Attention Job Seekers – Make it Easy for Recruiters to Contact to You!

Job search can be hard. In fact, it can be grueling. The greatest hope of many job seekers is that a recruiter will find them on LinkedIn and reach out to them to offer them the job of their dreams.

Although every job seeker knows that networking is the most likely way to land a position, recruiters can play a role. About 10-15% of the time, a recruiter is the route to a new job for a mid-to-senior level employee. So, how can you be sure you are maximizing your reach with recruiters?

CONNECT TO RECRUITERS IN YOUR INDUSTRY AND FUNCTION

As you are networking, ask everyone you know if they have ever worked with a good recruiter. Ask them to introduce you. Do searches on your own to locate recruiters in your field. Reach out to those recruiters and get connected.

BUILD A STRONG PROFILE

Build a really effective profile with a strong brand and clear, relevant key words. That way, when a recruiter is doing a key word search, you show up in the results. Check out your competition. Make sure you have really worked hard to showcase your profile. Those steps are a really good start, but, unfortunately, not enough to ensure you get a call.

MAKE IT EASY TO REACH OUT

Every recruiter I have ever met is extremely busy. One of the best things you can do as a job seeker is to make it really easy for recruiters to locate your contact information. If you are not connected at a first level, your contact information is not automatically visible. Recruiters are required to send you a connection request or go through an introduction with a common contact to get your email and phone number. That is an extra step that might just cause them to pass you by as a candidate.

HOW DO YOU ADD YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION SO OTHERS CAN SEE IT?

There are two places you can add your contact information. Some people add it to the summary section. That works. Another option is to add a special section to your profile “Advice for contacting John Doe”. If you have not added it already, you will find it here:

See the screenshot below:

Once you have added the section, you can actually give recruiters more information about you and what you are looking for in addition to how to reach you.

See the screenshot below:

*** NOTE: It is advisable to create a separate email account exclusively for your job search and display that contact information if you are concerned about your privacy.

With this one simple step, you can save a recruiter some time and hopefully help yourself be more attractive as a candidate at the same time. Happy hunting!