– Well – to recruiters and job hunters anyway! LinkedIn is one of the few social media platforms that is generally very much trusted by recruiters and hiring companies. Since millions of professionals use the social networking website you’re in a crowded, competitive environment – so your profile really needs to stand out from the rest. Standing out affords you more opportunities and helps you to get hired, but you must look at your profile critically from the recruiter’s perspective and think to yourself: what are they looking for in a profile?
The key question is: what should you do in order to attract the recruiters?
The first and foremost step is to have a high quality professional picture in your profile.You need to have a perfect head shot with formal clothes and with an overall professional look.
You may wonder why you need a professional picture and not a casual one like you see on Facebook?
This is like applying for a job in a company and wearing your jeans and t-shirt for the formal interview process. It’s just not the done thing for most professions. So for the online, connected world, it is highly recommended that you have a professional picture in your profile.
Next, your profile should be very descriptive and complete. Just take a look at the image in this post for ideas. You must mention your skills and the experiences in which you have expertise. Your profile should be “complete” (LinkedIn will automatically prompt you to do this) since many companies will not bother to look at you – if your profile is incomplete.
You can also mention your experience with your previous companies and if possible include a link to their official company website. Remember, the last step is to keep your profile regularly refreshed and updated – since the job seeking environment is constantly changing – and you should be changing too.