Being connected to recruiters could save you time if you are unemployed or looking for a change of role. What is better than letting great opportunities come to you?
With the rise of social media and networking platforms such as LinkedIn, recruitment consultants are becoming headhunters. Armed with their latest roles, they are on the hunt for new candidates, active or passive.
Obviously, with the immense size of the network on LinkedIn, some candidates will escape their attention. If you are a potential candidate, how do you get noticed by recruiters? How do you attract the right recruiters who will offer you the opportunity you want?
Polish your LinkedIn Profile
This may seem obvious, but we have seen too many people neglect it. Your LinkedIn profile should be well-polished to attract others. Your LinkedIn profile should be a simplified and to-the-point version of your CV (or it can be the same).
Provide details
As for your resume, your LinkedIn profile needs details. Explain your role and contribution to your most recent and relevant employment. It doesn’t have to be long, just enough so people have a brief understanding of your work. If you work with specific technologies, add them to your headline, as it will help recruiters looking for niche skills find you more easily.
Remember that the ‘About’ section is there to sell yourself. A snappy, short paragraph describing you and/or your skills will be an excellent invitation to recruiters to carry on reading.
List your skills and competencies.
As we mentioned earlier, listing the technologies you are familiar with is worth listing. LinkedIn allows you to list your skills and let connections endorse them. Endorsements provide more credibility, backing up what you are saying. It is also wise to mention technologies, languages or competencies you have gained throughout the years, which cannot be put in the latest experience. The list can help you gain more traffic on your profile when recruitment consultants are doing their searches.
Education, to add or not to add?
People have mixed views about this section, is it important or not? For professionals with years and years of experience behind them, maybe not so much, but for young professionals, it can be beneficial. This section can include the establishment’s name, the title of the degree(s) or certificate(s) and the year it was gained. It doesn’t have to be more detailed than this and can help you attract the ‘right’ recruiters.
If you haven’t listed all of your experience, then the date of the relevant certificate will also act as a guide to say if you are the person head hunters are looking for. Depending on their opportunity, consultants can search for people with X years of experience or select a range of time from graduation. It helps them to filter junior and senior candidates, speed up their search and mainly avoid approaches for a job that is not relevant.
Be in control of your account.
In addition to a well-presented profile, a few settings can help increase your online visibility.
- Settings & Privacy –After heading to the ‘settings & privacy’ section, go to ‘Job seeking preferences’ and optimise your profile. You can change the application settings, adding a formal CV if you prefer. You can let recruiters know that you are open to new opportunities, create job alerts and let consultants know about your interest and others.
- Career Interests – This tool is a favourite among many active job seekers. In your ‘profile dashboard’ is a ‘career interest’ section which lets recruiters know you are open to approach. It also guides recruiters on what type of positions they are interested in, saving both parties time. It also allows you to change your professional status to ‘actively applying, ‘casually looking’, ‘open to offers’, and ‘not open to offers’. You can insert examples of job titles and locations you would consider here, plus a selection of employment types you would be interested in.
All those suggestions should help you gain more visibility and get you noticed by recruiters.
However, you can do a few more things to enhance your LinkedIn profile, including becoming a head-hunter yourself! Follow recruitment agencies that are relevant to your field, connect with their recruiters, and you will attract others. LinkedIn also suggests profiles of connections in your network, so the more you contact recruiters, the more you will be asked to join your network.
If you are actively looking for employment in the data sector, you can drop us your CV directly – why not contact Agile Recruit today?
