There are social networks out there and then there is LinkedIn. LinkedIn has become the dominant network for business. It has also become the dominant tool for headhunters, recruiters and anyone looking to hire someone.
As a headhunter, I use LinkedIn to find potential candidates more than any other source. I pay money to use LinkedIn as a recruiter. Since I pay for every message I send to someone on LinkedIn, I'm very careful about who I contact.
I'm going to reveal to you exactly how headhunters and hiring people use LinkedIn to find people. If you know how we search, you'll be able to create a profile that is more search friendly and will pop up more frequently. Even if you are not actively looking for a new job, it's always interesting to hear about what's available on the market.
Here are the TOP TEN WAYS to create a search friendly profile so you have headhunters and recruiters clamoring at your door:
10: In your Professional Headline, list the skills for which you want to be known. If you are a website designer, put that in first. Next to it, add your other skills - content creator, graphic artist, user experience designer, etc. Your name and this little paragraph is what appear in a search result, nothing else. If this section looks good, and ONLY if it looks good, will I take the time to open the full profile.
9: Include JOB TITLES. Just like with your resume, start with your most recent experience and include the name of the company and your job title. Doing key word searches usually brings in too many profiles so I tend to do most of my searches using a job title. LinkedIn allows you to search Job Title past or present, which is a fabulous search method. If you are an Enterprise Architect but have not included that as your job title, you will most likely not be found.
8: For each job title, include a couple of sentences explaining what you did. Your LinkedIn profile should be as thorough as your resume; for all intents and purposes, it IS your resume and needs to read clearly and professionally.
7: Write up a good background summary but don't make it too long! Just include a couple of brief paragraphs explaining your career trajectory. This is your Professional Profile and can be slightly longer than the objective that goes at the top of your resume. As much as it goes against our ingrained idea of how a story needs to be told, you need to tell your story starting from the present and work your way backwards.
6: If you are a consultant, make it clear that you are a consultant. 99% of the LinkedIn profiles for consultants are unclear. The way to rectify this is to write at the very top, Consultant, plus the name of the company. Give the dates. Below you can write out each mission but again, make sure to include consultant in the title role. You could write Pre-Sales Consultant at HP. If it's clear that all those missions were consultancy missions, the recruiter knows that you weren't just hopping around. They also will have a better idea of the kind of salary package you're receiving so they'll know if they can approach you or not.
5: Make sure your languages are listed. Not just listed, include your proficiency in each language. I can't tell you how many times I either don't come across languages or when I do, they are just simply listed. I have to scratch my head wondering if I'm going to pay to send them an IM or not.
4: Ditto Education. We don't need to see all your trainings. We almost never need to see all of those. But we want to see the highest degrees you achieved.
3: If you are INDEPENDENT (freelance), put that at the very top, in your PROFESSIONAL HEADLINE. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to find the perfect profile, spend the money to send an InMail only to discover the candidate is freelance. Please don't be coy about adding INDEPENDENT to your professional headline. You will save a lot of people a headache and you won't be bombarded with openings for totally irrelevant positions.
2: Post a nice, professional picture. Whenever I come across a profile and there's no picture, I immediately assume that this person doesn't understand how important the internet is for networking and finding work. This might be a wrongful assumption but unfortunately that's what's happening in most recruiters' heads.
1: Here's my biggest pet peeve about profiles on LinkedIn: NO CONTACT INFORMATION! This is because LinkedIn, unlike facebook, doesn't want you to have large amounts of contacts. They want each contact to be personal, someone you truly know, and valuable. You can't just ask anybody to connect with you on LinkedIn. You need to have their personal email address to connect. That's all fine and well for most of us. But there are a lot of freelance people on LinkedIn who don't understand that if they don't put their contact information, they cannot be contacted.
If you are selling anything, be it consultancy services, coaching services, art, books, goods, yourself, make it easy for people to contact you. If you don't want to include your phone number and email address, that's okay, but you MUST include your website address so people can find you.
Here's the million dollar trick that LinkedIn doesn't want you to know: the contact information is hidden - it's only available for people who are ALREADY your contacts. Therefore, you have to include your email address and phone number (if you're willing to include those) in a different part of your profile! This comes under Additional Information, shows up at the BOTTOM of your profile, and is visible to potential clients looking for people like YOU.
These little changes can turn your LinkedIn profile into a valuable asset that will have potential clients contacting you with ease and alacrity.
In today's economy, it's not enough to just have the right experience; you have to be able to parlay that experience into a job. And the best way to do that is to hone your interview skills. During my years in recruitment, I've found that most people don't know how to present themselves effectively in a job interview. That's because most of us don't have a lot of practice interviewing. And that's where http://www.jobinnerview.com comes in. We've designed a multimedia elearning course that will teach you all the skills you need to interview at your best. Visit http://www.jobinnerview.com and sign up for your FREE video How To Write A Resume That Will Guarantee A Job Interview.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rebekah_F_Crawford
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