How to use LinkedIn for job seekers

Getting Started With LinkedIn In Your Job Search

Setting Up Your LinkedIn Account

Note: This guide was completely updated in January 2020; however, LinkedIn is constantly updating its site, changing features and moving things around. If the website looks different for you, don’t be afraid to poke around or check out LinkedIn.com/help.

Why Get LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the top social networking website for jobseekers. As Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, explains it, “Post a full profile and get connected to the people you trust. Because if you’re connected to those people, and you posted a profile, then when other people are searching for people, they might find you.”

LinkedIn has more than 575 million registered users as of January 2020. More than 250 million users access the site monthly, with 40 percent of users logging in on a daily basis. With so many members, the rate at which your network expands on LinkedIn can be truly amazing. A hundred strategic contacts could mean access to millions of people in a short amount of time. You’d have to attend dozens — or hundreds — of in-person networking events to equal the reach you can get on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn allows you to leverage the power of your network — the people you know, and the people those people know — to help you connect to a person who is in a position to offer you a job.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, put it this way: LinkedIn is about “connecting talent with opportunity on a massive scale.”

Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn. Recruiters from every discipline and industry are on LinkedIn. More than 20 million companies have profile pages on LinkedIn, five times as many as in 2017.

LinkedIn is also the place to find jobs. There are 14 million open jobs posted on the site, and 90 percent of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn. In addition, one study found that 122 million people received an interview through LinkedIn, and 35.5 million were hired by a person they connected with on the site.

Author Guy Kawasaki puts it best: “I could make the case that Facebook is for show, and LinkedIn is for dough.”

Why LinkedIn Is Important In Your Job Search

Once upon a time, attending networking mixers, industry events, and Chamber of Commerce meetings were the best way to make new connections and build business relationships. Now, many of these activities have moved online within the LinkedIn community. Much like networking in person, professionals interact on LinkedIn with the explicit intention of making business connections.

With LinkedIn, you get all the benefits of networking in person, with less of the hassle. Instead of going from business lunch to business lunch hoping to meet people, LinkedIn provides a platform for you to specifically search for and research individuals who you know will directly add value to your job search.

Employers and recruiters use LinkedIn to locate both active jobseekers and those who aren’t necessarily looking (passive candidates). They also use LinkedIn to vet job candidates before making an interview invitation or extending a job offer. LinkedIn also allows candidates to create an online portfolio of their accomplishments — by facilitating embedded video, links to content posted elsewhere on the Internet, and the ability to create highly shareable, long-form content in the form of LinkedIn’s “Publishing” feature.

LinkedIn allows you to identify, research, contact, follow-up, engage, and maintain your contacts in one place. Its ability to facilitate business networking is unmatched by any other social network. Essentially, your LinkedIn profile is a résumé, business card, and elevator speech all rolled up into one.

However, your LinkedIn profile is not your résumé. LinkedIn is a personal branding page. You need both a résumé and a LinkedIn profile, and they should be in sync with one another, but not be exact copies. The information on your résumé should match your profile (in terms of positions you’ve held, your educational credentials, etc.), but the content you include on your LinkedIn profile may be different than what is included on your résumé.

How To Set Up A Basic LinkedIn Account

Setting up a LinkedIn account is a quick and easy process. You can create a basic profile in just five minutes. However, speed is not the objective if you want to use LinkedIn to facilitate your job search. Rushing could lead to a sloppy profile that doesn’t represent you well — or may even prevent you from getting called for an interview.

Basic LinkedIn memberships are free. For most jobseekers, the free option is adequate. (If you find you need the paid functionality, you can always upgrade your account later.)

To get started, go to LinkedIn.com.

Fill in an email address and create a password. Then click the “Agree & Join” button.

Next, you’ll see a screen to enter your name.

LinkedIn has implemented a security check to reduce fake accounts. Users are now required to validate their identity through a security check by adding a phone number and then providing a security code that is issued to that phone number.

Once you’ve entered the phone number, you’ll receive a notification that the code has been sent, and you’ll see a field to enter the code.

Once you enter the code, you’ll be taken to a welcome screen, where you’ll be prompted to enter your country/region and your postal (zip) code.

Unlike other social media sites, it’s not enough to just enter your name and email address to create a profile that you can complete later. LinkedIn requires you to input details related to your career right away.

The next screen provides a place to enter your job title and company. Both of these are required fields. You can also indicate if you are a student.

When you enter the job title and company, a third field will pop up, asking you to select an industry. This is also a required field.

Next, LinkedIn will ask you to confirm your email address.

You should receive an email from LinkedIn with the confirmation code:

Next, LinkedIn will ask you to set up a Job Alert. Click “Skip for Now.”

Next, LinkedIn will take you to your home page and provide some suggested steps to take.

We’re going to work on finishing setting up your profile.

Adding Your Photo to LinkedIn

LinkedIn profiles with photos attract 50-70 percent more inquiries than profiles without photos. Adding a photo makes you 36 times more likely to receive a message on LinkedIn. Profiles without photos are not as effective as those with photos. Business headshots are best.

Be selective about the photo you use. Pick one that is professional in nature, not personal. Lighting, attire, and overall composition are all elements to consider when making your choice.

With LinkedIn’s visually-centered format, it is important to use a large size, high-quality photo. The recommended size is 400 pixels by 400 pixels. You can use a .JPG, .GIF, or .PNG format, and the file size limit is 4 MB.

When you click on the camera in the circle, it will open a popup window.

LinkedIn reminds you that you don’t need a professionally taken photo. Click the blue “Upload Photo” button and select a photo from your computer. You’ll then be prompted to edit the photo:

You can use the onscreen tools to reposition the photo and make it larger or smaller (to emphasize your head and shoulders, for example, while cropping out the rest of your body). You can drag to center it (using your mouse) and zoom in. Make sure the photo looks the way you want before clicking “Save Photo.”

You can also review the privacy settings for your photo. In the bottom right-hand corner, LinkedIn allows you to select the visibility of your photo.

Once you’ve uploaded the photo (and made adjustments to it) and selected your privacy settings, click the blue “Save Photo” button.

LinkedIn now also offers the opportunity to add a background image to your profile. The recommended dimensions for the background image are 1536 by 768 pixels. The image can be a .JPG, .GIF, or .PNG format, with an 8 MB size limit.

To add a background image, click on “Update Background Photo” on your profile page and you can browse to upload an image.

You can drag the photo to reposition it, zoom in or out, and even straighten it. You can also crop the photo using the photo editor or apply a filter. You can also click the “Adjust” button and adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, or vignette.

Once it has been positioned where you want it, click the blue “Apply” button.

That’s the first step to completing your LinkedIn profile!