Power Up Your LinkedIn Profile For Your Job Search

Power Up Your LinkedIn Profile For Your Job Search 

[00:00:00] Welcome to this edition of the successful encore career podcast being brought you by Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging Nationwide Insurance, Innsource and our special episode sponsor The Resume Coach. I'm Brett Johnson a longtime volunteer and with me is Carol Ventresca, Executive Director of Employment For Seniors.




[00:00:20] We are excited. Another wonderful opportunity for our listeners to hear some great information to help them in their job search. So today we're going to talk about LinkedIn and everybody's always groans and moans and oh I don't want to do that and I hate social media. Well, this is going to make LinkedIn and make a lot more sense and easier for you to do. And with us today is our special guest Sharon Hamersley. Sharon is the principal coach for The Resume Coach. She's also a longtime supporter and volunteer of Employment For Seniors as well as the facilitator of all of the workshops the career workshops that we do here at Employment For Seniors. So Sharon thank you so much for joining us today.

[00:01:06] You're welcome. Carol, I'm very glad to be here.

[00:01:09] We have a wonderful program today so we're going to get started right away. So my first question is the same thing that I hear from all of the clients. Tell me why LinkedIn is so important in a job search.

[00:01:22] Well I think that that has several answers. And the very first one is that I believe that LinkedIn is truly the future of recruiting. Right now you hear a lot of chatter about Zip Recruiter and Indeed, and I'm guessing a lot of our listeners actually had profiles on those sites. The difference with LinkedIn is that first of all LinkedIn provides an opportunity for the recruiters to search a database of several hundred million people that maybe even have never posted a resume on their regular site to find that needle in a haystack. So they can also find out a lot more about a candidate just from looking at their LinkedIn profile. Recruiters also think that this is probably a more cost-effective option. Companies can pay a dollar a month fee for their recruiters. And again those recruiters can search the entire LinkedIn membership database. Think how powerful that could be. And then finally just about you. You give a lot of information in your resume. But if your LinkedIn profile is completely up to date and completely filled out there's just a lot more content it's a lot more content rich than your resume could ever be.

[00:02:50] So the flip side of that is that if you fill out your LinkedIn profile correctly and completely and give great information even though you're one of the millions and in a recruiter can actually find you as opposed to being buried somewhere in cyberspace on some of the other sites.

[00:03:10] That's exactly correct. Recruiters can come to you may not even have to find them in some cases.

[00:03:17] So what's the first thing our listener should do when they open up the LinkedIn page? What do they need to get accomplished?

[00:03:25] Well the very first thing that they need to do is they need to create a targeted headline. Now, what's the headline if you're looking at your LinkedIn profile. Your headline is the first thing that a recruiter would see below your name.

[00:03:42] So basically LinkedIn conveniently fills that out for you with your current or most previous most recent link did feel set out for you with your current or most recent job title. But that is an eligible space and it's a space that you can really use to convey the most important information about who you are and what you offer to that next employer.

[00:04:09] Second thing is the headline right next to that headline there's a space for a headshot shot. Now I get a lot of complaints and groans and moans from folks about well you know if I put a picture of myself up there I'm going to look old. Well, eventually you go in for an interview. They're going to figure out how old you are. So my recommendation is that you do get a good professional headshot and sometimes you can access these for free or very low cost. Just check out your local job fairs often they will offer one of those. You want to do the very best you can. And yes you can't see me behind the microphone but I do have. A few gray hairs and I think that that actually conveys a sense of experience and value to an employer.

[00:05:04] Sharon let me ask a question about the headline. So I've seen LinkedIn profiles where somebody just says basically I need a job.

[00:05:13] Well that's part of the information that you want to convey to the employer. But the headline is not the space where you want to do that because the headline is basically used for keywords. Recruiters are going to search for certain keywords so your headline needs to have those key and or it can be found.

[00:05:34] So the other than the next point really is there's a lot of difference between a resume and a LinkedIn profile. So can you can give us a few of those tips on what you can do and LinkedIn that you can't do on a resume.

[00:05:50] Yes. The first item in your LinkedIn profile under your headline is your summary. Now a lot of people just copy and paste out their resume. But LinkedIn actually has a different purpose which is to start a conversation with a reader. So rather than writing in the third person which you would usually do on your resume, you want to write something in the first person and you have exactly three lines on your LinkedIn profile to start selling yourself. If they if they like your headline and they keep reading you have to keep them engaged at that point. So the opening sentence is really key. There are a lot of different ways that you can do this you don't have. Like I say you probably shouldn't just copy and paste your summary and just convert it into a first-person statement. You could, for instance, ask a question are you looking for someone who can solve a problem for you. Here's how I can help you. Some people's state say. My passion is creating better work lives for others. And I know one individual who starts out with a statement that you may find a little bit unusual but it captures her perfectly. I am a competitive sports driver who applies those insights to help my clients achieve their goals. All of those can help you engage that reader and help them just kind of encourage them to move along and view the rest of your profile. Then you the rest of the summary is what is it that you offer that can help your ideal employer.

[00:07:44] Because really here you are looking for your ideal employer, not just any employer. You hopefully have done some research about what some common issues are in the industry that you're wanting to go into. Explain how it is that you can help the employers solve some of those issues meet some of those challenges take on some of those opportunities. And again you want to make sure that you're using those words those key words in that summary that will make sure that you are searchable in the LinkedIn database. So those are some of the key points about that. And remember it's not about you. It's about your reader.

[00:08:30] Sharon I have to mention I love that line when you just that you just said that it's not about you it's about your reader. Oftentimes when clients are talking about applying for jobs and the questions they have and I'm like Have you sat back and thought about what the employer is thinking when they've created the position or the position description or the salary of the job. You need to evaluate what you're applying for what your interested in doing who your audience is and you need to make sure that you understand what the reader is looking for on your resume as well as on your LinkedIn profile. And so I just want to reiterate that.

