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LinkedIn has certainly changed the complexion of looking for a job. Some people will claim it has helped individual\u2019s job searches and some people will claim that it does nothing but make their job search more difficult. Some people claim, for instance, that they won’t put their picture on LinkedIn because it reveals their age. Some employers will not consider interviewing a candidate who doesn’t have their picture on LinkedIn. The tool, however, is here to stay and we all better make it “our friend.” Here are the top 10 mistakes that job seekers make in using LinkedIn:<\/p>\n
#1\u00a0<\/em>Waiting to start using LinkedIn until you are unemployed.<\/em>\u00a0 You should be a proficient user of LinkedIn before you ever start looking for a job. The best time to start using it is before you need a job in order to expand your professional network with recruiters and hiring managers. Building a good profile, developing solid relationships and most importantly, creating a profile brand, takes time. Getting people to know who you are before you need a job is really important.<\/p>\n #2\u00a0<\/em>Not being an \u201cactive LinkedIn user.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>It\u2019s not only important to create a well-branded, search- optimized profile, it\u2019s important to know how to be a real user. Get to know all of the features that LinkedIn can provide you before you need them. For instance, the ability to find all of the alumni of your college or university in the area where you live is a great way to seek interviews. You should know how to do this\u00a0before<\/em>\u00a0you start looking for a job.<\/p>\n #3\u00a0No picture at all, or a bad, inappropriate picture.<\/em>\u00a0It may not come as a shock, but there are a lot of employers who won\u2019t even consider a candidate who doesn\u2019t have their picture posted on their LinkedIn profile. And, what\u2019s just as poor, is a bad or inappropriate picture. A picture taken with an old iPhone, in poor light, making your head look like an egg, does not help you. A picture of you fishing, playing golf, coaching your child\u2019s baseball team or a picture of you with the bear you just shot, all communicate someone who is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>serious about business. Lots of people think that people who shoot bears are miserable and cruel people and don\u2019t want them around their company no matter how good they are. These kinds of pictures end your potential candidacy before it has even begun.<\/p>\n #4\u00a0Inaccurate information (seemingly).<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>I can\u2019t tell you the number of times I\u2019ve seen situations where a person\u2019s LinkedIn profile did not agree with their resume. End of discussion and end of consideration.<\/p>\n #5\u00a0Not having a robust profile.<\/em>\u00a0Minimal descriptions of who you worked for and what you\u2019ve done before not only doesn\u2019t communicate being proud of what you\u2019ve done before, it doesn\u2019t give people the information that they need to elevate you. Talk about your previous jobs in very positive terms, preferably, with some kind of performance measurements. People like numbers.<\/p>\n #6\u00a0Not having any, or very few, recommendations or endorsements<\/em>. You should have at least two recommendations for each job listed in the experience section of your profile and at least 50 skills listed in your \u201cskills\u201d section of your profile so people can find you using those terms.<\/p>\n #7\u00a0Not having enough contacts.<\/em>\u00a0Your goal is to have at least 501 connections on LinkedIn so you have the added branding power of \u201c500+.\u201d We\u2019ve experienced candidates being eliminated, especially for sales opportunities, because they didn\u2019t have a significant number of contacts. (\u201cHow could a successful sales person have only 100 contacts?\u201d) But even if you\u2019re not in sales, you need to have a significant number of contacts. A small number of contacts communicates poor social skills. Remember that business is a \u201ccontact sport\u201d and the more contacts you have the better \u201cathlete\u201d you appear to be.<\/p>\n #8\u00a0Not having a customized LinkedIn URL<\/em>. This should be used for all your marketing information so people can reach you quickly. Remember, your first and last name is the #1 searchable term on LinkedIn. So, you want to change your vanity URL to remove all of those unnecessary characters and just have your first and last name if possible. This will not only provide a nice-looking, branded LinkedIn URL, but it will also allow you to be found more often for your #1 searchable term on LinkedIn\u2026 your first and last name. \u00a0Also, be sure to include your phone number on your profile where people can easily see it.<\/p>\n #9\u00a0The first 35 to 40 characters of your headline are not descriptive.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>The first 35 or 40 characters need to describe exactly who you are and what you do at a glance. However, simply listing a job title and a company name as your headline is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>a brand. It\u2019s much better to use every one of the 120 available characters to list those searchable terms that not only tell people what you\u2019ve done but what you\u00a0<\/em>can do for them.<\/em>\u00a0People are going to \u201cscan\u201d your profile more than they are going to read it. Your headline needs to capture their interest.<\/p>\n #10\u00a0\u00a0Not listing your jobs and companies you worked for in reverse chronological order.<\/em>\u00a0People are not interested in the first job you had. They are interested in knowing what you\u2019re doing now and then work backwards looking at what you\u2019ve done before. You should do this just like a resume.<\/p>\n Quit thinking that a LinkedIn profile really doesn\u2019t matter in your job search.<\/em>\u00a0It does matter, a lot. \u00a0In October of last year LinkedIn surpassed 414 million users. Every second, two new users sign up for LinkedIn.\u00a0 If you have a poor or dismissive attitude towards LinkedIn, it doesn\u2019t matter, but the people who are trying to hire you have a high regard for it. I can\u2019t tell you the number of candidates who I\u2019ve represented whose LinkedIn profile was terrible and my client simply told me that with a LinkedIn profile that poor, they just didn\u2019t want to interview them. My candidates inevitably say \u201cWell, I don\u2019t use LinkedIn and it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d It does matter! A poor LinkedIn profile communicates to a prospective employer that the candidate couldn\u2019t be serious about finding a job.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LinkedIn has certainly changed the complexion of looking for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n