Guide: How to Get Hired Through LinkedIn

Good news for job seekers out there! Although the global pandemic is still in full swing, you can always land your next job through social media. 94% of recruiters use social media, especially LinkedIn, to find potential candidates. There are over 14 million job openings on LinkedIn to choose from. Moreover, one person is getting hired on LinkedIn every 3 minutes.

It is undoubtedly an influential job board, but how to get hired through LinkedIn? Easy peasy – find your dream job or let it find you! As simple as it sounds, there’s much more to it. Keep reading on to find out how you can use this powerful platform to find your next opportunity.

Find Your Dream Job

To get hired, you must know who’s hiring. It sounds obvious, but did you know how and where to find them? Below are some useful tips for searching for jobs on LinkedIn.

Use LinkedIn Built-in Features

Recruiters post millions of jobs on LinkedIn every day, so it’s critical to find relevant job listings that match your expectation, skills, and qualifications by using these two functions.

1. The Search Bar

On the top left of your LinkedIn homepage, you’ll see a search field where you can type in a job title or the name of a company you want to work for.

2. The Jobs Page

Not too far from the search bar, you’ll see a ‘Jobs’ icon which gives you access to the jobs page. Here you can search for jobs with your preferred location and filter the results. After applying all filters, you can set and subscribe to job alerts to get notifications for future job openings.

Reach Out to Recruiters Directly

If you’re an adventurous type of person, you should try the following steps: 

1. Make a list of places you want to work.
2. Do some research to find out who’s in charge of the hiring process.
3. Request to connect with them on LinkedIn.

In your connection invitation, briefly introduce yourself and express your wish to learn more about the company. Try to keep your conversations going and ask for any open roles later.

Leverage Your Network

No matter who you are, you’ll be 4x more likely to get hired by leveraging your LinkedIn network. Anyone you know may end up being someone you work for. Here’s how:

• Make sure you have a valuable network by connecting with people who have experience or expertise in the job you want.
• Ask professionals in your network for career advice, introductions to others, or a job referral.
• Look out for their status updates to stay up to date on new job openings.

Follow Companies and Organizations

Follow companies and organizations you want to work for and turn on job alerts to be the first to be notified about their new employment opportunities.

Let Your Dream Job Find You

Here’s a brutal fact: just because you have an excellent LinkedIn profile doesn’t mean recruiters can see it. So what can you do to maximize your chance to show up in recruiters’ searches?

Turn On the #OpenToWork Feature

Let recruiters know you’re open to new opportunities by simply turning on the #OpenToWork feature. According to LinkedIn, users who do so are 40% more likely to receive InMails from recruiters.

Achieve All-Star status

There are 5 levels of LinkedIn profile rating: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and All-Star. According to LinkedIn, All-Star profiles are 40 times more likely to receive job opportunities. So how to achieve this rating?

1. Choose a Professional Profile Picture

Your profile photo is your first impression. With a photo, your profile can get 21 times more views and 9 times more connection requests than those without one. Here are some tips for picking the right profile picture:

• Use your latest photo with high resolution.
• Smile, it makes you more likable.
• Avoid selfies or group photos.
• Apply filters wisely.

2. Craft an Attention-grabbing Headline

The first thing an employer will see is your headline. There’s a limit of 120 characters, so select your words wisely to portray what you have to offer and stand out from the crowd. Our top tips for you:

• Some common formulas to help you get started:
  • Title | Company Name | Your values
  • Title | Your values | Keywords related to your industry
  • Title | Your values | Your achievements or tangible results
• Get creative by adding your personal touches, such as your hobbies, personal goals, a Call-to-Action, or emojis.

3. Specify Your Industry and Location

Your job title and industry are essential to your profile. They indicate where you reside and what industry you’re in. Including this information increases your visibility in searches by up to 23 times. If you leave these blank, recruiters are likely to exclude you from their search results.

4. Highlight Your Experience

To pass this criterion, you need 3 positions (1 most recent and 2 previous ones). According to Forbes, people with current positions in their profile are 16 times more discoverable in recruiter searches and get up to 29 times more profile views.

Top tips when writing your experience section:

• Use a standard job title; instead of “Word Wizard,” try “Copywriter” or “Content Writer.”
• Add 2 or 3 bullet points about your responsibilities and achievements under each position with keywords related to your desired work area.
• If you’re a fresh graduate, currently unemployed, or re-entering the workforce, make yourself more employable by adding other experiences like volunteering or internships to highlight the skills you learned that could apply to other roles.

5. Showcase Your Skills

It’s important than ever to list skills on your profile as 87% of hirers agree that skills are crucial in evaluating candidates. To reach an all-star rating, your profile needs to include at least 5 skills. A LinkedIn report found out that users with 5 skills and above are 33 times more likely to be contacted by recruiters. Our top tips:

• List both hard skills and soft skills.
• Try to map your skills to the job descriptions of your desired roles.
• Take LinkedIn Skill Assessments to earn a badge to increase your chance to get hired by 20%.

6. Write a Compelling Summary

Consider this section of your profile an elevator pitch. Use it to express your aspirations, showcase your skills and achievements, and what makes you a great person to work with. Apply these tips to market yourself in the summary section:

• Structure your summary into 3 parts: an opening statement, 1-2 body paragraphs, and a closing statement.
• If writing paragraphs is not your thing, use bullet points instead.
• Try to include keywords that are likely to be used by recruiters and hiring managers.

7. Add Your Education

Adding this section allows you to connect with or be found by the alumni network. If you are a current student or a recent graduate, it’s even more beneficial because you can gradually build up your network of connections and turn it into future job opportunities.

8. Grow Your Network

To pass this last step, you must have at least 50 connections. LinkedIn prefers to show search results by connection levels, so make sure to have as many connections as possible. To increase this number, you can:

• import directly from your address book
• manually send connection requests to people working in your desired industry

Let’s Get Hired!

The beauty of LinkedIn lies in the ability to connect with hundreds of interesting people from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. It’s your own playground to build relationships and create any kind of opportunities that could come your way.

We hope you enjoyed these tips and wish everyone a happy hiring experience!