A LinkedIn profile is a must
If you are looking for a job and don’t have a LinkedIn profile, this is bad. This is veddy-veddy bad. The first stop a hiring manager will make after viewing your resume is your online business profile. Already employed and thinking you don’t need a LinkedIn profile? If an opening comes up in your department and your name is being thrown into the hat for a new opportunity, you are going to wish you had a LinkedIn profile. You may not even know your name is being thrown in to the hat. The hiring manager isn’t going to call down to HR and ask that they pull your employee file. No, they are going to do a quick LinkedIn search to see your background of accomplishments, education and prior employers.
Who has a Linkedin profile?
More than likely, the hiring manager, recruiter and the head of the department have LinkedIn profiles. Their expectation is that professional candidates will as well. Because of this, you need to make your profile easily found. If you are difficult to find, you won’t be considered for the job.
Candidates that want to be found, need to be where they will be looked for. If you want to be hired, put yourself where hiring managers look for candidates. In the modern era of transparency, a profile that is difficult to find raises suspicion. Hiring managers want to work with colleagues that invite trust.
We recommend that you add a hyperlink on your resume that directs the reader to your LinkedIn profile. This link would be inserted into your resume in the same area as your contact information. Our automated Resume Builder will insert this all-important hyperlink to the right place on your resume so your professional profile is easily found.
The business logic
Rest assured, recruiters and hiring managers will search LinkedIn for qualified candidates. Recruiters must have confidence in your profile can be found by the hiring manager and the VP. There is no use in presenting a candidate to the hiring manager if the candidate’s public profile can’t be found.
If a hyperlink to our professional profile is present on our resume it will be clicked. The LinkedIn profile may not provide much more information than the resume but there are two specific reasons a hyperlink to your LinkedIn profile will be clicked by the hiring manager.
Why your LinkedIn profile will be viewed
- The LinkedIn profile gives a quick and easy way to confirm that your presentation layer (physical appearance) matches the company culture. If you are rockin’ purple and pink hair and applying for a position in a conservative legal firm, the hiring manager can make a quick decision. (If you have a suit, tie, and conservative haircut, the tattoo parlor can make a quick decision)
- Managers who are familiar with LinkedIn know the LinkedIn format. Unfortunately, resumes are sometimes formatted in colorful and creative ways. Creative resumes may be visually appealing, but they are hard to decipher. A LinkedIn profile provides information from candidate to candidate that is consistent and easy to find. This makes the screening process very efficient for the hiring manager.
If your resume isn’t receiving much love and you don’t have a LinkedIn account, we encourage you to create one. LinkedIn is the first place that recruiters and hiring managers check (even with resume in hand) and without this profile, we are invisible.
Key Takeaway: The LinkedIn profile is as important as your resume in a job search. If you are currently employed, hiring managers with your current company could be looking for your professional profile online to see if you qualify for new opportunities within your current company.
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