Using LinkedIn

January 28, 2010

LinkedIn is a professional social media website used for networking with colleagues, business partners, and clients. Online profiles resemble a resume showing your current and past positions with personal summaries. Co-workers and managers can also write recommendations which appear on your profile (if you would like them to appear, you also have the option of hiding them). It’s no surprise that LinkedIn has become a tool for job searching, and with soaring unemployment rates, it has become even more valuable.

Here are some tips on how to land a job using LinkedIn:

Build Your Network
Add colleagues, managers and friends to your network, but be sure they are people that you actually had interaction with on some level. Hiring Managers do look at potential candidates on LinkedIn and it’s possible that they could contact anyone you list in your network to inquire about you. Be sure that they have something to say and that it’s good!

Who’s Hiring?
Check to see where people in your network are working and where they have worked in the past. You can click on these companies’ profiles to see if they have any recent hires. Be sure to save the company’s website, because that’s where their jobs will be listed. If you have people in your network that work for these companies, reach out to them and let them know that you are interested in the company and see if they will give you any inside information. LinkedIn also has job listings on their site.

Use the Recommendations Feature
Ask former colleagues to write recommendations for you and be sure to return the favor.

A Basic LinkedIn account is free, but you have the option of upgrading to Business account which includes better search and organization tools, but perhaps the biggest draw for a business account is InMail. With a Basic account, you can only send messages to those in your network, but with Business accounts, you can send messages to others outside of your network, such as a hiring manager. Currently, LinkedIn is offering a 50% discount on Business accounts. For hiring managers, they are also offering a “Buy One Get One Free” for job postings. Now is a great time to take advantage of LinkedIn!