Are You Professionally Invisible? Become Visible With These Simple Techniques.

LinkedIn Is More Important Than Your Resume

So why is everyone pouring hours and hours on a resume that maybe one person will read, instead of their LinkedIn profile that is public to everyone?

Even if your resume gets into the hands of a hiring manager, most companies will still go find your LinkedIn profile. 

In addition, your LinkedIn is the best place to start networking and getting referrals, but if it’s not up to par, no one will want to talk to you. 

Over 90% of recruiters are using social media to find new job candidates, the vast majority of which are using LinkedIn. 

Your LinkedIn profile is so important to today's job market, it must be exquisite and easily communicate your professionalism, technical, and transferable skills. 

Here are 7 hidden hacks to apply to your LinkedIn profile today to get noticed by recruiters immediately. 

Turn on the recruiter button

Easy right? But you’d be surprised how many people don’t have this button on. Without this button, your name won’t even be considered during LinkedIn Recruiter searches. 

To find this button simply log into your profile, click on your photo on the top right corner and hit “View Profile.” Below your head shot (which I hope is professionally done), there should be a dotted box that says “Show recruiters you’re open…”. Click on this box and fill out the brief survey about what you are looking for, including locations and job titles. You can also change who can see this to hide this information from your current employer. 

2. Your impressive technical skills don’t matter; keep it simple

Recruiters usually don’t have PhDs, so don’t try to communicate with them as if they did. They are searching for people with “project management” or “data analysis” skills. They aren’t searching for “RNA-seq” or “biomedical microbiologist.” In fact, the three main search boxes on LinkedIn Recruiter are “Job title,” “Location,” and “Skills.” 

So, while you may possess very impressive technical skills, displaying them on your resume or LinkedIn profile may not help you. 

3. Transferable skills aren’t a plus, they’re a must.

Recruiters and hiring managers are generally looking for candidates with strong transferable skills. These include skills like communication and project management. While technical skills are still valuable, these are easier to teach and train new hires on than transferable skills.

Also, make sure you are using recession specific transferable skills like “flexibility & versatility,” “change management,” “virtual,” “risk mitigation,” and “risk management.”

Finally, you should add the terms “technical literacy” and “technical communication” to your profile. All these really mean is you can read, digest, and interpret technical information (i.e. scientific journals). 

4. Be active

There are three levels to being active on LinkedIn: “react,” “comment,” “post.”

“React” is simply clicking the little emojis at the bottom of posts. This is the most basic level of engagement. It requires very little input and as a result doesn’t increase your presence that much. 

The next would be to comment on someone’s post. The author will likely see your name and read your comment, which will increase your visibility. It will make you more acquainted with the kinds of posts appropriate for this platform and who posts them. 

The final level would be to post your own content. This can either be a short post, a photo with a comment, a video, or your own LinkedIn article. Remember, LinkedIn is not Facebook, Instagram, or Youtube; the kinds of posts you create on LinkedIn need to be appropriate for the professional audience. This does not mean publishing comments loaded with jargon. It simply means you need to communicate at the level that you would at an office, or conference, and not at a bar with friends. 

5. Hide your competitors

What if you could just remove all the other candidates from the hiring pool? Wouldn’t that make it easier to get a job? 

Well, you can’t remove everyone, but you can help the recruiter or hiring manager to focus only on you. On the right hand side of your LinkedIn there is a column for “Also Viewed.” These are people with similar professional background and skills; these are your competitors. You can hide this section to insure the attention of those visiting your profile. 

6. Reach out to others

It’s well known that the fastest way to getting hired is through referrals. But if your LinkedIN profile is not complete, looks sloppy, or unprofessional you will not receive any referrals. If your profile is up to par then you are ready to start reaching out to people, don’t wait for someone else to reach out to. Reach out to someone you admire or someone in a position you are interested in. 

7. Don’t be an aggressive interviewer

Once you’ve started building rapport and developing a relationship, you can schedule an informational interview. Ask questions that will enhance your status, build rapport, and get the other person talking. You don’t want to immediately start an interview with questions about how to become more competitive or how you can get a job. Don’t be aggressive. Think of it more like a conversation and focus on them more than you. 

These are the fastest ways to launch your LinkedIn visibility to the next level. They are not time consuming or complicated, but they are powerful. So, in summary the 7 hidden hacks are: turn on your recruiter button, use strategic keywords, add recession proof transferable skills, be active, hide your competitors, don’t ghost others, and don’t be an aggressive interviewer. 

Are you a PhD?

If so, what have you done to become professionally visible?

Tell me in a comment below.

To learn more about transitioning into industry, including how to gain instant access to industry career training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, a complete industry transition plan, and a private online job referral network for PhDs only, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association.