LinkedIn is a huge platform with a huge selection of positions, but it can still be hard to land one. Try some of these proven tips to increase your chances of scoring that job.
Take advantage of the skill slots
You know your LinkedIn profile has a section for your skills, but do you know how much power it gives you? There are fifty slots in total there! Use them to the fullest! It’s okay if you don’t actually have such a massive skill set.
Of course, nobody will scroll through fifty entries, even if you come up with that many things you’re good at off the top of your head. No, the power of the Skills sections is keyword real estate. This is how you get discovered.
Fill the first dozen or so slots with your applicable skills. List the things you’re confident you can do well. Then fill the remaining space with adjacent keywords. Many recruiters nowadays rely on AI to scan prospective candidates.
Feed those bots all the terms they could possibly search for in your niche. The goal is to get past that first sieve and onto the radar of a human scout.
Boost your engagement rates
The best way to get a prospective employer’s attention is to be active. Interact with LinkedIn itself as much as you can. To get the best results, split this into two phases: following and posting.
First, find a few strong pages in your industry. They can be company pages or individuals who are big names in your field of work. Follow them and start interacting with their posts. Comment on the content they publish, and participate in conversations.
Big pages (companies and individuals alike) have large audiences and wide reach. This means that your comments get a large audience too. See who likes what you say, check out what they do, and start networking.
Second, publish content of your own. Share your achievements and demonstrate your expertise. Share useful resources. Build up a reputation for being knowledgeable and helpful. Learn how to preview a post on LinkedIn to achieve optimal formatting. You want your stuff to display clearly on all devices and reach as many platform users as possible.
Get some endorsements
Endorsement is a function on LinkedIn that works as a sort of demonstration of trust. People can endorse each other for certain skills. It’s a way of saying “I personally know this particular individual and I support their claim that they are good at doing this particular thing.” if you could get references from colleagues rather than former employers, this would be it.
So reach out to a few fellow professionals. Ask them to look at the skills you listed on your profile and endorse one (or several). It would be best if you could get endorsed by someone who has a good track record in the corresponding niche. Not much sense in an electric engineer endorsing a chemist’s skill at toxins management, right?
Focus on specific achievements
Your relevant hobbies might get you bonus points in an interview if you pitch them at the right moment. On LinkedIn, keep them under wraps. Focus on niche-specific, measurable results. What have you achieved in your career that a potential employer would see as an asset?
If you can, offer mathematical data. Cite percentages and precise numbers. If you already have professional mileage, include keywords like “customer satisfaction”, “user experience”, “research”, “strategy”, “implementation”, etc.
If you are just entering the workforce, it’s perfectly acceptable to list your academic and/or social achievements instead. Were you the valedictorian of your class? Completed some high-skill courses? Done some notable volunteer work in the niche? Done a great internship in your target industry? Tell potential employers what you’ve done so far that makes you shine.
Link in your job applications
If you are focusing your efforts primarily on LinkedIn, then try to keep your entire job hunt within LinkedIn. In other words, use it to apply to positions as well as discover them. LinkedIn has a feature known as “Easy Apply.” Easy Apply gives you the option of applying to a position via the LinkedIn posting instead of via the employer’s website or a third-party app.
It’s not available for all jobs, but it is for many. It saves you tons of time when submitting your resume and relevant details. This means you can act faster than candidates who don’t utilize it and maybe get a leg up on your competition.
To sum up, make full use of the Skill section and Endorsement function. Engage as much as you can, and get colleagues to endorse you for relevant skills. Highlight your measurable achievements, and use in-platform Easy Apply to get ahead of the competition.
Senior business developer and financial manager with a demonstrated history of working in the SaaS and FinTech industry. She was involved in fundraising for multiple projects, both from private investors and the European Commission. Ivana is a co-founder of Authoredin, a software that supports content creation on Linkedin.
