The inside joke regarding LinkedIn is “hey—if you’re not on LinkedIn, you don’t exist”. Although a savvy recruiter has many other ways of finding a candidate, LinkedIn has become an important tool. An experienced recruiter (especially one with a top-notch research team) can find even the most buried candidate; however, not everyone tasked with sourcing new talent is an expert in complex search disciplines. They may be great engineers, accountants or HR professionals, but they don’t have the desire (or the time) to devote huge chunks of their day to running Boolean strings, or knocking on back doors to find you. Instead, they’ll reach for the low-hanging fruit: People with complete LinkedIn profiles.
Sad but true: If you don’t have a complete LinkedIn profile, you’re probably going to be passed by. In essence, no click for you; meaning somebody else gets the dream job. Life isn’t fair. Or—is it?
In the interest of altruism, I offer the following check-list and advice for those of you creating or editing your LinkedIn profile.
1. Add a professional photo. Do not post a photo that makes you look less professional than you really are.
2. Use your name. Yes—your real first and last names. LinkedIn profiles without names are generally a waste of time. Even James Bond has a name, and he’s not even real. Unless you work on an unmentionable program for an unmentionable agency, use your name. If your first name is William (as mine is) but you go by “Will”, use the name that most people know you by in your profile.
3. Complete your work history. LinkedIn has a function that will automatically import your resume. This is almost a no-brainer, but I still see many profiles with no work histories.
4. Get some connections. If you have very few connections (10 or less), it looks like you don’t take LinkedIn seriously—and probably wouldn’t respond to a message because you probably don’t check your account often enough or even care.
5. Check your account! If possible, have your LinkedIn messages sent to an email address you check every day. Better yet, see #6 below.
6. Post your contact information—especially your email. I post my work and cell phone numbers and my professional email address in my LinkedIn profile. Nobody calls me in the middle of the night, and I don’t receive any more spam than the next person. Why make it difficult for people to find you? Heck—in the worst case scenario, you can always ignore them.
7. If you don’t post your contact information, you can be contacted via precious, expensive LinkedIn “in mail”. Just so you know, the entry-level, $25 per month paying member of LinkedIn is allowed to send only three “in mails” per month. Think of them as silver bullets. When you receive one, be flattered that someone spent $8.33 to contact you.
8. Join some appropriate LinkedIn professional groups. Choose at least one that is very popular (like Linked Strategies—which will offer you tons of information on how LinkedIn really works) and also join some that are relevant to your professional field. This makes you look smart—and fellow group members can contact each other for free in the LinkedIn system.
9. Occasionally post something intelligent. I suggest sharing links from professional journals under “network activity” in your profile. You can also ask for some quality professional advice in group discussions, or better yet—respond to someone’s pressing need for direction. Avoid participating in mundane discussions (yes, there are some on LinkedIn); they make you look like you have too much free time.
10. Spell-check everything—twice.
Will Baumann is a recruiter specializing in difficult to fill technical and leadership positions.
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/willbaumann
Company site: http://www.anrgroupinc.com/
