Get Noticed by Recruiters (for the Jobs you Actually Want!)

LinkedIn is a popular app for professional networking and job seeking.

Prepping for a job hunt? If you are looking to work in tech or transition into tech, having a LinkedIn account can help you get your foot in the door. There are over 100 million users on LinkedIn in the US, which makes it one of the most effective ways to land a job and learn about new opportunities. Whether you use LinkedIn to network or to help you in your job search, there are some important steps you can take to make your profile pop! As a recruiter, I use LinkedIn every day to find amazing talent across diverse backgrounds. In order to effectively search through millions of users on LinkedIn, my co-founders and I use Boolean search strings to find users that best fit the roles we are looking to fill. 

What is a Boolean search? Essentially, it’s a search string that uses keywords to pull candidate profiles that match what we (recruiters) are looking for in a candidate profile. For example, say I’m working with a company like Verkada (below) that wants to hire a Sales Recruiter. The role responsibilities and requirements have been outlined in the job description.

It’s clear that the team is prioritizing candidates with full cycle recruiting experience, great communication skills, and Lever (applicant tracking system). As the recruiter, I’ll use that job description to pull out keywords to add to my search. The search string I create might look something like this:

Example of a boolean search a recruiter might use to find candidates for a junior recruiting role.

This will give me search results for everyone on LinkedIn who has the relevant experience listed on their profile, and it’ll leave out all of the people who don’t match this search criteria. Most of the people whose profiles pop up in this search will have at least some level of recruiting experience. 

Here’s the problem: that simple search could yield THOUSANDS of people (over 150k people, to be precise. I just checked!). LinkedIn will only show me the top 1,000 candidates in this search, regardless of how many people the search actually yields. The way search algorithms rank and display results by clicks and network often means that people from historically excluded and underrepresented groups in tech don’t pop up at the top of the search. 

Why is this important? Applying to jobs can be a headache and getting noticed by companies can feel frustrating. It is much easier to land a job if recruiters are reaching out to you instead of finding your application in one of hundreds that they’re reviewing every week. We want to help you get noticed by recruiters, so here are 3 simple steps to spruce up your LinkedIn so that those messages can start flowing in for the jobs you really want: 

Turn on the “open to work” feature.

LinkedIn allows people to show that they are open to work.

When you’re ready to start looking for a new role, let recruiters know that you are ready to be reached out to by flipping on the “open to work” feature on your profile page. You can add the titles you’re interested in pursuing, your location, and whether or not you’re open to remote work. You can even let recruiters know if you’re looking for full time work or contract work. This is a simple but effective way to put yourself at the top of any recruiter’s search. Note: recruiters that work at your company won’t be able to see that you’re looking for a new job. This is a status that only recruiters at other companies will be able to see.

Flip the boolean search: Add keywords & other skills to your profile.  

Share those skills - Do your research and find a couple jobs that you’d be interested in applying for in the future. Scan for the skills/requirements section of the job description and ask yourself “do I have the skills they’re looking for?” Yes??! Amazing. You don’t need to meet 100% of the requirements, but you do want to be sure that your LinkedIn reflects your competency in those skills. For example, if you are applying to a sales role and it asks for at least a year of experience using Gong or other sales management tools, be sure to update your skills section to include Gong. This will help recruiters quickly assess your hard skills match and will encourage further interest in your experience and interests. 

Add details for each job on your profile - Recruiters and hiring managers want to get a good understanding of what you worked on in each job. Listing the types of projects that you worked on along with the tools and technologies that you worked with in each role will not only give employers a better insight into your work, but it will also help pull your profile closer to the top of the search results. 

Stay up to date - Most job descriptions include a minimum years of work experience. In the same way that you update your resume, be sure to update your LinkedIn with all of your start and end dates, so recruiters can find your years of experience easily.

Brag a little - If you won any awards, started any initiatives, led any committees, or worked on projects outside of your main role, tell us! Employers will be more excited to chat with you if they see that you’re a well rounded candidate. 

Give recruiters insight into your interests and activities.

Share the professional extracurriculars you are part of in your introductory summary, or join those groups on LinkedIn. These can be anything from sororities and fraternities, schools or boot camps you’ve attended, volunteer work, professional groups, affinity groups, etc. At Envision Inclusion, our focus is on finding diverse talent, so we add professional extracurriculars to our boolean searches. For example, if we’re searching specifically for Black talent, we’ll search the names of HBCU’s, Employer Resource Groups, external professional development groups, panhellenic organizations, mentorship programs ( i.e. Black Girls Code), and more. 

Lastly, write a short introduction with your interests. If there is a certain type of role that you are looking for, write it here. Introductions are an especially good place to list your strengths and any specializations you may have. For example: “I’m a full cycle technical recruiter with a strong focus on building diverse pipelines. I am not actively looking, but I am open to learning about roles at FinTech startups.”

Being a little proactive and making small tweaks to your LinkedIn profile could determine whether or not you are approached for the roles you want. A good LinkedIn profile may also attract new companies that you haven’t heard of! So many people land their dream jobs through LinkedIn. Think of the 15 minutes you spend updating your LinkedIn as an investment in your future career aspirations. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our team if you ever want advice or another set of eyes!