How to boost your LinkedIn profile and Get a Job? – This query often comes to our mind when we are into job-hunting. In this post, we will try to find out different effective ways we can opt to boost our LinkedIn profile during a job search, and also come up with 7 ways to use LinkedIn to get a job.

LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social networking sites, with millions of users in the United States alone and reaching hundreds of countries and territories worldwide.

It’s a popular place for professionals and students to network and look for job opportunities.

Hence, it’s no surprise that nowadays most recruiters use LinkedIn as part of their candidate search. It has become quite essential for all job seekers and professionals to take care of their Linkedin profile and keep it appropriate for the job market.

Boosting your LinkedIn profile – a step-by-step approach

Here we will see how to boost your Linkedin profile in a step-by-step approach.

What we should avoid while using Linkedin

Now, It seems like most Linkedin users are probably not very sure about how to use this huge platform for job searching. This becomes evident if you observe the behavior of the users in your own network minutely.

Many of them will be found to update their profile every now and then without much thought or planning.

Some will add whatever certification they do irrespective of their job profile, and some will make random comments here and there without adding much real value to their own profile.

There are many who even forget that they are in a professional network and leave an unwanted and unprofessional footprint here and there.

Many are there who love to inflate their real experience or role & position in their current organization just to impress the world outside.

And, this is certainly not the way to go if someone wants to leverage Linkedin’s power to land a great job.

Now, let’s see what we should do to boost our Linkedin profile.

Tactical tips on how to use LinkedIn to your advantage as a job seeker

Here are some tactical tips on how to use LinkedIn to your advantage in order to expand your professional network and land your next great job.

The following three tips or suggestions can be of real help to maximize the potential of your LinkedIn profile:

• Maintain the accuracy of your profile. And, keep your profile up to date.
• Be as detailed as possible about your current skills and goals.
• Emphasize your most recent experience.

When asked what is most important about a candidate’s profile and how to make the best use of the platform, many Experts opine that “authenticity” is the most important factor.

7 ways to use LinkedIn to get a job

 Here we have listed down and explained 7 ways to use Linkedin that may help us to land a job.

1. Keep your profile up to date. 

• Make sure to add a decent profile photo.
• Select a photo that looks perfect for a professional network.
• A current photo is more suitable than an older one.
• LinkedIn members with a profile picture are more likely to receive page views.

2. Be comprehensive about current skills and objectives 

• Don’t leave anything out about your current skills and objectives.
• It is preferable that you have already decided on one or more target companies or fields where you want to switch over. Make sure you are aware of the skillsets you need to have to join your target company or field. This will help you to find your suitability there as a candidate. This will also help you to select the skills you need to showcase more on your Linkedin Page.
• You may use your profile headline to share your main objective because you may attract the eyeballs of the recruiters easily there. Your headline should stand out and highlight what you do or what type of position you’re looking for.
• Or you can add a few lines that describe your current objective in the “About” section’s “summary” text area.
• You can use the “Open to” option and select “Finding a new job” as shown in figure 2.
• And add all of your current skills to your page at relevant places. Add details of major certifications done that are in line with the skills you want to showcase for the targeted job.

3. Highlight recent experience. 

• Highlight your recent experience.
• Write about specific achievements you made recently.
• Add some supporting documents or website links or your blog links if those are relevant to your current experience you want to highlight.
• If you want to switch over to some different field or role and your current experience is not in that area, then make sure you detail how your current or previous experience can help you for your target job or role and how you can add value to your future company after joining.

4. Build your network to the 1st degree. 

• Build a good network. A properly written profile with a proper profile photo, objective, etc increases your chance of getting a connection from a person who is otherwise unknown to you.
• Your connections can exponentially increase your exposure and access to other connections.
• LinkedIn makes it easy to connect with people you know by importing your contact lists from sites such as Gmail.

5. Research the companies you’re interested in and follow them. 

LinkedIn makes it easy during the job hunt to find and follow companies. If you haven’t already done so, make a list of the companies you’d like to work for and follow them on LinkedIn. This will help you stay in the know about company news and new positions as they become available.

6. Use the Advanced Search. 

• Use LinkedIn’s Search option and do a search on your favorite companies.
• Make a list of your connections who are associated with your target companies.
• You can reach out to these people depending on their connection with the company.
• If they work there, you can ask questions about the company culture.

7. Look for alumni associated with your college or university. 

Doing a search for your college or university is a great way to connect with alumni who went to the same school as you. You can reach out to them and share this common interest to help you land your next job.

Conclusion – [Boosting Linkedin profile and using it appropriately to get a job]

Here are a few pieces of advice regarding job search on Linkedin. Let’s put these in a list for a quick view.

“Be yourself, be who you are.”

This isn’t just about our experiences; this isn’t a resume. This is a more flexible approach where we can share our experiences, skills, goals, what we know, and what we are interested in in a professional context.

It’s not just about comprehensiveness; it’s also about the freshness and authenticity of the information.

Remember, following these tips won’t guarantee that you will get a job from the Linkedin network, but there is a high chance that these may help you in your venture for getting a job. So keep patience & prepare yourself for the interview as it may appear at any time in front of you, and you need to be all set to crack it.