Using LinkedIn to Connect with Employers

LinkedIn is at the moment one of the planet’s best places to get noticed and recruited. However many people make mistakes in their use of LinkedIn, and rarely use LinkedIn to full effect. On LinkedIn your efforts to connect with employers are both passive and active. In fact most of it is passive, if you want them to be effective.

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Active efforts to connect with employers through LinkedIn include joining relevant groups and checking the jobs tab for jobs posted on boards, or making job searches. Occasionally you would also be contacted by people for jobs, but that would happen only if you carry out you passive strategy well.

Passive strategy to connect with employers includes steps to attract the attention of employers as also to help them inspect your resume.




We would be listing the rules we consider essential if you want to establish connections with potential employers on linkedIn.

1. Upload a complete well-drafted resume
2. Upload your photo
3. Properly and truthfully fill in your profile fields without padding (eloquence is allowed, but padding that may be discovered – don’t do that on a public social network)
4. List skills effectively under the ‘Skills’ group – do not overdo it. Though you might possess skills in various fields, it is helpful to mention the skills around your core area of expertise. If you are a dentist, listing a skill like cartooning may work against you, though you may be good in creating caricatures and cartoons.
5. List the opportunities you are looking for properly. Do not miss mentioning that you are looking for a job
6. Never spam, never ever spam. Never drop in out of the blue into an unrelated thread and start asking for work.
7. Join groups that are relevant to finding employment as well as relevant groups of professionals in the same field. So, suppose you are a chef, joining groups for chefs as well as groups of hoteliers is important.
8. Contribute constructively to popular threads. You would draw more attention by contributing constructively to popular threads or discussions than by commenting on orphaned threads. Always check the freshness of the last comment before joining a discussion.
9. Always, and regularly, check “who has checked your profile.” If you find a potential employer who has looked at your profile, you can always message him politely and briefly.
10. Never press anyone for work. Most intellectuals and employers come to LinkedIn to learn and share knowledge, and are interested in people who like them show their affinity to learn and share.
11. Don’t misbehave in LinkedIn discussions, behave agreeably, and it is better to avoid the tendency to have the final say.
12. When you find someone appreciates your comments, send a friend invitation within 24 hours.

Just do these effectively, and you would find the LinkedIn network opening up to you. And oh, if you want to garner quick attention, you can always ask a professionally relevant question, which you can be expected not to know. Never ask questions that you are expected to know. Advertising that you don’t know your job only for the sake of asking a question and drawing attention won’t help you.

Also start intelligent discussions that are relevant to the industry and the focus of a group, and soon you’d find your relevant and meaningful network increasing.

LinkedIn is not Facebook. The quality and relevance of your connections count, not their number. Nurture them well and you’d find both friends and employers.



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