Have you ever wondered just how recruiters use Linked In to find candidates? If you thought they merely posted roles and then waited for the resumes to flow in (which I call ‘posting and praying’ since you are posting a role and praying for the ideal candidate to see it and apply to it), then you are sadly mistaken. A good recruiter (or ‘headhunter’ or ‘sourcer’) today will be pro-actively searching for the right candidates whether those potential candidates are looking for new opportunities or not! Furthermore, we are always making connections, building out our networks and meeting new people.
Want to be found? Then you need to get inside the head of a recruiter and understand how we operate.
Just as a job search is not a one-trick pony and you need a multi-pronged approach to your job search strategy, so too is recruiting. While LinkedIn is not the ‘be all and end all’ for a recruiter, it is at the core of the recruiting function today. For instance, with my 3,000 first-level connections, I therefore have 17,586,946 professionals in my network. Yes, 17.5 million professionals at my fingertips! Talk about a database! What a great platform from which to start a search for the right candidate!
How do recruiters leverage LinkedIn?
1. Recruiters perform straightforward keyword searches. All we have to do is go to the advanced people search area and type in key search words and perimeters to find people with those key words on their profiles. The more specific we are, the narrower the search. The wider the perimeters, the more people come up.
What should you do? Carefully read several job descriptions of positions similar to what you seek and parse out the skills, actions or descriptors that can be used for keyword searches. Make sure that those words are in your headline, your summary and throughout your responsibilities in the roles you held. Take pains not to just list a block of keywords. Instead, use them in the bullet points that describe who you are, what you’ve done and how you have achieved it. Alternatively, you can list them in a paragraph format (in your summary) separated by semi-colons.
2. “People similar to” people we source. Another good feature of Linked In for recruiters is the “people similar to” feature. Once we find a potential candidate, we can see a list of people who are similar to that person (in terms of roles, titles, competencies, etc.). These are often great leads to follow because they already share similarities with people of interest to us.
What should you do? Again, ensure that your profile reflects the types of roles you are looking for. Ensure it is peppered with key competencies and responsibilities found in those types of roles. Don’t be afraid to look at the profiles of other people currently holding jobs you want and see how they are structured and what they say. You want your profile to come up in searches and in ‘people similar to’ searches.
3. “People also viewed”. This is another function of LinkedIn that recruiters use. When we have sourced someone of interest, we can look at a listing of people who were also viewed by people looking at this particular person. Often these would be similar people and of interest to our search.
What should you do? Again, the more optimized your profile, the more people will look at you and the more times your profile will get in front of the recruiters and hiring managers you want to be seen by.
4. Recruiters join industry and skills-based LinkedIn Groups, and carefully follow their discussions and take an active part in their discussions and postings. This allows us to observe who the SMEs are and who is contributing to conversations in a meaningful way. It also allows us to see who other members of these groups are and they are often people we want to target for searches. Reaching out to them becomes a warm call vs. a cold one.
What should you do? Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your skill set and industry to keep up with what is going on and make constructive contributions to the group discussions. The more active you are, the more people will take notice of you and reach out to you. As a recruiter, I have often helped folks in transition who have reached out to me because of a group we share. As I said, warm cold vs. cold call. We already share something in common. Perhaps a member of the group is with a company you are interested in or in a role of interest to you. I’m thinking an informational interview/discussion might be an order no?
5. Recruiters follow thought leaders and key influencers. A significant part of a headhunter’s value is to know “who’s who” in his or her specialty field. Beyond that, headhunters need to know who makes up the first-tier followers. I make it a point to stay up to date with my large base of contacts, to understand and follow the leaders by analyzing who is following whom on LinkedIn. We put a lot of time and effort into LinkedIn and you should too!
What should you do? Make sure to stay extremely current in your field and show it by following the people who will benefit you by your association with them. Also, be sure to comment on current events relevant to your field and to post information/articles that you find. I try to post some interesting article at least once a day (the Globe & Mail and Harvard Business Review are two great sources). Subscribe to interesting and relevant newsletters and then post select articles with a comment or two by you.
6. Recruiters follow their connections’ LinkedIn behavior. Part of the art of recruiting is understanding the timing of what is going on in people’s lives and the signals that they give off which demonstrate that they are “recruitable.” I follow people’s actions and LinkedIn behavior patterns to determine when someone is about to begin an active job search. What tips us off? Updating of your profile, sudden participation on LinkedIn, following new groups or companies or simply viewing my profile. Maybe someone is connecting with recruiters all of a sudden. Tip off for me to check them out!
What should you do? Often people are reticent about letting their current employer or others know that they are in the market for a new job for good reason. Yet you can do some of these subtle things that don’t outwardly say, “I’m looking,” but let the right people surmise that you are ripe for a call. For instance, turn off your notification when you make all but one of your changes and then turn it back one for that one final change. If you are going to join multiple groups at one time, turn off your notifications when sending invitations to them all. The best way to avoid all this ‘cloak and dagger’ is to always be active on LinkedIn so when you are job searching, it is less obvious.
7. Recruiters are open to interviewing unemployed people. There are two schools of thought on indicating you are out of work. Some recruiters need to fill roles quickly, and search specifically for those people who are not currently employed. If they meet all of the qualifications, they are able to start immediately (especially for contract roles). Others look only for those who are gainfully employed.
What should you do? Whatever your situation might be, lead with the positive. Demonstrate your skills, expertise and knowledge. Define yourself as a professional (who might just be unemployed), rather than as an unemployed person seeking a job. Do whatever is most comfortable for you. You can show yourself as still at your last employer (but it is NOT okay to do this on your resume) or you can show an end date. Similarly, your headline can state that you are looking for your next opportunity or can indicate that in your summary.
8. Recruiters don’t want to guess. Don’t make people guess about who you are or what you have to offer. As a recruiter, we can’t tell if you are a potential candidate if you don’t have a fulsome profile. By the same token, don’t make it a duplicate of your resume.
What should you do? Remember that your LinkedIn profile is a ‘teaser’ and should tell me just enough to make me want to learn more. It should whet my appetite to reach out to you. Keep your profile up to date and build long-lasting relationships,.m..,m with a variety of professionals – recruiters, key decision makers, colleagues, etc. And remember that all that you do online is simply the key to building strong, better relationships in the “real” world.