LinkedIn Settings for Jobseekers
“If you build it, they will come”
may have been true for the Iowa corn farmer in the 1989 film “Field of Dreams,”
but as a jobseeker, simply “building” a LinkedIn profile will not open the
floodgates to job opportunities, nor will you have recruiters contacting you to
solicit your interest in filling their open positions.
About 87 percent of recruiters
(92 percent of recruiters with Fortune 1000 companies) use LinkedIn as a major
source for finding and vetting candidates and posting positions. For your
profile to have the greatest impact on your job search, there are two things
you must do:
- Build a complete profile that is
well-branded and keyword optimized (you may want to hire a professional to help
you with this, if you haven’t already).
- Increase your visibility by
optimizing your LinkedIn Settings
and Career Interests. This guide
will walk you through what to do, how to do it, and why.
To understand the importance of
these settings, you need to know that LinkedIn has a separate platform called LinkedIn Recruiter that interfaces with
your profile. By purchasing a membership on either Recruiter Lite or Recruiter
Corporate, recruiters not only post job openings, but can search for
candidates using various search parameters. Your LinkedIn Settings and Career
Interests will increase your visibility and drive recruiters to your
profile when using the Recruiter platform.
Getting Started
The first step is to locate the
Settings & Privacy page in your
profile; the following screenshot will show you how.
Hover your mouse over
the word Me and click the drop-down
arrow below the thumbnail image of your profile picture.
Scroll down to Settings & Privacy and click.
This will open the Settings & Privacy window, with
four headings across the top (Account,
Privacy, Ads, and Communications).
You’ll want to be sure you have the window open for Privacy.
There are several categories of
settings on this page, beginning with How
others see your profile and network information. Scroll about two-thirds of
the way down and you will find the heading for Job seeking preferences.
The next screenshot shows you
what this section looks like and the five areas to address. Follow along…
Job Application Settings
Let’s start by looking at the
various options available to you. Click on either the first heading or the word
Change (as seen in the screenshot).
The first few settings address
how your applications will be handled when you apply for a job via LinkedIn.
You can save your application answers (I recommend turning this feature on), choose to apply for jobs with 1-Click Apply (to activate this
feature, you must first scroll down to Contact
information and enter a phone number), and input an email and address and
phone number where recruiters can reach you. The next screenshot shows you each
of these options.
When you apply for an Easy Apply
job on LinkedIn, you can save your application information and use the
information as default for future job applications, allowing you to more quickly
apply for jobs. You can also opt in to applying for jobs with 1-Click Apply based on this saved
application information.
When you apply to jobs with 1-Click Apply, LinkedIn will send the
job poster your full LinkedIn profile in addition to the following saved
application answers:
1. Email address: You can choose from the email addresses you’ve
already provided and verified. You can’t add a new email address with 1-Click
Apply.
2. Phone number: You’ll need to provide a new phone number to be
included with your application. LinkedIn won’t use the phone number stored in
Settings & Privacy. Phone numbers will be pre-populated, either via the
first application or from the job application settings page.
You can preview your application
and change your answers before applying to any job.
Scroll down further and you will
have the option of uploading a resume. You can have as many as four different
versions of your resume uploaded and saved in your profile. The next screenshot
shows you how.
Note: Resumes you have uploaded to your profile are not visible to
other LinkedIn users. They are only stored in your account and available for
you to attach to applications.
1. To upload a new resume, click Upload under Default Resume in the Resume
section. LinkedIn will only store the four most recently used resumes that
were submitted on LinkedIn.com or the LinkedIn Mobile App. If there are four
stored resumes, the Upload button
won’t be available, and you’ll need to delete a recently used Resume to upload
a new one.
2. To replace your default resume for
1-Click Apply, click Replace Default
under Default Resume in the Resume section.
3. To remove your default Resume for
1-Click Apply, click the More icon
(…) next to the resume name under Default
Resume in the Resume section and
select Remove Default from the
dropdown.
4. To delete a recently-used resume,
click the More icon (…) next to the
resume name under Recent Resumes in
the Resume section and select Delete from the dropdown.
