How to attract recruiters with LinkedIn?

Table of Content

1. Create a pertinent profile
2. Add professional pictures
3. Update your professional status
4. Write a resumé
5. Describe your experience with keywords
6. Add skills, licences and certifications
7. Ask for recommendations
8. Add your contact information
9. Create and share content

Recruiters use different channels to find the profiles they are looking for. It can be via their network, via their internal database but also mostly via social media like LinkedIn or Xing. Nowadays, LinkedIn has become a reference for recruiters and candidates.

In 2022, LinkedIn has more than 830 million members in 200 countries and regions worldwide and 87% of recruiters regularly use this social media for their recruitment.

LinkedIn offers to recruiters a huge network of more than 50 million people looking for jobs. The professional social media also gives them a filter system, where they can search for candidates by job title and location selecting specific keywords and information, such as skills, school, open to work…

Having your LinkedIn profile filled in with all the important information is necessary if you are looking for a job. It will also increase your chances of being found by recruiters.

To help you optimise your profile, we summarised our tips to attract recruiters with LinkedIn.

1. Create a pertinent profile

2. Add professional pictures

a. Profile picture

Before clicking on your profile, the recruiter has access to your resumé and your profile picture.

The first impression is very important, and a picture can say a lot about a person.

LinkedIn being a professional social media, we advise you to put a professional picture where we can see who you are.

Of course, it depends on which industry you are working in. In Finance or Hospitality, for example, we advise you to wear professional clothes. If you already talked during a conference, you can add a picture of yourself on the stage.

Avoid wearing sunglasses (unless you are working for a sunglasses company!) and a surgical mask (yes, we’ve seen it!). Also, avoid a picture of you on holiday or with friends.

But don’t forget to smile!

b. Banner

You can also add a banner to your profile. Most of the information that we remember is visual. So be creative!

Usually, people put the banner of their current company. But if you are currently unemployed, you can put a picture linked to your industry or that represents who you are, like with the above example, on a stage.

3. Update your status

This part is extremely important to attract recruiters with LinkedIn as this will directly tell the recruiter if you are looking for new opportunities or not.

You have 3 possibilities:

a. Status:

You can put your professional status to “Open to Work”. It will appear on your profile picture like this:

4. Write a resumé

This is a place where you can shortly describe who you are and what you are looking for to attract recruiters with LinkedIn. Try to add something different from what you have on your CV. This is where the recruiter needs to see your personality. Be creative!

You can talk about your goals, your soft or mad skills, a specific experience, and your wish for a full remote or hybrid job. This is the place where you can add a personal touch to your profile.

Show why you are different from the other profiles and why the recruiter should contact you. This is important that the recruiter sees you as a human and not only as an online profile.

Multicultural, -highly motivated, results- and performance-driven hotel director with management experience from working in luxury hotels in Europe. A leader and team player, adept in working with international cross-functional teams. I am now seeking opportunities in high-luxury hotels in Europe.

I am a French marketing professional with international experience in fashion. I implement growth-hacking marketing technics and strategies for e-commerce companies. I am data-driven, team-oriented and communicative. I am looking for a full-time remote job for the next Berlin Unicorn!

5. Describe your experience with keywords

This is the most important part of your profile to attract recruiters with LinkedIn. This is where you will resume all your current and previous professional experience. The more precise it will be, the better it is.

Before writing about your experience, you need to take the time to summarise each work experience with clear and precise keywords. Don’t hesitate to write it down in a notebook at the beginning. Keep it simple and use numbers and examples.

a. Title:

For the job title, use the exact one as written on your working contract:

Senior Recruitment Consultant Real Estate

Marketing Manager Europe

Junior Property Manager

b. Job description:

Concerning the description of the job, we advise you to start by explaining what the company is doing, for example:

ABCDE Hotel Group is the largest multinational hotel group of German origin with 4- and 5-star hotels worldwide.

Then, describe with bullet points your tasks with examples. Don’t forget to add your hard and soft skills.

It is very important to use relevant keywords in the description. Indeed, to find candidates, recruiters use keywords on Google, LinkedIn and other technics like Boolean searches.

You need to use the same keywords. If you don’t know which ones to use, choose a few job descriptions of the job you are targeting and see which ones the companies are using.

You can also check the profiles of people with a few more years of experience in your industry and see which ones they took.

Check also online some articles about the most demanded skills in 2023.

For example:

• Increased the traffic on the website by 30% within 1 year by working on an inbound marketing strategy
• Key Account Management of a portfolio of 120 B2B customers in the DACH region
• Management and training of 80 employees as Head of Sales in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt
• Creation and implementation of lead generation processes with an ROI of 42%
• Achieved the yearly budget with an F&B turnover of 6,5M with a profit of over 30%
• Developed an e–commerce platform using Node.Js, Microservices, Vue.js and Typescript

6. Add skills, licences & certifications

According to LinkedIn Statistics, 44% of hirers on LinkedIn explicitly use skills data to fill their roles. This is the reason why we advise you to add some to your profile.

a. Skills:

As explained in the introduction, recruiters can filter their search and select specific skills and certifications. At the end of your profile, you can add extra skills.

We advise you to add relevant ones depending on your job and industry. Again, you can see which skills are important for your industry online or by checking other similar profiles.

Colleagues can also endorse your skills which will give you more credibility. Don’t hesitate to ask them.

b. Licenses & Certifications

If you did some tests like language tests or some training, don’t hesitate to add them.

You can also add specific certifications and do online training on LinkedIn. These certifications will appear on your profile at the end and will showcase your knowledge and professional achievements.

You can find this training on the LinkedIn Learning platform.

7. Ask for recommendations

To attract recruiters with LinkedIn, you can ask your colleagues to write you recommendations. The most recommendations you will get, the more credibility you will have.

It will show potential employers that you have skills and experience and that your colleagues recognise it. It will reassure them about your professionalism. Try to avoid recommendations from friends and family as they won’t be as relevant.

8. Add your contact information

A recruiter will have different ways to contact you.

• A direct private message on LinkedIn
• Via your e-mail, if you added it to your profile
• You also have the possibility to add your phone number, but we don’t recommend it.

You can edit this information by clicking on the pen on your profile, at the end of the page on “Edit contact info”.

In your Settings, you can also change who can see your email: Only you, 1st-degree connections, 1^st and 2nd-degree connections, and Anyone on LinkedIn.

Here is how to update it:

• Click on “Me” and “Settings & Privacy”
• “Visibility” and “Who can see or download your email address”

9. Create and share content

LinkedIn is a social media where you can write different posts, but also like, share and comment on others’ content. To get more visibility, it is important to be active but also to share to attract recruiters with LinkedIn.

You can share your opinion by commenting on a post, sharing an interesting article about your industry, or simply sharing a picture of you in a relevant professional context. It will show that you have an interest and that you know what you are talking about.