeking a new opportunity, there are other less intrusive features, such as adding a label to your profile picture or just listing your profile as open to work so that it’s visible in recruiters’ search results.
Be the candidate companies didn’t even start looking for
Let’s make things clear, if you apply for a position a few days before the deadline, and after a hundred others, even if you’re the best fit for the job your chances are very thin. I hope everybody knows that already, because that’s not at all a LinkedIn specificity, but a widely known bias in recruiting.
LinkedIn claims that data collected in August showed that users are four times more likely to hear back from a job recruiter or hiring manager if they applied for a job posting within the first 10 minutes — so it helps to be quick.
That’s where it becomes crucial to be well-connected : very often, somebody will post a new job opening in his/her team via a LinkedIn post, hours or even days before the offer is officially posted by the HR team on the company’s conventional channels. If you’re able to see it immediately, that will definitely give you a head start in the recruitment process, not mentionning being able to directly draw the manager’s attention on your profile while skipping the HR stage (where, who knows, you could even have been skimmed !).
Your perfect job may not be where you think
We live in an era of great economic changes. Don’t be closed to opportunities you had not envisioned, that could be the start of a great and successful adventure. I often found that improbable offers have proven to be the best choices I ever made, opening a wide field of new possibilities, while helping diversifying my skills, interests and profile.
For example, a food service worker could see that his or her peers often transition into customer service specialist roles, a rapidly growing sector that requires about 70 percent of the same skills.
The good news is that LinkedIn has specially developed tools that target your skillset and provide you with offers you had not thought of considering, but that could prove excellent opportunities given your profile. And if you don’t have all the requirements for a good start in a new field yet, you can easily try some certifications or courses to bridge the gap…
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