Congratulations on completing your degree!
By now you’ve had the opportunity to catch up with old friends, make some plans to do fun things, and started working on your resume.
Or perhaps you’ve pulled up stakes and headed out somewhere new, enjoying the freedom of being young and starting a new adventure.
Whatever the case, sooner or later you’re going to need a job. And not just any job — the kind of job your education was supposed to help you get, that you spent the past few years making sure you could get.
Now, those who’ve been in the workforce for a while can make use of their networks.
But you don’t have a big network…yet.
LinkedIn Is the On-Ramp to Your New Job
You need a big network, and that’s where LinkedIn enters the picture.
It isn’t Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram. In fact, LinkedIn is pretty much in a class by itself when it comes to social media that’s work-related. It was designed to facilitate professional networking, and it is so good at professional networking that there are no real rivals.
LinkedIn is useful to you because being on it will help you find a job. There are a few reasons for this:
1. LinkedIn Makes You Findable
Recruiters in a hurry turn to Google and LinkedIn to find qualified job candidates.
Searching online for qualified candidates is usually quicker and much more effective for recruiters than screening the hundreds of job applications resulting from job postings to find those who are actually qualified for their jobs.
There are two primary reasons that LinkedIn makes you more findable as a job candidate:
- Google typically puts LinkedIn near the top of the first page of search results for those recruiters who use Google to find candidates.
- LinkedIn’s primary source of revenue is recruiters who pay LinkedIn for the privilege of searching through the member database for qualified candidates.
So, having a solid LinkedIn Profile puts you in position to be found whether they are searching the Internet with Google or searching only inside LinkedIn.
Read 7 Ways to Attract Recruiters on LinkedIn and Choosing the Best Keywords for Your LinkedIn Profile for more details.
2. LinkedIn Gives You Credibility
Not having a LinkedIn Profile raises eyebrows in many circles. Why don’t you have a LinkedIn Profile? Do you not understand how important it is? Are you hiding something? What’s wrong with you?
LinkedIn is one of the first places an employer or recruiter checks to verify the contents of a resume or job application.
Having a solid, complete (“All Star” in LinkedIn’s terminology) Profile, helps assure them that the facts on your application are correct — after all, your colleagues, friends, and family can see the contents of your Profile.
The assumption is that what you make public to friends, family, colleagues, and the world at large is apt to be more accurate than what you submit online.
Read Social Proof: Linked(In) to Your Resume for more information.
3. LinkedIn Helps You Expand Your Network
Make no mistake, in spite of the millions of job postings online, networking is the most effective (and quickest) way to connect to a new job.
Responding to job postings is one of the least effective ways to find a job.
Maybe there’s a family friend, let’s call him Uncle Bert. Uncle Bert isn’t actually related, but he might as well be, he’s just as much a part of every family gathering as everybody else, and was always fond of you.
But do you know what Uncle Bert does for a living, or with what employer?
Or perhaps at your graduation celebration Aunt Jane congratulates you, gives you a great big hug, and tells you to call her if you need any help finding a job. Use LinkedIn to connect with Uncle Bert or Aunt Jane (if they’re on it), and see who they might know.
And now you have a reason to call Aunt Jane or Uncle Bert. One really easy way for them to help you is by introducing and connecting you with the people they know, either via LinkedIn or otherwise. What about all the other people you know who’ve been in the working world for a while now, like your best friend’s parents, or your own? And don’t neglect older siblings, cousins, neighbors, and even your professors and other students.
These are all people who know and like you, so help them help you. And a few years down the road, when someone you know is in the same position you are right now, you know how to respond.
This is networking. It’s precisely the kind of thing that LinkedIn is built to do because it is so essential to careers and to job hunting.
4. You Can Connect with Employers on LinkedIn
If you ask any hiring manager, HR professional, or corporate recruiter what the best source of new hires is, they’re going to tell you — hands down — that employee referrals are where it’s at.
The employee referral — when an existing employee of an employer recommends someone for a job — is the gold standard for sources of hire. It is the number one source of hires, far ahead of job postings.
- The referring employee already knows what it’s like to work there, so if they refer someone it’s because they feel he or she can do the work, and would make a worthwhile addition to the organization.
- No employee will refer someone that leads colleagues to question their judgment. So employee referrals are valued because the candidates have been vetted by someone who is in a position to do that well.
- The new employee has a built-in support systems, starting with the person who referred them.
This is how you ideally want to become a candidate to an employer. And as you grow your LinkedIn network, bear in mind that network growth targeted towards particular industries or employers is an important strategy.
5. LinkedIn Is Essential for Interview Preparation
Most people in the business world have a LinkedIn account (over 660 million in early 2020).
A Profile should include a person’s education and work history, displaying the Recommendations they were given by others on LinkedIn, and describing their accomplishments.
Together, these pieces of information put you in a great position to find commonalities with a hiring manager and understand what traits he or she values.
However, you can only see the person’s full profile if you or someone you’re connected with–1st or 2nd degree connections, in LinkedIn parlance — is connected to that person.
- This is one reason you want to have a good-sized network.
- This is also why you want to connect with people within target organizations, so you can learn more about what it’s like to work somewhere.
You will find that a lot of people have worked for a lot of businesses — you might be surprised by how much job and employer changing has been going on the last decade or so. But this also means a lot of people potentially have the kind of information you really want.
You can search on LinkedIn for people who are both current and former employees of a given business, and they’re often gold mines of information. Use LinkedIn’s Search to find that option.
This is the kind of information that lets you ask great questions in your interview; the kind of information that shows you’re smart and know how to do good research; the kind of information that says yes, they need you to join their team.
The Bottom Line
A job search is a hard process, no question. But LinkedIn is a powerful tool that makes it a lot easier for new grads because it offers you an effective way to become visible and to have a bigger network.
[MORE: Why New Grads Must Join LinkedIn and 7 Elements of an Effective LinkedIn Profile]
More About Job Search for New Grads
- How to Land a Job when Your Major Has High Unemployment
- Competing with Older Candidates
- Improving Your GPA After Graduation
- How to Make Employee Referral Programs Work for You
- LinkedIn SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Mining Mom’s Network for New Grad Job Search
About the author…
Ed Han is a recruiter and wordsmith and social media fanatic. As a veteran of several industries, including publishing, financial services and fashion, Ed helps facilitate a job search group in Princeton NJ and has served as the online community manager for the regional HR networking group Whine & Dine. Connect with Ed on Twitter @ed_han where you will often find that Ed has posted a “LinkedIn tip of the day.”
More about this author…
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