It's Not All Doom and Gloom in the Jobs Market

Jonathan Gardiner

There are still jobs available in these unprecedented times. Jonathan Gardiner shows how to maximise your LinkedIn profile.

Dear potential job seekers,

Due to recent global events, we are currently facing into a set of unprecedented circumstances – some are describing it as a mish mash of the Spanish Flu and the 2008 financial crisis.

This in turn is bound to affect recruitment, the processes will naturally become more competitive and yes, jobs in turn will probably become harder to secure – but sure don’t they say that anything worth having doesn’t come easy?

However, it’s not all doom and gloom – the secret that you mightn’t have realised is that the companies who are currently still recruiting are probably the type of company most people would really love to work for.

Why? Well firstly these are forward thinking companies, they are flexible – they can interview you remotely and let you work from home.

Financially, they are either established enough or growing fast enough to not only weather the contraction in the economy but are looking to recruit in the middle of it.

Most importantly, if they are still currently recruiting, they wouldn’t on the surface strike me a company who would lay people off just to balance the books at the end of the year. After all, no winter lasts forever and no spring skips its turn, or so they say.

So how can you start to make your move? Well, the below is not an exhaustive list of cheesy ways for you to “stand out from the crowd”, it’s just a collection of tips from a straight talking recruiter that if you implement will give you better visibility and make yourself easier to find in a LinkedIn search. The reason you do this is because in turn it will increase the chance of a recruiter or an employer sending you an InMail.

The Golden Rule: Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date.

I’m not talking about a flashy new selfie here and graphic on your banner – there are 4 key areas to a LinkedIn profile which if you put a bit of effort in, will help you to be found quicker by more people.

1. Intro & About

   A section that seems surprisingly difficult for some people to master.

   • Intro – Make sure you have your current location updated to be as specific as possible, i.e. It is more useful to us if you have “Cork” in as your location rather than having “Ireland”. These City/Town locations are fairly new so you may not have been presented with this option when signing up, but make sure to go back and add this on.
   • About – A summary of yourself & your career to date, it may also be worth mentioning your professional interests. This does not need your life story - no more than 4/5 lines.

     P.S- Speaking honestly, nobody really cares if you like dogs, donuts or walks on the beach - this is a professional network and you should treat it accordingly.

      

2. Experience

   Too often we see one-liners here and this doesn’t do you or us any favours, update your current role and all previous to include some / all of the following;

   • Description of the employer – Size / Domain / What they do.
     • Job description – Include your Duties & Responsibilities, Key Words & Technologies, Achievements.
     • Dates – ensure you fill out the dates accurately. Overlaps/gaps are always going to draw questions so be sure you can explain these. Be mindful that dates are always verified with references.

        

3. Education / Certifications

   Ensure this is fully populated – too often it is just mentioned in the “About” section.

   • List your education.
   • Fully list any relevant industry certifications. If you have the time, include expiration dates and credential verification details.

      

4. Open to Opportunities

The final and most important thing – whether you are passively or actively looking, even if you are doing it to gain a bit of market knowledge or a bit of an ego boost… Mark your profile “Open to Opportunities”.

• Populate this section with Roles, Locations, Job types (Contract/Permanent) you would be interested – do this thoroughly.
• You may be looking for something very similar to what you’re currently in, possibly aspiring to move upwards into a managerial role or you might be looking for a total career change – use this section to show us what you are thinking.
• Location wise, you might be looking to relocate from Ireland to Australia or equally from Dublin back home to Cork. You might even be interested in your options on the continent and are open on locations like in Paris/Amsterdam/Munich/Barcelona. If you want to be seen by recruiters for roles in your desired location – show them here that you are interested.
• An important note on “Open to Opportunities” – nobody in your current company will be able to see that you are open to opportunities. Don’t believe me?... https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/67405?lang=en

So why should you do all this?

Well recruiters, particularly those in the more established agencies will have invested heavily to gain access to a variety of search functions on LinkedIn. This allows them to post jobs and receive matching profiles, or perform searches based on a variety of criteria.

We often perform searches and filter / prioritise the results based on the following;

1. Location

   Your “Current” / ”Open to” location is likely to affect the opportunities that recruiters approach you for.

   If this location is “Ireland” you could be based in Kerry and get hounded for jobs in Dublin. Even within the same county, there’s a bit of a difference in commute times from Sandyford to Santry, or in Cork - Mallow to Midleton.

2. Keywords

   Recruiters to some extent rely on keywords when conducting their searches – key words which are usually found within your “Experience”.

   If there is a key word or term that their client emphasise they need, you can be sure it will make up part of the search – if you haven’t got that key word/term on your profile, you might not even make it to the list of search results!

3. Education/Certification

   Pre-requisites sometimes come in the form of experience but often are in the form of education / qualifications /certifications.

   If you haven’t got the minimum standards listed on your profile– you most likely won’t be getting an InMail either.

4. Open to Opportunities

Recruiters will naturally prioritise approaching people who have marked themselves Open to Opportunities before they contact the other matches.

For this reason, like I said if you are even half interested you should be Open.

Finally – if on the back of these edits, a recruiter or a potential employer does InMail you – remember that they are looking to help.

If you are “Open to Opportunities” you should really accept every InMail that comes to you. You might not be interested in the first role you discuss with them but never know what could come across their desk next week. For the sake of a 10-15 minute intro call, you never know what doors could be opened for you!

Hope the above advice helps – if anyone in my network or their connections are looking to get some advice from a recruiter – I can always be contacted on [email protected]

my network who can and I am always happy to make the connection.