Important: The ability to reuse recently uploaded resumes is
currently only available on LinkedIn.com and the LinkedIn Mobile App. The
feature is not currently available on the LinkedIn Job Search App.
Resume Requirements:
1. The file must be less than 5 MB.
2. The file format must be Microsoft
Word or PDF only.
3. On mobile, you can’t attach a
resume when applying for jobs. However, many jobs support applications with
your LinkedIn profile. You can also save jobs and complete the application
process on your computer if you prefer to upload a resume with your application.
Letting Recruiters Know You Are Open
Once you have completed all your
application settings, go back to the Privacy
tab and click on the second set of options, as shown in the next screenshot.
Your options are a simple Yes or No. Click either on the heading or the word Change and toggle the radio button to Yes.
You will receive an email
notification from LinkedIn confirming this change. (And you will receive
another email from LinkedIn if you change your setting to “No.”)
Important: To protect your privacy, LinkedIn takes steps to keep
users of LinkedIn Recruiter who work at your company — as well as related
companies — from seeing the Career Interests that you share. However, LinkedIn
notes that they “can’t guarantee complete privacy.”
Creating Job Alerts
Job alerts serve two functions:
1)
They let recruiters know that you
are interested in working for their company; and
2)
They push newly-posted job
opportunities to your inbox.
Going back to your Privacy settings, click on the third
heading under Job seeking preferences,
as illustrated in the next screenshot.
As with the previous section,
your options are a simple Yes or No. Click either on the heading or the
word Change and toggle the radio
button to Yes.
As a savvy jobseeker, you should
have already created a list of companies you would like to target in your job
search. (The recommended minimum number of companies to have on your list is
20). There is a document included at the end of this guide for creating this
list and tracking your activity.
In November 2018, LinkedIn rolled
out a new feature that enables users to set up job alerts on a Company
Page. Once you’ve set up a job
alert, you’ll be notified of new jobs that match your skills through the
Notifications tab.
You can also share your interests
with recruiters of companies you are targeting. Your details will only be
shared with recruiters who want to contact members who have created job alerts
specifically for their company.
To set up job alerts for a
specific company:
1.
Search for the company you’re
interested in on the LinkedIn homepage.
2.
On the Company Page, click the Jobs tab.
3.
Click Create Job Alert to set up alerts for when the company posts jobs
that match your skills.
Once you create a job alert, you
can also let recruiters know that you’ve created job alerts for their company
by switching the toggle to On. To
stop notifying your interests to recruiters, switch the toggle to Off. Your changes will be saved
automatically.
4. You can view and manage the list
of all companies that you’ve created job alerts for by clicking Manage Job Alerts on the Jobs page.
You can also manage your job
alerts from the At companies you’ve
saved job alerts for section on the Jobs
page.
The following screenshots
illustrate how to locate a company page and create a job alert.
From the Home page of your profile, click in the Search box, scroll down to Content,
and from the drop-down list, click on Companies.
This will take you to the Companies search screen. Or you can just type a
company name in the Search box.
Type in the name of a company on
your target list and click to go to the company page. The following screenshot
is taken from IBM’s company page. On the left drop-down menu, click on Jobs and then click on the text box Create job alert.
You’ll also want to toggle the
radio button to On, as illustrated
in the next screenshot.
Sharing Your Profile When You Apply
Going back to your Privacy settings, click on the fourth
heading under Job seeking preferences,
as illustrated in the next screenshot.
As with the previous section,
your options are a simple Yes or No. Click either on the heading or the
word Change and toggle the radio
button to Yes.
Managing Your Saved Job Application Information
Third-party job applicant
accounts may be stored on LinkedIn after being created or added by you while
applying to jobs through LinkedIn. You would have elected to activate this
feature when you modified your Job
application settings, as described at the beginning of this guide. The
following screenshot is a reminder of where you made this change:
To view and manage your stored
job applicant accounts, go back to your Privacy
settings and click on the fifth heading under Job seeking preferences, as illustrated in the next screenshot.
By saving your application when
applying to a company, you can reuse your uploaded resumes and other job
application information for future applications to that company. Saved answers
can only be used when applying via the Apply
with LinkedIn on partner sites.
