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The 6 big mistakes active job hunters make on LinkedIn.
Today, I wanted to talk with you about mistakes I see people make on LinkedIn, particularly those of you who are not working and trying to get you to correct them. Now, I know a lot of people will talk in terms of that line under your name. And a lot of what I'm going to talk about does relate to the profile and how your messaging yourself.
Now, understand, number one is that if you indicate that you're not working by having a completion date for your last job, LinkedIn shows you lower in search results. They penalize you for not working. So, do not, I repeat, do not show a completion date for job. You are better off, instead of putting the month for your dates, you're better off just having the years for reach job to avoid the appearance of being out of work.
The ideal thing, of course, is not to show that you've completed working anywhere; just let it roll as though you're presently there. So that's number one.
Number two is you make it hard for people to reach out to you. And the way you do it is by not, I repeat, not including an email address in your summary. Minimally, have an email address there.
"But I don't want them contacting me if I'm not looking for work!"
Well, the easiest thing to do is to have a special email address, like Gmail account, specifically, for your job search that forwards through to your real address. In this way, recruiters, both corporate and third party, don't have your real address to message you. I think that's dumb because, frankly, people get ahead by being alert to opportunity. Sometimes they are internal to an organization; most of the time they're external.
If you cut people off, well, frankly, number one is you're missing out on opportunities. Number two is, the truth of the matter is, for a lot of recruiters they have LinkedIn Recruiter accounts. You have yours and they'll be able to contact you as a result of LinkedIn Recruiter they purchase in the entire LinkedIn database and, then, they can inMail you. So,you don't really need to worry about that. So, the second thing again, is not having an easy way for people to contact you.
Number three is, if you're out of luck, you talk about being in transition or you say something like, "I'm seeking new employment." Now, again, along with that idea of it being a negative to LinkedIn that you're not working, you know a lot of recruiters want to contact people who are working because they they've got this crazy belief system that if you're actively looking for a job, if you're out of work, you are, in some way, shape or form, inferior to those who are in the job.
I'm not going to go through this for you. I'll just simply say, trust me, that is a belief system with agency recruiters and corporate recruiters. So don't indicate that you're not working by saying you're, "in transition," a job seeker "seeking new opportunities," stuff along those lines.
They are recruiters who, as part of the LinkedIn recruiter search, will indicate that those are words that they don't want to see in a profile that's returned to them. So, you know, that becomes something that you avoid.
Another thing is if you're trying to give the illusion that you're working and putting volunteer work in as though it were a job, you know, the impact of that is, number one is, you can't get rid of that when you find a real job. It's going to stick there forever.
The result is, you look like you have a choppy history. you're better off not having a completion date, rather than putting in volunteer work.
Another mistake (and this one is huge these days) is you're not using the messaging function on LinkedIn, which has really gotten to be good. Whereas before, it used to be really an email service that would message you through LinkedIn and it would sit in your inbox and take a long time to deliver, Now it is basically instant messaging on LinkedIn. It works very well. As a matter of fact, on the mobile app for LinkedIn, you can use audio to message someone so you can do an audio recording if you don't want to sit there with your thumbs and type. So, don't hesitate to use the mobile app. It's really good.
Last thing, and I think this is a bonus number here. Let me just say, Oh, I'm sorry, one more thing before I hit the bonus! Your profile doesn't have information underneath each employer or it's not keyword rich. Now, when recruiters are trying to find someone like you looking for a job, how do they do that?
Well, they may, but it's unlikely they may use the primary search being your employer if you work for a large firm, there are thousands of people who work for your firm, right? How do they find you? If you work for a small firm, they'll never do that. The way they're going to do it is by selecting keywords like they would on a job board to find you. In doing so, if you don't have any information to describe your work that's keyword rich, you're invisible. So you have to get keywords into your profile and not just in the summary. Although that's helpful, because that is one of the early things that people notice, it has to be congruent in the profile itself. Otherwise, people think it's old information. So, build out your profile and include lots of keywords that are relevant and congruent with your resume.
The last thing, which is a bonus, where is it? Oh, yes, you're not using visual content in the profile. You can include video. You can include SlideShare presentations, you know, you can be posting stuff now on LinkedIn. You can upload video. You can upload audio (I believe you can upload audio I'm not sure about that). Take a look for yourself. You can upload images on LinkedIn. Make yourself known. Use the blogging platform to share information. If you're not doing that, the stuff in the LinkedIn profiles are, very simply are going to not get found as readily. Use LinkedIn to demonstrate that you're an expert at what you do and build your brand, not just simply during this job search but forever! in your career, you will be discovered more readily. You'll be found more readily and more opportunities will come to you.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1300 episodes and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice.” He is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council. “No BS JobSearch Advice Radio” was recently named a Top 10 podcast for job search. JobSearchTV.com was also recently named a Top 10 YouTube channel for job search.
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