When it comes to matching candidates with job opportunities, LinkedIn is the number one platform used by 90% of recruiters and agencies – including Tunnicliffe Hunt.

There’s a problem though. With over 630 million users, making a profile stand out so it attracts recruiters and employers can be difficult. It’s why we’ve created this in-depth guide to setting up a great LinkedIn profile, plus give you the inside track on what recruiters consider when hunting for a potential employee on LinkedIn.

One network to rule them all

The use of social media in job recruitment has increased in recent years with 84% of organisations now using it and 9% planning to use it. Better still, LinkedIn is the most-used social media platform among Fortune 500 companies.

The service is mainly used for professional networking, which means there is a constant market of employers publishing job advertisements and job seekers publishing their CVs. In other words, LinkedIn is the ideal place to start looking for that dream job.

The network offers several opportunities for candidates: highlighting your experience, education and skills in your profile; networking with professionals and potential contacts; searching for that ideal job; participating in groups relevant to your sector; and finally, blogging thought leadership posts to highlight your expertise and experience.

To take advantage of this raft of opportunities – and make an excellent first (and lasting) impression – it’s essential to craft a great LinkedIn profile.

Mastering LinkedIn Profile Basics

When setting up your profile, LinkedIn will give you recommendations on what to include. Remember, if you complete the profile to 100% and become a ‘LinkedIn All-Star’, your profile will become 27 times more likely to be found in a recruiter’s search. To become an all-star, follow these seven steps:

1. Profile Picture

A profile with a picture is 21 times more likely to be viewed so it’s a great way of making a positive first impression. Bear in mind that LinkedIn is a network for professionals so use a pro-looking headshot, not a selfie or ‘fun’ picture.

The picture should match your headline too, which is used to briefly highlight what you do or what you are looking for. You should also consider using a different background than the LinkedIn default. It’s an easy way to immediately stand out from other profiles. 

2. Experience

To gain an All-Star status in experience, LinkedIn expects you to list a current position as well as two previous positions. These should be complemented with supporting information. For instance, give a clear and concise overview of your three main achievements at all the companies on your list.

You can also link courses and projects to relevant jobs and ask employers, colleagues or clients for recommendations that act as references. LinkedIn also allows you to include relevant media such as related photos or videos.

3. Skills

Add a minimum of five skills to make your profile up to 17 times more likely to be viewed. Highlight skills that are attractive to employers; for example, skills such as cloud computing, statistical analysis, user interface design, data presentation and SEO/SEM are highly desirable. Also highlight your top three skills and emphasise them by adding endorsements from your connections (see Point 7).

4. Summary

This is one of the most important sections in your profile, as it will likely be the most read part. Be sincere about who your audience is, what you want them to know, and what you want them to do with your information. Do bear in mind that your summary should not be your resume written out in long form.

Rather, describe why you are passionate about your job, explain what you are doing now and what you have done in the past, and highlight your greatest accomplishments in three-to-five short paragraphs. Pay close attention to the first sentence as it should make your audience want to know more about you. At the end, you can add your specialities in keywords – as well as common misspellings/AKAs – to increase the probability of being found by potential employers.

5. Industry

Adding the industry you work in plus your location will ensure your profile is up to 30 times more likely to be clicked. Ideally, you should list your industry specifically to ensure you are found by your intended employer.

6. Education

Your academic history and the university you attended are listed here. You should include your degree type, the field of your studies and the years you attended the institution. You can add your final grade plus highlight if you had a specific major or pursued extracurricular activities.

7. Connections

Start to build your network by searching for people you already know. Use the search feature to look up companies you have worked for as well as your current employer. The same can be done for the schools and universities you listed in the education section. To grow your network further, connect with prospects after being introduced to them in real life whether current customers – or even competitors. To reach the All-Star status, LinkedIn requires you to have a minimum of 50 connections.

P.S.: Don’t forget the details

After setting up your profile and reaching all-star status, you can also add projects, languages and/or volunteer experiences; the latter makes your profile six times more likely to be clicked. Another option to make your profile more recognisable is to customise your URL and include it in job applications as well as share it with contacts and prospects.