You can delete the history of the
account creation from LinkedIn under Settings
& Privacy. Once a stored job applicant account is removed, LinkedIn
won’t auto-populate or recognize that you have an account if you apply to a job
within that third-party job applicant account in the future.
To fully remove your information
from the third-party job applicant account owner, you will need to contact the
third party directly.
Important: This information is only stored for third-party
applications that require a created account.
Letting Recruiters Know Your Career Interests
You can share your career goals —
including the types of companies and roles you are most interested in — with
recruiters on LinkedIn who may have opportunities that match your interests and
background. Once you opt to share your career goals with recruiters, users of
LinkedIn’s Recruiter product will be able to find you based on your shared
career interests when they are searching for profiles.
This is an extremely valuable
section to complete, whether you are an active or passive jobseeker. Remember,
to protect your privacy, LinkedIn has taken steps to keep LinkedIn Recruiter
users who work at your company, as well as related companies, from seeing the
career interests you share. (However, remember that LinkedIn says this is not a
foolproof method, so consider that before proceeding.)
Note: You can share your career interests with recruiters for a
period of six months (180 days), after which it will automatically be turned
off. You will receive an email notifying you that you’re no longer sharing your
career interests. However, you can continue sharing by manually changing the
settings.
From the Home screen of your profile, click on Jobs and then on Career
Interests, as illustrated in the next screenshot.
The next few screenshots
illustrate the various settings.
When you toggle On the setting to Let recruiters know you’re open, it will automatically turn off
after 90 days. You will need to turn it back on if you are still searching.
The Note to recruiters text box is where you can key in something
specific about your search, such as your willingness to travel, that you are
changing careers, or that you are in the market because of a company-wide
downsizing. You are limited to 300 characters.
In the next two text boxes,
choose from the drop-down arrow options to specify your Status and your Start date.
Below that, you can enter a
number of job titles for which you’d like to be considered.
Note: When you start typing, a job title that is in LinkedIn’s
database will pop up and you can click on it to add it. If you try to add a
title that is not in the database, an error message that reads Invalid input will appear.
Next, you can indicate where you
would like your next job to be located, if you are open to working remotely,
and what types of jobs you are open to.
In the final two settings you can
let the recruiter know what industries you prefer and the size of the company
you would like to work for.
Note: As with job titles, you must choose from the list of 148
industries that are included in LinkedIn’s database. There is no limit to how
many industries you can add. Refer to the Profile
Industry Choices table that is included with this guide.
Additional Tips for Jobseekers
LinkedIn’s artificial
intelligence (AI) tracks when you are on LinkedIn and what you are doing.
Company recruiters can actually “see” which candidates have taken an interest
in their company — not only creating Job
alerts, but also by who is following their company, what content they are
viewing and sharing, and the number of connections they have within the
company.
The next screenshot of the IBM
company page shows you where the links are found to follow a company and locate
people who work there. You’ll also see a feed of the company’s recent posts.
While on the company page,
another area you may want to look at is found on the About page. The next screenshot is also taken from the IBM company
page.
By clicking on the About link to the left of the screen,
the Overview will be revealed. If
you scroll to the bottom of the page details, you will find a section labeled
as Specialties (see the section
encased in a red border in the screenshot).
Having the right keywords
throughout your LinkedIn profile will increase your chances of being found in a
Recruiter search. When possible,
work a company’s Specialties
keywords into your profile, resume, and/or cover letter when applying to that
company.
TARGET COMPANIES LIST
Use this document to create a
list of companies you are targeting in your search and place an “X” in each
column once you have completed the task. Note:
Some companies (particularly smaller companies) may not have a LinkedIn page.