[00:09:13] Remember I think back I've forgotten which podcast it was. We talked a little bit about creating a help offered and this is another opportunity really to create to help offer dad for that employer. What are other items you should add to your profile. Yeah there are actually some other areas that you need to consider. Obviously, you're going to add your employment history and you want to you don't need to put all of the details in that you have on your resume and he didn't just give a high-level summary. Here's the thing about LinkedIn though that that helps out. You could have presented a paper conference you could have written a white paper all of that you can actually add to that. So that's content rich if you got a certificate for the employee for the year scan it in and add it to that employer. So that's a good thing. And beyond adding employment history and again just like the resume there's no need to go back to your job with Dairy Queen. You just need to put in about the past 15 years or so.

[00:10:26] But if it's a graphic artist they can put examples of the brochures they've created or flyers or whatever that could be. So that's a great opportunity that you don't get a chance with a resume and with your application, they're not necessarily looking for portfolio type items and LinkedIn and will take care of all that.

[00:10:44] Yes LinkedIn is a great place to post your portfolio. It also gives you under contact information if you actually have a Web site if you're creative person write or if even if you're like an I.T. person and you can give some examples of programs or apps that you've written that might be a great place to add LinkedIn to that. So good idea. So there's there's just a ton of content that's a whole point of your LinkedIn profile to get that content out there that you cannot capture in your resume. So if you think about it on LinkedIn also gives you the opportunity to what you might consider really being keywords stuffing they give you the opportunity to list up to 50 skills. So I don't recommend that you list of 50 but you can see again from the job descriptions that you're looking at and the types of physicians that you're applying for now what are the required skills and you want to make sure that you definitely list all of those and if you pick out the top three LinkedIn it allows you to just immediately display those top three. And then if the employer wants more information they can they can then look at the rest of the skill set.

[00:12:06] But that entire skill set is searchable by the recruiter. So they're going to get that entire skill set even if when they come to your profile. That's one of your top three. But they will they will know that it's in there someplace. So and then also you need you can get what are called endorsements that is people say yeah I know that Carol is a very successful nonprofit executive and you can and you can be endorsed for that. So that's a good way to get people that you're connected with on LinkedIn to give you just a very quick thumbs up. That's basically what it is. The other item that LinkedIn allows you to do and this you should definitely work on is to get recommendations and also incidentally to give recommendations to people. But recommendations are just like those letters of recommendation that you would get if somebody were writing you or if recruiter were to call your previous company. Now you can get recommendations from clients from former managers from vendors from significant volunteer experience. There is just a whole raft of potential opportunities to have folks write your recommendations. Sometimes companies won't allow people to write a recommendation for you but at least in that case, they could still give you an endorsement because that's not a recommendation right.

[00:13:45] But all of this information is right there in your LinkedIn profile for the recruiter to come and take a look at. So you can see right away there's just so much more there then the fifth point is. Who are you connected with? And that's actually its own podcast. Maybe we'll get there some future point about that correct. LinkedIn cut of those types of things but it is important to both connect to its people and accept connections that will be mutual and mutually beneficial to both of you. So LinkedIn has this very rough scale they say your beginner intermediate all-star. Those types of things and I really wouldn't pay that much attention to it. But your goal if you're just starting out on LinkedIn is to get up to about 75 connections because that also gives you a bit of validation in terms of recruiters that you're also active on LinkedIn because what else does it say to the recruiter if you have an incomplete profile. Any connections as this person may not be very technically savvy but if you have a pretty rebuffs profile and you're working on building your network that's the recruiter.

[00:15:11] This person is active on LinkedIn. They look like they might be a good bet. Somebody that I want to talk to. But it really is quality, not quantity. Yes, it is definitely quality. There are folks out there that are coldly. They're called LinkedIn open networkers or Lions. And I think their motto is whoever has the most LinkedIn connections when they die wins.

[00:15:34] Right. And if you're not careful you're seeing all of their stuff and that's not what you want. Your LinkedIn profile are your LinkedIn account to be you want to get good information to be connected to people who can really help you and provide that information to you.

[00:15:51] Yes. And you want to be visible but not in a bad way. Right. Yes. And that's really. So in some then your LinkedIn profile is yet another opportunity to really stand out among job candidates. And there's a lot of other functionality that we're not even going to get into today. That can be helpful to you. That's on LinkedIn. Finally, I'd just like to make one more comment. People often ask me Well do I have to pay for my LinkedIn profile there my profile and LinkedIn to interviews LinkedIn. And the answer to that question is generally no. LinkedIn will bug you periodical you to pay 40 bucks a month to be a gold member or LinkedIn or something like that. That's generally just not necessary. Occasionally especially if you're going to be relocating to an area where you don't have very many connections. You might consider a membership for a couple of months. But other than that it's really just not necessary.

[00:16:54] I mean it's very easy to link with other people. And what better place than LinkedIn to go and find out more information about employers. You can find out directly about an employer through their LinkedIn information or through just linking with people who work for that employer.

[00:17:12] Exactly. So there's a lot of value in LinkedIn. You do have to work it to make it work. But just starting with getting your profile complete making sure you have those keywords making sure you have some endorsements. Some recommendations that you're getting connected with people who you can help and who can help you. That's a great start on LinkedIn. So the top three or four little pieces you want to just

[00:17:41] Top Tips. OK. Number one make sure your headline immediately tells the reader what it is you can do for them and follow that up in your summary statement. Make sure you have a picture of you. And then finally make sure that you do get endorsements and recommendations because I think that really does help boost your visibility online.

[00:18:09] Wonderful. Sharon thanks so much for joining us today. You're welcome. Glad to be here.