LinkedIn

The importance of getting recruited cannot be overstated. Thanks to the internet and social media, job seekers have an easier way of getting their profiles seen by potential employees. Of all social media and digital platforms, LinkedIn has perfected this art. In fact, it is postulated that LinkedIn will soon be the number one global recruitment tool. Owing to many reasons that are both helpful to both the recruiter and the job seeker, the above fact might be true.

LinkedIn is a social media platform meant for professionals. It is particularly useful for connecting to one’s existing professional network and expanding this portfolio to capture secondary and tertiary connections linked to one’s existing network. Compared to other social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn is not filled with all the whistles and bells, but its ability to serve its core purpose is undoubtable. Of great significance, all it takes is creating a LinkedIn account, through very simple steps, and then going ahead to explore new professional horizons.

To create a professional LinkedIn account, one opens the link, www.linked.com. Entering the name, email and password and clicking on the “Join LinkedIn Today” is all that entails signing up. To sign in into one’s new account, confirming the account through the email address is necessary. Similarly, editing the profile is quite easy and quick. Underneath the name, one can add a picture of himself or herself. Next, one can edit their qualifications. LinkedIn provides one with the option to add their education, current and past employment. For people they are contacting the job seeker for, the experiences must be as clear as possible. With that, it is wise to include descriptions of degrees earned and past jobs. Additionally, in the event that the details are adequate enough, LinkedIn can send job suggestions to the job seeker. It is important that these details are kept sweet, short and informative. For potential employers to get a peek of where the job seeker currently stands in their career, LinkedIn gives an option where one can write a summary about their current status and prospects. Just directly below the summary option, one can add specific specialties according to their expertise. Next, to add connections, LinkedIn can search through one’s email address. Addition of recommendations from colleagues is also possible.

A professionally written LinkedIn profile can be a great aide for opening doors to networks and opportunities. Before the inception of LinkedIn, it was almost impossible to have a direct connection with potential employees or individuals sharing one’s job tittle. With LinkedIn, a click of a button seamlessly enables to create a strong online personal brand which then gives a networking edge. How is LinkedIn specifically helpful during recruitment?

First, Linked improves one’s first impression in the eyes of potential hiring managers. Within the first 20 minutes of reading a job seeker’s LinkedIn profile, a recruiter forms either a positive or negative attitude about the job seeker. In the event that the profile is included with up to date information on experience and skills, the attention of the reader will be inevitably captured. To maintain the attention and solidify a great first intention, it is important that the job seeker’s profile contains key achievements like value added skills and examples of projects. Of course, a picture is important. This gives the reader am impression that there is a real human behind the profile. A picture tells a lot about the job seeker. For instance, when applying for a corporate position, taking a picture while holding a bottle of beer can be suicidal.

The second benefit of using LinkedIn is the ease of being found. When it comes headhunting or hiring new talent, an increasingly high number of companies are now dependent on social media. The extremely competitive credit industry is the perfect demonstration of this. When trying to poach top class from competitors, companies in this industry quickly resort to LinkedIn. Even if one is not actively looking for employment, the mere act of creating and owning a LinkedIn account can turn around one’s career. 

Networking. That’s probably one of the greatest benefits of owning a LinkedIn account. When it comes to the ability to help one join groups and forums of liked-mined individuals, very few platforms match the capabilities of LinkedIn. And this comes with an unprecedented amount of opportunities for a job seeker. Job seeking is sometimes a scary and tough business. Even for the most skilled job seekers, flocking the internet on a daily basis and applying for jobs can be a tasking endeavor. Following that line of thought, LinkedIn is an amazing tool that can help a job seeker push his or her frontier in the field.

The list of benefits of using LinkedIn to a job seeker will not be complete without the addition of recommendations. In the conventional world of job seeking, recommendations are a fundamental thing. Often, people attach their resumes with recommendations from former bosses and colleagues. This is not any different from social media. Employers delight at employees who have a positive background with reference what their colleagues and bosses had to say. With positive recommendations, LinkedIn can help one gain a competitive edge against other job seekers.

Nevertheless, as much as LinkedIn has been hailed as a very great success for both job seekers and recruiters in their endeavor to find new jobs and poach new talent respectively, there has been a an increasing concern on how much ethical the use of LinkedIn is when trying to find a job. More often, LinkedIn users get endorsements from connections they have never met and the skills recommended cannot be attested. According to many business codes and laws across the globe, it is wrong to use misleading endorsements for it is unfair to the recruiter. Raising unjustified attention can be disastrous.

In addition to misleading endorsements, the availability of the “specialties” option in the LinkedIn profile is a fertile ground through which one can extremely violate ethical codes. The job seeking industry is extremely competitive. With that, a job seeker might try to go to any length to earn themselves a job. Since it’s very tempting and easy to write misleading content in praise of one’s achievement, job seekers can deliberately lie on their LinkedIn profiles. This goes against a very basic code of ethics. Obviously, raising the attention of people due to false information is unethical.

To conclude, LinkedIn is a powerful job seeking platform. That goes without doubt. With features that support posting jobs, seeking jobs and networking, a job seeker who is not on LinkedIn is missing out on something. If one can keep a truthful profile, LinkedIn is definitely a helpful way to get a new job.