When you are logged in to a
company page, click the relevant links to follow, create job alerts, and find
profiles for people on LinkedIn who currently work at the company. Ways to
engage with the company include reading (and possibly sharing) their updates.
|
Company
Name
|
Followed
Company
|
Connected
To 5+ people
|
Engaged with Company
|
Created
a Job Alert
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
2
|
|
|
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|
|
3
|
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|
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4
|
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|
5
|
|
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|
|
6
|
|
|
|
|
|
7
|
|
|
|
|
|
8
|
|
|
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|
|
9
|
|
|
|
|
|
10
|
|
|
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|
|
11
|
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|
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|
|
12
|
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|
|
13
|
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|
|
14
|
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|
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15
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16
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17
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18
|
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19
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20
|
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|
LINKEDIN INDUSTRY CHOICES (148)
Accounting
|
Dairy
|
Individual
& Family Services
|
Mining
& Metals
|
Recreational
|
Airlines/Aviation
|
Defense
& Space
|
Industrial
Automation
|
Motion
Pictures & Film
|
Facilities
& Services
|
Alternative
Dispute Resolution
|
Design
|
Information
Services
|
Museums
& Institutions
|
Religious
Institutions
|
Alternative
Medicine
|
Education Management
|
Information
Technology & Services
|
Music
|
Renewables
& Environment
|
Animation
|
E-learning
|
Insurance
|
Nanotechnology
|
Research
|
Apparel
& Fashion
|
Electrical
& Electronic Manufacturing
|
International
Affairs
|
Newspapers
|
Restaurants
|
Architecture
& Planning
|
Entertainment
|
International
Trade & Development
|
Nonprofit
Organization Management
|
Retail
|
Arts
& Crafts
|
Environmental
Services
|
Internet
|
Oil & Energy
|
Security & Investigations
|
Automotive
|
Events
Services
|
Investment
Banking/Venture
|
Online
Publishing
|
Semiconductors
|
Aviation
& Aerospace
|
Executive
Office
|
Investment
Management
|
Outsourcing/
Offshoring
|
Shipbuilding
|
Banking
|
Facilities Services
|
Judiciary
|
Package/
Freight Delivery
|
Sporting
Goods
|
Biotechnology
|
Farming
|
Law Enforcement
|
Packaging
& Containers
|
Sports
|
Broadcast
Media
|
Financial
Services
|
Law
Practice
|
Paper
& Forest Products
|
Staffing
& Recruiting
|
Building
Materials
|
Fine
Art
|
Legal
Services
|
Performing
Arts
|
Supermarkets
|
Business
Supplies & Equipment
|
Fishery
|
Legislative
Office
|
Pharmaceuticals
|
Telecommunications
|
Capital Markets
|
Food
& Beverages
|
Leisure
& Travel
|
Philanthropy
|
Textiles
|
Chemicals
|
Food
Production
|
Libraries
|
Photography
|
Think
Tanks
|
Civic
& Social Organization
|
Fundraising
|
Logistics
& Supply Chain
|
Plastics
|
Tobacco
|
Civil
Engineering
|
Furniture
|
Luxury
Goods & Jewelry
|
Political
Organization
|
Translation
& Localization
|
Commercial
Real Estate
|
Gambling & Casinos
|
Machinery
|
Primary/
Secondary
Education
|
Transportation/
Trucking/Railroad
|
Computer
& Network Security
|
Glass,
Ceramics & Concrete
|
Management
Consulting
|
Printing
|
Utilities
|
Computer
Games
|
Government
Administration
|
Maritime
|
Professional
Training
|
Venture Capital
|
Computer
Hardware
|
Government
Relations
|
Marketing
& Advertising
|
Program
Development
|
Veterinary
|
Computer
Networking
|
Graphic
Design
|
Market
Research
|
Public
Policy
|
Warehousing
|
Computer
Software
|
Health, Wellness & Fitness
|
Mechanical
or Industrial Engineering
|
Public
Relations
|
Wholesale
|
Construction
|
Higher
Education
|
Media
Production
|
Public
Safety
|
Wine
& Spirits
|
Consumer
Electronics
|
Hospital
& Health Care
|
Medical
Device
|
Publishing
|
Wireless
|
Consumer
Goods
|
Hospitality
|
Medical
Practice
|
Railroad Manufacture
|
Writing
& Editing
|
Consumer
Services
|
Human
Resources
|
Mental
Health Care
|
Ranching
|
|
Cosmetics
|
Import & Export
|
Military
|
Real
Estate
|
|
