Jeremy Kaplan
LinkedIn has developed a long way from its initial benefits of mainly advertising jobs. It has now become the most powerful career networking website in the world. LinkedIn allows you to build up relationships with people in your area of work, join in discussions and ask questions to collaborate across your industry and even acquire work if you have your own business. It was also ranked by Forbes as the number one career networking site.
The original purpose of advertising and finding jobs is still there and even more successful than ever. One of the great features of LinkedIn is that if someone in your network sees that someone is looking to recruit your skillset, they can put you in touch with one another. The recruiter will know that there is a good chance that you will be a good candidate for the job because they know the person that has recommended you and that is much less of a risk than someone with no connection.
So LinkedIn makes it easier for recruiters to find good quality candidates than the traditional way of advertising for the role or developing email marketing to fill roles. Recruiters can instantly see what endorsements you have had from other people to gain an idea of your area of specialisms.
Often people can end up in a role that they don’t have the relevant experience for because they have done a lot of research and know exactly how to answer the interview questions. Then when they start the role, it becomes abundantly clear that they have no relevant on-the-job experience.
If the interviewer had the chance to review the LinkedIn account of the candidate before the interview then they may have wondered why they hadn’t been endorsed in the areas that they claimed to specialize in and maybe ask more probing questions. That is one of the valuable ways that LinkedIn can be used.
For people who are looking for a new job, having an active LinkedIn account and showing your passion and skills for the type of work that you want to be in will give you a head start over other candidates that do not show this same eagerness. For all that the interviewer knows, the other person applying for the job is just using the opportunity as a stop-gap before they move onto a role that they are more passionate about. All of this behavioral information can be gleaned from a quick review of someone’s LinkedIn activity. LinkedIn is clearly a gateway to connecting with a large percentage of the population.
If you are looking for a new role or are trying to build your reputation in your industry then invest time in your profile and the content/updates/interactions that you have as it could play a significant part in landing you your dream role in the future.
