Two steps to be more visible to the right recruiters on LinkedIn

You need to play this game to get noticed and not get lost in the crowd.

1. Tell recruiters you are open to opportunities

There are some instances when publicly indicating you are open to opportunity is a good approach to take. For example, if you have been made redundant, or know you are going to be, you might be in a position that you can publicly indicate you are open to opportunities.

An example of how to do this would be updating your headline to read: ‘Currently seeking my next senior marketing role – Expert in financial services’.

I recommend using the ‘Currently seeking’ prefix because it is the most common term and if a recruiter is doing a boolean style search with free text they are likely to put that in. Adding the ‘Expert in’ element helps them know straight off the bat if you are a good match for the company/role they are hiring for. You need to adapt this to be relevant to your sector/role.

To privately indicate you are open to opportunity go to ‘me’ then click settings and privacy. Select the ‘privacy tab’ to the right of  ‘account’. Scroll down to the Job Seeking Preferences. There under the section that says ‘let recruiters know you are open to opportunities’, toggle the button to ‘yes’. Obviously, only do this when you are comfortable with recruiters being able to see your profile more easily.

2. Get noticed, get active

Initial search results can yield hundreds and often thousands of candidates for any one role.

LinkedIn has enabled recruiters to refine their search results quickly and easily using something they call ‘spotlight’. This gives them quick filters so that they can see the candidates that are active. If you are active, you get noticed. The categories recruiters can search are:

• Likely to respond

This spotlight sorts results to prioritise candidates who are most likely to respond. The factors that go into this spotlight are based on candidate relationships and affinity with your company and insights from past recruiting activity. It pays to be regularly active on LinkedIn.

• Open to new opportunities

This spotlight highlights candidates who match search criteria and have indicated they’re open to hearing from recruiters. Ensure you have switched this setting to ‘on’ as stated previously.

• Company connections

This spotlight identifies people who are first-degree connections of employees at your company. Connect with employees of organisations you would consider working for. You can be honest about this in your connection request by simply saying: “I am building up my network within organisations I would consider working with in the future. I would love to hear about your experiences working at X. Would you care to connect?” If they accept your request then follow-up with a note to ask them about their experiences.

Building a real relationship with people is just as important as having the ‘first degree connection’ because of course it is likely that you will get asked about your relationship with those connections and you want something solid to say about that. Plus why waste an amazing opportunity to get insight into a potential new employer?

• Engaged with talent brand

This spotlight highlights people who have proactively shown an interest in the company brand by following the company on LinkedIn or taken any public action such as likes, shares, or comments. Another re-enforcer of the value of being active on LinkedIn in a broad sense.

• Past applicants

This spotlight features people who have applied to the hiring company before via LinkedIn Job Posts.

Justin McGuire, co-founder and CEO – MENA & APAC, DMCG Global.