Your LinkedIn Profile Can Make Things Happen!

Four recruiters and four screening interviews. Two recruiters and two phone interviews, plus lunch with a connected colleague. An informal reference check.

These are the recent results when 3 jobseekers updated their LinkedIn profiles, to better reflect exactly what they want to do next and the skills/talents they want to use in their next gig.

Updating your profile does some really important things:

1) Signals to your world that you are active on-line. In a world increasingly influenced by social media, this is good! It shows that you are current, up-to-date, forward-thinking, and just plain smart.

2) Kicks off a job search or revitalizes an existing job search. Lots of people do a minimal profile when they have a job. Announcing that you have a fuller, more thoughtful profile can mean just one thing: you are looking for another gig.

3) Allows "right fit" employers to find you. Your targeted, key-word rich profile will attract an employer who needs what you offer and hopefully offers what you need. Your specificity makes possible those matches.

The primary audiences for your new profile are:

RECRUITERS

More and more recruiters are using LinkedIn to find qualified candidates. Using keywords from their search parameters, recruiters - internal and external - look for people who meet both basic and specialized requirements.

COLLEAGUES

When you update your profile, a notice goes out to your network. Seeing that you've updated your profile can trigger someone into action. Maybe they click on your profile and see what you've said. Or just give you a call to see how you're doing. This is the beginning of your job search networking!

EMPLOYERS

This is a group different from recruiters. They are people at companies to which you've applied. They can do an informal reference check when you include a hyperlink to your LinkedIn profile on your resume. The more complete your profile, the better. Reading your recommendations gives employers a great sense of who you are and how you work. They also can see if they know anyone in your network (1st, 2nd or 3rd degree connection) and reach out to get a little more information about you.

What makes a great profile? I'll write about that next week.