Data-Driven Job Searching on LinkedIn
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Data-Driven Job Searching on LinkedIn

Every once in a while, I would get a DM in my mailbox from a recruiter.

The conversation would contain something like this:

I have an exciting role as a business analyst for which I think you would be a great match...

The roles were always exciting or interesting, but that's another topic...

Considering that I was in project management or product ownership roles, it would cause cansternation why the recruiter would reach out to me about BA roles.

This was amplified every week when LinkedIn sent me the little pop up telling me how many times I'd come up in people's searches - and for what roles.

Without fail, every week, I would be found by people looking for business analysts, senior business analysts, or even lead business analysts.

But that's not at all what I want to be in any more.

So something was wrong, somewhere.

These were distractions and not so important, as I had projects I was working on and it didn't matter so much.

Now I am looking again, though, and I am interested in being found for something that interests me and is in line with where I want to go.

So it was time to put on my product management hat and have a look at my profile from that perspective.

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Having a think....

And then it dawned on me...

Once I realised it, it was a bit embarassing that I hadn't realised it even earlier, but my context in the past was the wrong one and caused me not to see the forest for the trees.

And it was this:

LinkedIn uses tags of some kind on my profile about me and matches them with tags on jobs posted and to searches made.

Search results, suggested content, and target audiences of your profile and activities on LinkedIn are determined by those tags.

Data-driven processes straight out of a Database Theory 101 course....

The trick is to know where those tags are.

And, even better, to know how to edit them to reflect more accurately where you want to go, and what you want to do.


It turns out that the header of your profile plays only so much of a role. Sure, people read that if they're interested in your profile, but they have to know that your profile exists in the first place in order to come to it.

The same applies to your about section.

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Searchers need to find your profile before they can read your great Header and About Section

Even though my roles had changed over the years, the vast majority of the tags that I had were focused on business analysis.

That's the simple reason why I kept showing up in searches for opportunities which were not interesting to me.

Once I changed those tags, I saw the change in DM's and the statistics for the searches in which I would show up changed, too.

It's now a process of weekly refinement, tweaking the tags in order to get the results in the direction I want them to go more and more - an iterative process with a sprint of a week, which is the time between notifications from LinkedIn of search appearances.


The big secret (which isn't really a secret) to those meta tags which determine how LinkedIn percieves you, and determines how people find you, and what jobs may be relevant for you is in your profile.

It's the Skills section.


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The honey pot of data-driven job searching on LinkedIn


Not every problem has to have a mind-blowing solution in order to do great things.

This is one such case.

Despite my profile's about section and header being written to attract future possible employment, my skills section was a parade of, well, skills that made me a perfect business analyst.

So it had to change.

I went through my skills with a sharp sword, cutting away even skills for which I had received recommendations.

I added new skills to the list which were more relevant.

Then, within just a week, things had changed.

The DM's for BA roles started shriking in volume.

And the first DM's for positions in the direction I want to go in started appearing.

The search terms for which I was appearing in searches started changing, too.

They're still not fully there where I want them to be, but I'm used to working in short sprints of effort, looking at the results impirically, and then changing strategy as needed.

Now, instead of searching on LinkedIn for job titles, I search for skills needed.

Instead of searching for, say "Head of Accounting", I search for "Cross-functional team leadership", or "Sustainable Accounting", or "Negotiation", and the like, and get shown the jobs where the job poster thinks that those skills are needed.

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The flip side of Skills, on the job posting...

Data-driven job searching on LinkedIn...


I hope that this will help you on your own search for employment, leads, and relevant networking on LinkedIn.

If it does help, please let me know in the comments or by DM'ing me....




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