You’ve decided to conduct a job search but can’t seem to get any traction with recruiters. They aren’t calling you and you can’t seem to find the ones that specialize in your area of expertise. Here are three tips for getting noticed by recruiters on LinkedIn.
1. Looking for Opportunities
LinkedIn makes it easy to label your profile as someone who is on the market. Go to your privacy settings on your personal profile and check the box Job Seeking. This is a way of letting recruiters know you are looking for a new job and LinkedIn has set it up so anyone working at your current employer won’t see this specification. Of course, it is a bit dangerous. LinkedIn states, “We take steps to not show your current company that you’re open, but can’t guarantee complete privacy.”
The best recruiters have something called a LinkedIn Recruiter Seat that can be set up to notify the instant someone checks the job seeking box. You can even specify the job titles, locations and job types you would be interested in.
2. Job Title
LinkedIn’s search algorithm, utilized by all recruiters, is very title driven. A way to get the attention you want is to put the title of the job you want in your headline and current position. Your title may be something vague like Senior Manager or Director but changing that to Data Scientist or Predictive Analytics will get you far more attention and the right attention.
3. Connect
If you haven’t been doing this already to increase and improve your network, connect with recruiters that seem to be in your target recruiting area. But make the changes noted above first. Every good recruiter will look at your profile when you send a connection invitation and if it is clear you are on the market and have a title that is in their recruiting niche, you will definitely get a response. If you can’t find a specific recruiter that makes sense, connect with people in your area of interest even if they aren’t recruiters. Eventually that will get you close to the right recruiter. Anyone on a job search should be connecting with 10+ new contacts every day. You don’t have to tell them you are on the market but conversations may follow that allow you to do that.