Finally, you should update your profile on a regular basis to make it look ‘live’, not discarded. Also, make use of your newsfeed; for instance, publish or repost interesting articles to show your expertise in and enthusiasm for your sector and be sure react to others’ postings and personal messages.

LinkedIn: The Recruiter’s Point of View

To help underline why your LinkedIn profile is so critical to your job hunt, it is important to understand how recruiters use it to search for potential candidates.

Tunnicliffe Hunt’s senior recruiter, Jonathan Brown, specialises in finding the ideal candidates for his clients using the platform. He explains: “After speaking to the client and ascertaining the needs of the position, I take out the key requirements from the job description and tailor my search on LinkedIn based on them; for example, job title, location and experience.”

When setting up your own profile, Jonathan recommends, “using enough detailed keywords relevant to your targeted career. Also be aware that different recruiters often use different terms for the same skillsets, so deploy variations on your specific skills so you appear in as many search results as possible.”

It’s also important to let recruiters know whether you are open to new opportunities and are willing to relocate. For that, LinkedIn offers a career interest section, which when activated lets them know at a glance that you’re open to proposals.

Seize the moment

If you are fortunate enough to catch a recruiter’s attention, many will reach out to you via LinkedIn. “I will want to add you as a contact and send you a message,” explains Jonathan. “This message often contains information about the job opportunity or will simply ask if you are interested in a job offer.”

Whether you are interested or not, Jonathan recommends that you accept the contact request. Even if you are not interested in a career change right now, there could be other opportunities more relevant to you and your skillset in the future – so keep the lines of communication open.

To make it easier for a recruiter to decide if you’re the right candidate, Jonathan advises that you keep your profile concise but ensure it contains enough information to help recruiters make a judgement about you. “This should include information about your experience as well as your skills,” says Jonathan. “I also take notice of endorsements and recommendations as they’re very important.”

First contact

If you want to be found by recruiters, the summary is also a great place to add contact information. Here, you can include when and how the recruiter can message or call you, making the contact process frictionless.

Your connections are also an important section for recruiters. You are most likely to have connections with people who work in a similar field: “If the recruiter finds a person on LinkedIn who meets all the job spec’s requirements but is not available, he will take a look at their connections to find similar candidates with similar expertise – and that person could be you,” explains Jonathan.

Jonathan also endorses joining groups that are relevant to your career or sector, as he regularly posts job advertisements in related LinkedIn groups. To improve your job search prospects, also follow recruiters’ LinkedIn pages or create alerts for the agency’s website to keep yourself updated with the latest job opportunities. 

“If the recruiter finds a person on LinkedIn who meets all the job spec’s requirements but is not available, he will take a look at their connections to find similar candidates with similar expertise – and that person could be you.”

– Jonathan Brown,  Senior Recruiter & LinkedIn Specialist, Tunnicliffe Hunt

Show initiative

Finally, you should never simply wait until a recruiter reaches out to you: “As well as following a recruiter on LinkedIn”, Jonathan explains, “you can also reach out to the recruiter or even a potential employer directly, writing a short, personalised message. This will show us that you’re actively interested in new job opportunities.”

Key Takeaways for LinkedIn Recruitment

Ultimately, LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool for effective job searching – but only if you leverage its capabilities fully. Remember:

• The more information you share about yourself, your skillsets and experience, the more effectively a recruiter can assess whether you are the right fit for their job opportunity.

• Make the most out of your LinkedIn profile and achieve an All-Star status by filling in all the sections of your profile.

• Accrue as many related connections as possible to boost your prospects of landing that dream job.

• Connect with recruiters and their agencies to be alerted as soon as a job opportunity matching your expertise becomes available.

• Do not be afraid to message recruiters directly – they want to hear from talent.

• To find your ideal job, contact global recruitment consultancy Tunnicliffe Hunt here to discuss how your skillsets can be matched with our opportunities.

All images © Shutterstock (except Jonathan Brown image).