How Can I Use LinkedIn to Job Search?

By Larry French

By now you have yourself a LinkedIn account and you’ve established your Profile. Don’t forget, work on your Profile will take time and you’ll want to make changes in it from time to time. Remember, its okay because your Profile is a living refection of you so as you learn the features of LinkedIn you should make gradual changes to your Profile. You’ll also want to make sure that you include Keywords.

Use Keywords



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Before you begin using the Jobs feature in LinkedIn you need to include Keywords in your Profile. By now most of us are aware of the method used by recruiters and employers to scan resumes for specific job skills and abilities in prospects. Similar searches are done on the www. If you want yourself to get noticed in these searches you need to incorporate Keywords in your Profile.

For an idea of how Keywords work, try using http://www.wordle.net/ with descriptions of jobs you’re looking for and see the prominent words that show up. Do the same thing using the wording of your own Elevator Speech or the descriptions you have of yourself in your Resumes and LinkedIn Profile. Using Skills and Keywords from the job you’re looking for in your Profile make you more visible. Now you’re ready to explore the Jobs feature.

Jobs Search Feature



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On the main page of your Profile you’ll find a series of tab selections at the top tool bar. By placing your cursor over the Jobs tab a scroll down menu will appear. For a job seeker, the first item, Find Jobs on the menu is the one you want. Job Seeker Premium is fee-based assistance for your job search. The Job Seeker tab will provide you a short video of Job Seeker Premium, http://learn.linkedin.com/jobs/jobseeker/ . If you choose not to use Job Seeker Premium, Find Jobs will pull up a Search for Jobs screen.

This is where you type in a Job Title, Keyword, or Company Name. You can also use the Advanced option under the Search button to add filters to your search. In the Advanced Search, included with your Keywords you also have defining factors, such as Location, Country, Postal Code, a mileage range, job Functions, Experience levels, Industries, Date Posted, and a Sort by Relevance, Relationship, Date Posted (most recent), and Date Posted (earliest) all to help you narrow your job search.

Plan Your Work



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Again, LinkedIn’s Learning Center under the More tab at the top of the page offers you helps with this and other LinkedIn features. Under Resources, click New on LinkedIn!, http://blog.linkedin.com/topic/new-linkedin-features/ . This Blog of LinkedIn has articles written to give you more steps and information in what you’re seeking to do on LinkedIn. For example, type ‘Job Search’ or another facet of LinkedIn you want more knowledge on into the Archives field at the top of this page and you may find the same article I did entitled, LinkedIn Tips for Over-50 Job Seekers from a Lindsey Pollack, March 16, 2012.

LinkedIn has a lot of tools available for the job seeker. Using LinkedIn you have options and possibilities you may not imaged. Use these tools and work them into your job search strategy. The features of LinkedIn can help you leverage your profile to make you stand out. Don’t forget to also check out the other articles of the CBE One-Stop Job Seeker Blog. All of these articles and the resources available at the One-Stop Employment Division website, http://www.onestops.com/newindex.asp can also be helpful tools to you in your job search strategy.

Larry French is a novelist, speaker, editorial writer, and content provider of Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, and Mathematics curriculum. He is now seeking a publisher for his first novel, Time Will Tell, The Awakening which blends his love of history and science and is set during the American Civil War. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/larry-french/12/213/534