Looking for a job? Then listen up: stop obsessing over your resume and cover letter. And start obsessing over your LinkedIn profile. Why? Because my recruiter friends tell me it’s their #1 resource for finding candidates. And here’s another eye opener: If you have more than twenty Linkedin connections, you’re thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than someone who has less than five. Those are damn good odds.
So, if you don’t already have a Linkedin profile, open a new browser window
right now and go to
http://www.linkedin.com. I'll wait here while you join.
Now that you've joined LinkedIn, here's what you need to do:
Complete your profile.
Start by entering your career history. List more than just a job title and company name for each position.
Next, write a summary. And add a photo.
Send requests to a few colleagues for recommendations. If they’re not sure what to write, point them to recommendations on someone else’s profile (who is in the same industry).
Add a few interests and any relevant websites, honors and awards.
Search for former colleagues and send them invitations to connect.
By this time, your profile should be pretty close to complete. Not sure how far you have to go? Linkedin displays a profile completion percentage score.
Last but not least, make sure your profile is publicly available.
Then, start sending out more connection requests. And start accepting them.
Set yourself apart by being uber Linkedin.
Add a Twitter handle if you have one.
Edit your profile to claim a vanity URL. This should be set to your name (or the closest possible match) within the URL. For example.
www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccarivera
Find and join a few industry groups and use Linkedin Answers. This will help you build your reputation within your industry and to increase the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within Linkedin.
If you get stuck anywhere along the way, check out these Linkedin for Dummies links.
LinkedIn for dummies cheat sheet
How to create a Linkedin Profile even your boss will be impressed by
Please let me know how your job search goes and how LinkedIn did or didn't help and I'll share it here so that others can learn whether their odds of finding employment are getting any better. Or any worse.
