Thinking about changing roles? Are you open to having discussions with Recruiters about new opportunities? If there was an amazing position out there that needed someone with your experience and expertise – wouldn’t you want to know about it? There are many articles online highlighting tips and tricks to help those in the job market promote themselves and the skills they have. Unsurprisingly, in today’s digital world, the top recommendation is ensuring your LinkedIn profile is as appealing as possible. Having read through many of these articles, I’ve pulled together some of the best pieces of advice I would share with anyone in professional services wanting to change roles. The goal is to ensure your LinkedIn profile effectively draws the right hiring managers to you, and you are being contacted about the roles you want to hear about.
Make sure your profile is set to open to opportunities.
According to this LinkedIn article, roughly 10 per cent of people are looking for work at any given time, and those are the people the majority of Recruiters will typically contact first. But even if you aren’t actively searching for a new role, and are open to hearing about what might be out there, it’s important you use your LinkedIn profile to your advantage.
When setting your LinkedIn profile to “Open to Work”, you can add a number of job titles or locations so Recruiters are aware you would welcome a conversation about opportunities in those areas. Please note, your employer or others on LinkedIn WILL NOT be able to see you have clicked on this setting, unless you select the “Open to All” option. When you select “Open to Opportunities” and select the Recruiter option, only professionals with a specific LinkedIn Recruiter License are able to see this through our own programs. By law, we cannot disclose this information to your organisation.
Use the right keywords in your profile to ensure you are coming up in the right searches.
A re-occurring piece of advice across many articles, is that using certain keywords in your profile can ensure you turn up in the right searches – and you hear about roles you would consider moving for – as this Cheeky Scientist article outlines. If LinkedIn boasts more than 830 million members worldwide, then “how can you stand out in a sea” of hundreds of millions? A fantastic idea shared by the author is to “look at five to 10 job advertisements for roles you would be interested in. Copy these descriptions into a word document and highlight the key words that relate to that position or required experience”. When you write your LinkedIn profile, use these same key words, provided of course they accurately reflect your experience. This will increase your chances of being found and approached by Recruiters who are looking to fill the positions you are interested in. Highlight your transferable skills as well as your technical or specialist skills.
Make your posts work for you and position you as a subject matter expert.
Posting informative, useful information through articles, your posts, and blogs can be a very valuable exercise. As outlined in this General Assembly blog by Albrina Mendes, this can “bump your profile up on search engines” and increase your visibility to recruiters. By regularly posting, creating content, or commenting on posts relating to your industry, you are actively demonstrating your passion for your field and showing you are across relevant topics, latest trends, and news. If you share content – make sure you comment – promoting your depth of understanding.
Highlight core skills that match the roles you are looking for.
In this article about optimising your profile as a career changer, the recommendation is “a solid set of skill sets will improve your profile visibility. Strategically list new and past capabilities that align with your career change”. Write for the role you wish to be in, again by selecting your experience that will complement a future role you would be interested in. Under our specialist LinkedIn Recruiter License, this is one search area we can target.
Build your professional brand.
The author of this LinkedIn article, 20 steps to a better LinkedIn profile in 2023, shares a good way to think about it. “Professionals – particularly salespeople – invest a lot of time and resources in building brands. We’re trained at it – and we’re good at it. But how often do we apply those skills to building our own personal brands? For many of us, it’s nothing like as often as we should. When we neglect personal branding, we don’t just sell ourselves short – we also miss a big opportunity, from a sales perspective. The impact of employees who share content is huge. And the most effective employee sharers are those who’ve built their personal brand on LinkedIn.”
Some other practical suggestions to help:
- Select a vibrant professional profile photograph and a supporting background photo.
- Personalise your headline – it’s the first thing a Recruiter sees so make sure it grabs their attention or adequately reflects your profession.
- Grow your network, build connections with past colleagues, your peers and connect with industry leaders.
- Help others find you easily on LinkedIn, include personalised content for your industry, your current position, previous work experience, education, skills, as recommended in this article.
- Highlight the services you offer, your strengths and skills.
- Endorse others and be proactive in managing your own endorsements from others.
There are many other great resources out there you can tap into if you are hoping to bolster your LinkedIn profile, as well as the selection I have highlighted. When it comes to your LinkedIn profile, the key is spending time thinking about the impression you would like to promote, and ensuring you are accurately reflecting your experience and talents while carefully selecting the keywords and descriptions that will make recruiters find you. It is worth doing a good job “selling” yourself in these circumstances, as you never know what might be out there and what you might be missing out on.
If there is anything you would like to discuss, please get in touch.
Kind regards,
Alexandra Monks
Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator