Over ninety percent of recruiters search the LinkedIn member database to find candidates who have the specific set of qualifications and/or keywords in their Profile.
After searching the database, recruiters get served with "search results" that include a Profile view for each candidate who meets the search criteria.
To be successful, you want your Profile to consistently appear in search results for candidates with your set of qualifications, ideally higher in those results than competing candidates.
Having your Profile ranking well in LinkedIn search results is called "LinkedIn Profile SEO" (search engine optimization).
When your Profile is visible in search results, you want to stand out from the other candidates and capture the interest of the recruiters so they click on your Profile, even when you are not actively searching for a new job.
In addition to job offers, other common reasons to be easily found on LinkedIn are to be visible to new potential clients and members of your network as well as to old friends and colleagues
These are LinkedIn's reasons for existing, a giant online rolodex on steriods. LinkedIn's primary revenue stream is LinkedIn Recruiter, the service used by recruiters access to LinkedIn's 500+ million member database. If your Profile cannot be found on LinkedIn, you have a serious problem, unless your career requires invisiblity (spy?).
To better understand how recruiters search LinkedIn, think about how you search an online job board for job postings. You go to a website (CareerBuilder, Indeed, etc.), and enter a series of keywords (typically job title and location). You may also click on an industry or job function from a drop down list of options. Then, you then get presented with a series of job listings.
Do you click on all of the search results? Probably not. Instead, you only click on those that catch your eye as the most interesting and relevant to your search.
Recruiters search for and choose job candidates in LinkedIn in a very similar way. Using LinkedIn Recruiter, they search through LinkedIn Profiles.
Recruiters scan the search results, and click on those entries that are most appealing and relevant to the jobs they are filling.
After more reviews and, usually, a Google search on the names of promising candidates, they reach out to the candidates to begin the hiring process.
More on how sourcing works: Get "Sourced" to Get Hired and How to Find Jobs Working With Recruiters, Head Hunters, and Staffing Firms.
Recruiters have several options for searching inside LinkedIn. They can use Google to "x-ray" LinkedIn, do a "People" search like the rest of us, or pay LinkedIn to use the LinkedIn Recruiter service.
You need your name and your LinkedIn Profile to appear high up in the search results on LinkedIn when a recruiter does one of these typical searches:
If an entry for you doesn't appear on the first page (preferably) or the first two or three pages of search results, you are invisible because, typically, few people look past the first page. [Read Your Most Important Keywords, The Top 25 Keywords for Your Job Search, and Managing Your Google Resume for more on how to have the right terms in the right places.]
LinkedIn is the website used most often by recruiters and employers to find candidates for their jobs.
Smartly implementing LinkedIn SEO is essential today for being found and having credibility with recruiters.
NEXT: 12 Steps to Outrank Your Competitors in LinkedIn Search in 2021 (Personal LinkedIn SEO)
Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
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