13 active ways for employers to find you
Now that you've done all of the 15 passive ways for employers find you on LinkedIn, let’s talk about the active ways you can vastly improve your chances of being found by headhunters and potential clients.
More job details
You never know which word of your job descriptions will be searched for, so to appear in more search results, add more details of your current and previous job's roles, results, accomplishments, and tools involved.
Keywords in various ways
You never know which form or version of keywords people will use when searching, so use each form of your keywords in different places. For example, use "MS Word" in one place while "Microsoft Word" in a different place and "MS Office" in another place.
10 Recommendations
Letters of recommendation (3-5 sentences) from current and former managers/coworkers/teachers/classmates/students/clients give insight into your personality, strengths, and work ethic better than your resume.
Besides your samples, this section is the most important for recruiters and hiring managers to know you and your work ethic better.
When asking someone to give you a Endorsement on LinkedIn, keep in mind how busy they are and help them by writing the letter yourself, listing the skills you'd like them to recommend and discuss--and invite them to "...feel free to add/edit any part of the following sample letter..." Since editing is much easier than writing, they will change your words into their own and appreciate you giving them a clear sense of what you wanted to focus on.
The more Recommendations the better, so aim to have at least 10.
Invite people strategically
Inviting strangers in your industry can be mutually beneficial to both of you, but be careful to invite within LinkedIn's rules. Everyone starts with 5,000 Invites; and your ratio of "invited" to "accepted" is monitored.
If you keep a high ratio of accepted invites, you will automatically be given more; but if you invite too many strangers who do not accept you (or mark you as “I Don’t Know”), you will receive progressively stronger warnings. So heed any early warnings and stop inviting until your current invites are accepted or manually withdraw them (to stop the reminder emails that will continue for months).
Invite recruiters
Recruiters and sourcers are already connected with 1000's of hiring managers and all types of people and potential clients/customers, and they generally want to connect with people with fully filled-out profiles (which you did above, right?).
Use the Advanced Search for people who are:
- 2nd-degree connections and Group connections only
- Within 100 miles of your target city
- "Recruiter" in the Job Title field. Repeat with "Sourcer" and similar titles.
Invite dream companies
Even if you don't know the decision-makers, knowing others in your dream company (or college) may lead you to another way in and become a degree closer to those officers or hiring managers.
When sending an Invite Request to a stranger, make sure:
-
They are open to Invites (listed at the bottom of their profile)
-
They have more than 300 contacts and have a photo
-
Your invite letter contains:
- a brief introduction of yourself
- how you came across their name (anything you have in common)
- NO emergency/urgent/emotional questions or requests.
Just like real-life, 1st impressions matter. Email questions later. - Most importantly, an offer to help them or be a resource to them to show that you are interested in "giving" more than "taking".
Invite L.I.O.N.s
LIONS (LinkedIn Open Networkers) are great to connect with since there's a high chance they will accept your invite.
If you invite too many people who deny your Invite Request by marking you as "I Don't Know", then LinkedIn will require your future Invite Requests to have the recipient's email address. So invite people who want to be added and contain the word “LION” (or "L.I.O.N.") in their profile.
Target your invites
Increase your odds of having your invites accepted by inviting those who probably want to connect with you.
Use the Advanced Search to perform the following searches of people who are:
- 2nd-degree connections or Group connections only
- Within 100 miles of your target city
| Contain in the Last Name field | Description |
|---|---|
LION or L.I.O.N. | LinkedIn Open Networker |
open networker | They are open to connect with new people |
.com | They list their email address |
add me | They want you to add them |
no idk or will not idk | They won't mark you as "I Don't Know" |
+ | They are Premium members who pay to expand their network |
most connected | They are proud to be one of the Most Connected members |
top linked | They are proud to be one of the Top Linked members |
2k, 3K, ... | They are proud of their 1000s of connections |
Plus | They are proud of their 1000s of connections |
Let's connect | They want you to add them to grow their network |
Since some people take a week (or a month) to respond to an Invite, perform each search type no more than once per week.
The longer you wait between performing a search type again, the more time you allow people to respond to your previous Invite Requests, and the more varied your search results will be.
Many mutual friends
Add people you have many (10+) mutual connections with by:
- Hover over the Add Connection icon in the upper-right.
- Click the See All link (to the right of "People You May Know").
- Look for numbers larger than 10 in the photo's lower-right corner.
- Right-click that person to Open In A New Tab.
- Read through their profile and send them a personalized Invite.
People Also Viewed list
After a person accepts your Invitation, look at their profile to see their "People Also Viewed" list on the right side. This list is a nice balance of strangers who have something in common with the person you just added—such as their company, job title, city, etc. Some of these people might be people you'd like to know as well.
Networking events
When you go to in-person networking events, you'll meet all types of people from all industries and learn things you never expected. There will probably be some salesmen or insurance reps or other types you don't want to meet, but overall, most people there want to share their knowledge and help professionals such as yourself; so keep an open mind and look for ways you might be able to help them in return via your skill set or business contacts. My favorites include:
| Venue | Description |
|---|---|
Oriented.com | Meets every month on the last Thursday in cities worldwide |
MeetUp.com | Notifies you of events based on your interests |
Toastmasters.org | Improves your speaking skills while meeting kind people |
TED.com/tedx/events | Meet smart, interesting, helpful, down-to-earth folks |
Google.com | Enter networking events + your target city |
Build your portfolio
Use site like elance.com to sign up and make low bids to win small contracts on jobs you can do quickly so you can add those projects to your public portfolio (to attract other companies and jobs) while making a little money at the same time.
Volunteer part-time
At any local school, college, library, TEDx event, Toastmasters, networking event or whatever interests you! You'll enjoy the experiences, learn something new and just might meet your future co-worker or manager there!
In summary, see my profile at linkedin.com/in/klages as an example (feel free to add me), and let me know if you have any questions in LinkedIn's messages.