How I used LinkedIn to get a Job
I don’t work for LinkedIn! I am writing this article because I landed 2 job offers through LinkedIn and so a lot of my friends requested that I write this article.
LinkedIn did help me connect with a lot of recruiters & designers, helped me get notifications promptly about new job openings and also getting my work recognized.
This article is not a tutorial on the features available in LinkedIn and how each one works but it is more about how I used it.
1. Join LinkedIn/ Update Profile
Yes! Go on and join LinkedIn if you haven’t already. Or if you joined longtime back, try hacking your brains for the username and password and log in. Now, spend at least 2 to 4 hours or more updating your profile. Take a decent picture, think of a catchy tagline, add your experience, education, volunteering work, any awards that you got., etc. Spend enough time in updating your skills and projects. Add your team members in the project if they are on LinkedIn. If not, make them join LinkedIn as well.
This step seems pretty obvious but trust me, I had an unfinished profile for a very long time and I know so many who did too. Because I felt nobody actually has the time to go through my profile — which is a lazy assumption.
2. Add Connections
Search your job title or the field that you are interested in and go through people’s profiles. If someone interests you, connect with them and send them a short message saying who you are, what you do and what skill or project in them that interested you. If you have premium account, you can send them an inmail. My suggestion is, don’t waste your inmail unless you really need to send a detailed message to someone because you get only 3 a month. Spend a lot of time adding connections, especially recruiters because you will get notifications on your newsfeed when they post a job opening.
3. Join Groups or Follow Companies
Join some groups so that you get job updates or get to know about any meetups, recruiting events and career fairs. When you follow the companies that you are interested in, you get notified in your newsfeed when they add a job posting or news.
4. Scroll through your LinkedIn newsfeed
I know Facebook is very interesting and you get to see yummy pictures of food, but right now you need a job to be able to afford that sort of fancy food. So, spend some time everyday scrolling through LinkedIn newsfeed as well.
5. Message people/Congratulate them/Keep in touch
I probably got a reply from only one person for every 20 people that I messaged. Ok! I did spam a lot of people but I wanted a good job. I did not type the same message to every person but I had about 4 to 5 templates of messages saved in a word file. And I would copy and paste those messages and personalize it according to the person I am messaging. I usually message people with an introduction about me and then what got me interested in them and what I want to know from them. Never message people telling them that you want a job! It is pretty obvious and also sounds desperate. Instead tell them what you have, what you can do and what interests you. An important thing to note is that LinkedIn messaging interface looks like a text messaging system but send messages like you would send an email.
When you scroll through the newsfeed, you will find people updating their profile with a new job or a work anniversary — Congratulate them! Use the LinkedIn’s automatic congratulation option to send a message or customize it or at least like the update. This will get you noticed more.
6. LinkedIn Premium
I had LinkedIn Premium and this helps a lot primarily because of inmails. You cannot send long messages to some people if you don’t have premium account. Inmail helps you send detailed messages to these people. Also, remember that there are limited inmails per month for each person. So, don’t send an inmail unless it is absolutely necessary. Premium also helps you see your profile viewers and if it is someone of importance, you should contact them.
7. Use the additional properties in your job search
When you search for a job, use the filters provided on the left! Don’t ignore them. They help you save a lot of time and effort. On the right of the job opening page, you can see who posted the job and this helps you to connect with them and message that person. This is the main reason that I bagged one of the job offer. With Premium account, you can see what your ranking among other applicants is, how much the salary is and what skills you have common with other applicants. You should always know your competition!
8. Find Common connection for referrals
I found other websites much useful for job search but I truly found LinkedIn very convenient for connecting with recruiters and professionals in my field. I got feedback on my portfolio, knew immediately about job postings, got to talk directly with recruiters and also came to know what people in my field are doing. I got my internship and both job offers through LinkedIn. And most of my interviews are because I contacted the recruiter. If not recruiter, I tried seeing if I have a common connection in the company I am interested in and then requesting the person kindly for a referral in their company. But, don’t request this in your first message! Create a foundation and then ask.
LinkedIn is like front-end where it helps you get noticed and tells you about a job. You still need to put in a lot of effort at the back-end by improving your skills, taking courses, doing certifications and anything you can in your spare time to elevate your profile.
What I realized through personal experience is that School/university brand name matters very little. What really stands out is the brand name that you create for yourself.
There isn’t anything special or new about this article. It is just to remind you that you can do all these things with LinkedIn to raise your chances of getting a job.
Thanks to Madhumita Mantri for helping me write this article. Please recommend this article if you found it useful or if you think someone else will find it useful.
Thank You! Good luck!
