Of the Social Media giants on the planet, by far LinkedIn advances your job search and career success. LinkedIn was created for networking between job seekers and employers. On LinkedIn, you can do professional networking, employers can post jobs, and job seekers post their CVs or resumes.
Chances are you probably have a LinkedIn account, or you don’t have an account yet. The most important thing now is how you can use LinkedIn to your advantage and the opportunities are enormous and I will be exposing to you a step by step guide on using LinkedIn for Job search and Career Success.
Open a LinkedIn account
The first step to begin using LinkedIn is to set up an account by which you can keep a profile. To have an account you will need a valid email address to sign up to be a LinkedIn user. Once you have you email address, head to LinkedIn and create an account.
Complete your profile
Once your account has been created move ahead to complete your profile. You will be required to provide more information on yourself such as your education, work experience, skills and accomplishments. Spend time to write up a great profile, remember that it is the only piece employers will rely on in some cases to choose you for an interview.
Increasingly diplomatic missions and other agencies use social media accounts like LinkedIn to validate your applications. It is that important to have a great profile that speaks to what an outstanding professional you have been.
Other places you can place your profile for greater visibility are job boards which are increasingly being used by employers to find the right candidates.
Build a resume with LinkedIn
You can create and download a custom resume using LinkedIn. Go to your LinkedIn profile page and after the add profile section button, select more and in the drop down select Build a custom resume as in the picture below. Then follow the prompts and add all your details and information, after which you can download a copy for use.
Post your CV or Resume to the LinkedIn database
On LinkedIn your resume or CV usually goes with developing your profile. Your CV or resume can be uploaded or copied and pasted in LinkedIn.
You can upload your resume from the Job Application Settings page by clicking Upload under the Resume section. It will be stored, and you can reuse it in the future for other applications.
To upload a new resume from your computer or mobile device:
- Search for a job.
- Click or tap on a job title to view details.
- Click or tap the Easy Apply button.
- Note: If you see the Apply button instead of the Easy Apply button, you’ll be routed to that company’s website or job board to continue the application process.
- Complete the required fields.
- Under Resume (optional), select Upload resume to upload your resume.
- Note: If you aren’t logged in to LinkedIn, then uploading a resume is mandatory.
- We recommend a file size less than 2MB and the file format must be either Microsoft Word or PDF.
- Click or tap Submit application when finished.
Here are some things to remember:
- If you have trouble attaching your resume, try a different browser.
- If you’ve submitted your application without a resume attached, you can’t reopen your application to attach your resume or reapply for the same job post.
- If you need to send your resume after submitting your application, you can directly contact the job poster with an InMail message if they’ve provided contact information in the job posting.
Set up an email alert
You can create a job alert in one of three ways on LinkedIn, using the main menu jobs icon on each page, alerts for a specific company or an alert based on a search.
To manage the job alerts on your homepage:
- Click the Jobs icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage main menu.
- Click Manage alerts under the search box at the top of the page.
- You can edit or delete search alerts from the Job Alerts pop-up that appears.
- Click Done.
To create a job alert:
- Search for a job on LinkedIn.
- At the top left of the job search results page, switch the Job alert toggle to On to create a job alert for your current search criteria.
- Switch the toggle to Off to turn off the job alert.
- In the Create search alert pop-up, select how often you’d like to receive alerts about new jobs on LinkedIn that fit those specific search parameters from the Receive alert dropdown.
- Select how you’d like to get notified from the Get notified via dropdown.
- Click Save.
To create job alerts for a specific company:
- Search for the company you’re interested in on the LinkedIn homepage.
- On the Page, click the Jobs tab on the left.
- Click Create job alert.
- Complete the required fields and click Create job alert.
Follow people and companies
After you set up your profile and setting up your job alerts, the next thing is getting thousands of friends and companies to follow. Send out friend invites and invites to companies. From here you can contact companies about job opportunities or reach out to people in your network for things like interview preparation and to ask for specific help.
Join some professional groups on LinkedIn
Join LinkedIn professional groups for the purposes of contributing and making yourself useful and visible in the professional group. On LinkedIn you will find all kinds of professional bodies like HR practitioners, lawyers, doctors, teachers and Financial professionals etc.
Get into these groups and begin to contribute and take on important roles which will increase your visibility and marketability.
Write and post informative articles
You can increase your LinkedIn visibility and gain new connections by writing articles that reflects your interests and expertise.
Your connections get notifications when you post something, and any comments and shares make your content visible to more extensive networks.
Keep your target audience in mind for anything you post, and you could find that the content you produce makes you stand out from the crowd.
Ask for recommendations
Get as many recommendations as possible as you can from other users of LinkedIn. Recommendations on your profile indicate that other people value your skills and expertise. Therefore reach out to colleagues, and other working partners to request for a recommendation.
Send out an email and specifically ask for recommendations from your network.
