Become Searchable On LinkedIn

There are only a few ways that every recruiter searches for you on LinkedIn, and I’m going to share them with you today.

The more you know about how we search, the easier it is to understand how to craft your profile to appear and stand out in searches.

There’s a lot in my feed lately about building your personal brand, not relying on the 9-5, and using LinkedIn to do it. I certainly believe in this concept, but it’s not meant for job seekers.

Job seekers need to be able to use LinkedIn strategically and in a different way.

First we’re going to dive into common mistakes to avoid when it comes to LinkedIn…

1st mistake to avoid: Complaining about your job search.

I feel your pain, but companies are going to view this as a risk for them.

They think: If you’re bashing interview processes and ex-employers, you’re going to bash them.

They’ll hire someone else that is not doing this on LinkedIn.

2nd mistake to avoid: Commenting on posts about open jobs saying “I’m interested”!

Always apply directly on the company website. Can’t stress the fake jobs and over-applying market that we’re in. You’re going to be seen ONLY if you apply directly, reach out directly, and follow up.

3rd mistake to avoid: scrolling.

There are some opportunities that I’ve found while scrolling through my feed that I may not have seen otherwise (a lot of companies are choosing not to post jobs on LinkedIn to save $$$).

That said, there’s a time and place for the scroll.

How to use LinkedIn to your advantage and be easily searchable:

Your profile needs to be searchable for recruiters.

Recruiters search for talent on LinkedIn and through other scraping tools that lean on LinkedIn for their data.

Titles are important, and your summaries are equally as important. In fact, every word on your LinkedIn page is important because this is what we see when we search for candidates…

Example search: I need someone who is selling payroll software to SMB customers.

Here’s how I’ll search in a few different combinations:
Keywords, Titles, and Competing (current and previous) Companies

This is an example of what comes up for me in a keyword search:

You want to ensure you’re including as much data on your profile as possible. Keyword data populates for recruiters outside of just titles.

It’s great to give a one-line summary of what the company does, but don’t just paste in the “about” section of your company’s page into your work description.

Provide data! For a payroll software rep I want to see who they’re selling to - what size companies? I want to see what their performance has been, or their biggest achievements in that role.

The same goes for every role - what impact do you have on the business, who are you working with daily, how are you adding value to the company, what are you passionate about?

The more you write, and the more you use keywords that we search for, the more searchable you are.

Here are some tricks:

1) Find a job description of a role that you want, and a role similar to the one that you currently have or previously had. Copy and paste both descriptions into ChatGPT and say:

“Chat, please pull out all relevant keywords for the job titles and list them”

Start with that list. Plug in as many of those words as possible into your profile - you should be able to do this naturally.

Now, for titles, things get a bit more narrow, but LinkedIn does not only show recruiters exact matches. The closer the match, however, the further up you are in the search results.

You know the expression ‘dress for the job you want, not the one you have’?

Think of it like that.

Craft your profile (same way you do your resume) for the job you want to be targeted for.

Craft your profile to become highly searchable by elevating your work history details first, and then tweaking your titles.

Headlines and Backgrounds:

If you’re building a brand your headlines and backgrounds are going to serve a much different purpose than if you’re on the job hunt. If you’re passively looking and currently employed, your background will most likely be your current company’s standard background picture, and that’s great!

If you’re actively looking and want to stand out when someone lands on your profile, you can play around with your background with a favorite quote relevant to your career, or the main thing companies hire you for. Some people even put include contact information.

I’d spend less time thinking about your background and more on your headline.

For example, let’s take the same SMB Payroll Sales Role:

Payroll Software Sales Expert | Changing How Companies Streamline Payroll Processes | 4x President’s Club Winner

The first 3-6 words of your headline is what people see when you comment on other posts, or message directly. It’s actually really important.

Put some thought into your headline, and really emphasize what you want recruiters and hiring leaders to see in the first few words.

Need more? Here’s my course on how to become a recruiter magnet.

You can also send me your profile here and I’ll help you re-craft your LinkedIn Profile.

That’s all for this week.
Happy Hunting!

_{PS: *Make sure your LinkedIn Work History dates, companies and titles match your resume.
That is a top red flag for recruiters when resume and LinkedIn don’t match.
Most people will not take the time to ask you to clarify, they will move onto the next candidate in their application pile.}

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❤️ Ashley

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