Job Hunt Series Part 2: Four Ways to Become the Strongest Link in the Job Hunt with LinkedIn

In part one of this series we discussed ways to make your resume stand out by tailoring it in the following ways: emphasizing internships and training opportunities, embellishing your education and including more contemporary skills. In this second part, we’ll discuss how you can master the job hunt by creating a personal brand on LinkedIn. Whether you’re actively job searching for primary employment or are looking for something better than what you have now, having a strong presence on LinkedIn is key to getting potential employers to discover more about you than a simple resumé can reveal. To truly hone this professional social networking medium, consider the four tips below.

1. Fill Out Your Profile Completely

This first step may seem obvious, but have you really used all the space LinkedIn offers to emphasize your professional attributes and experiences? Maintaining a bare-minimum profile with basic and brief information about your college degree, work experience and marketable skills won’t impress recruiters looking for top talent. A full profile not only emphasizes your most impressive qualities, but also gives employers insight as to how tech- and social-savvy you can be. If possible, try to embed videos, links to your other professional websites, photographs and any other digital representations relevant to your professional image.

2. Be Social

It’s what social networking is for, after all. Building your network on LinkedIn is one of the crucial ways you can get noticed by a larger audience of recruiters and potential business partners. In addition to adding all of your current colleagues, former classmates, professors and other professional acquaintances, you can reach out to influential professionals all around the world through tools like Groups, Answers, Today, Company Pages and so on. These tools make it easy for professionals to connect with one another and get noticed by discussing industry news and collaborating on innovative solutions to current problems.

3. Use Keywords

According to LinkedIn itself, the social networking site is home to more than 175 million professionals as of August 2, 2012. With such an extensive customer base, recruiters simply don’t have the time to read through every potential candidate for a job opening. To filter out less-qualified professionals, these recruiters will often use the website’s search function for key words in the job description along with character traits and credentials they feel are desirable. The more of these concise key words you have in your profile, the more likely a recruiter is to stumble across your page and possibly reach out to you.

4. Update Often

Just like your resume, your LinkedIn account should be updated often to maintain accuracy and relevancy. For example, if you’re going back to school to extend your degree, you can include information about your progress in the program and different projects you’ve completed throughout this period. Whenever you make any major professional accomplishments or even complete a personal goal that’s relevant to your industry, be sure to include this in your profile so everyone reading will know you’re consistently progressing in your professional development.

Fortunately for professionals, LinkedIn has several excellent tools that can be used to expand your outreach further than you could in the physical world. Thanks to the incredible popularity of the website, a healthy variety of professional contacts is just a few clicks away. This and other networking sites provide a major advantage for those who want to apply their skills in different professional environments and form valuable partnerships with a wide range of companies. When embarking upon a job search in the 21st century, using this resource to its highest potential is one of the most effective strategies you can apply to help you achieve your ultimate goal of stable employment.

Lindsey Harper Mac is a professional writer living in the Indianapolis area. She specializes in writing guest posts covering social media and education on behalf of American InterContinental University. Currently, Lindsey is completing work on her master’s degree.

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