How To Stand Out To Recruiters on LinkedIn
To help job seekers make a lasting impression on LinkedIn, we’ve gathered insights from CEOs, career coaches, and HR managers. From investing in a quality headshot to sharing knowledge authentically, here are the top 12 tips these professionals shared on how to stand out to recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn.
- Invest in a Quality Headshot
- Maintain a Complete LinkedIn Profile
- Tailor Your Profile and Interactions
- Join and Engage in Relevant Groups
- Interact with Industry Leaders’ Content
- Utilize Video to Showcase Personality
- Create and Engage with Valuable Content
- Build Meaningful LinkedIn Connections
- Craft a Compelling Profile
- Enhance Profile with Visuals
- Network and Engage Strategically
- Share Knowledge Authentically
Invest in a Quality Headshot
One thing you might not think about that could help you stand out to recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn is taking a great photo!
Imagine LinkedIn as a snapshot of your professional web presence. If you had a professional website, you probably wouldn’t post a poorly cropped or pixelated picture of yourself. This is why it’s important to invest in a solid profile headshot.
If that is out of the budget for you, think about DIY. Put on some professional clothes, get a background with good lighting, and have someone take a picture for you on a phone.
Don’t forget to smile!
Johannes Hock, Co-owner, Artificial Grass Pros
Maintain a Complete LinkedIn Profile
Poor images, a low number of connections, and minimal activity on LinkedIn can be real turn-offs for recruiters reviewing applicants.
The purpose of LinkedIn is networking, so make sure your LinkedIn profile is filled with professional connections, any history of industry awards, and a top-notch resume. Supplement your resume with additional skills, and always keep the public profile up-to-date so that you don’t appear disinterested.
Matthew Ramirez, CEO, Paraphrasing Tool
Tailor Your Profile and Interactions
With the large number of applicants vying for a position, it’s important to find ways that can put you ahead of the competition and make your profile stand out.
A great way to do this is by customizing not only your profile information but also how you interact with potential employers. Do some research on them before reaching out and make sure your message or application is tailor-made for their specific role or organization. This shows that you understand their mission statement and are willing to put in extra effort to cater your skill set towards what they need.
When creating or updating your profile, consider highlighting skills that are related specifically to the industry you want to work in—whether that’s tech-specific knowledge such as coding languages or broader soft skills like team management or creativity—depending on the role at hand.
Roksana Bielecka, Community Manager, ResumeHelp
Join and Engage in Relevant Groups
Join groups that apply to your career(s) of interest, such as business groups, industry-specific groups, or alumni groups. These groups are full of like-minded individuals looking for opportunities, to learn new things, and even recruiters and high-ranking officials from companies across the world.
Interact within these groups and do your due diligence as an active member. This can be an excellent way to establish new connections and make yourself stand out as an ambitious go-getter who’s willing to do whatever is necessary to accomplish their goals.
Saad Alam, Co-founder and CEO, Hone Health
Interact with Industry Leaders’ Content
Regularly engaging with content posted by leaders and influencers in your industry or field of interest will compound. Go beyond simply “liking” and write thoughtful comments or share their posts with your network. This activity helps you build relationships and demonstrate your expertise.
Kelli Anderson, Career Coach, Resume Seed
Utilize Video to Showcase Personality
Your work experience and education credentials give employers a sense of your technical skill sets, but it can be more difficult to demonstrate things like communication skills or your cultural fit through the written sections of your LinkedIn profile.
A video can be a very effective way to convey these and show more of yourself as an individual. It also makes it more likely you’ll stand out in a recruiter’s mind since they’ll have a face and voice to put with your resume, and you can show more of your personality while still keeping things professional.
In the video, you can share things like your career goals and interests, and demonstrate your passion for your field rather than simply stating it.
Matt Erhard, Managing Partner, Summit Search Group
Create and Engage with Valuable Content
To stand out to recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn, create valuable content. Share insightful articles, industry updates, and your expertise to demonstrate knowledge and passion. Engage with others by commenting and joining industry-specific groups. Use multimedia content like videos and presentations to showcase achievements and skills. Maintain a professional and consistent online presence, highlighting strengths.
Active content creation helps establish you as a standout candidate and catches the attention of potential employers.
Irina Poddubnaia, CEO, Founder, TrackMage
Build Meaningful LinkedIn Connections
It might surprise you how many recruiters look at who you are connected with via LinkedIn. Who you are connected with can help recruiters to get a better idea of your interests, and they might also be linked with the same person.
It’s possible they could ask these connections about you, so it’s a good idea to start networking as soon as you can and to build some meaningful relationships. It also simply looks good to be connected with successful business people, so make sure you are networking when you can!
Daniel Climans, Senior Manager, Digital Marketing and Partnerships, StickerYou
Craft a Compelling Profile
Take the time to craft a compelling profile that highlights your unique skills, experiences, and achievements. Include a professional photo and build out all of the sections to make sure recruiters get the full picture of what you bring to the table. Make sure it is up-to-date and includes keywords related to roles you are interested in.
Martin Seeley, CEO, Mattress Next Day
Enhance Profile with Visuals
I have seen many LinkedIn profiles that can look boring or unfinished because they are missing a profile picture and a banner.
Job seekers should have a professional profile picture that is in a headshot style. You should look friendly in your picture and be dressed as if you were heading for an interview.
Utilize the banner to express your expertise and target a particular industry. If you are looking for a creative job, you can create a banner that shows off previous projects or your creativity. Leaving your banner blank gives the idea that your LinkedIn profile is not that important to you.
Because we are visual creatures, first impressions of your LinkedIn profile do count, so make sure it’s completed thoroughly and is pleasant to see. This will make your profile stand out to hiring managers, as they will visualize working with you.
Liz Hogan, Career Expert, Find My Profession
Network and Engage Strategically
Connect and comment—if you’re interested in a certain company, connect with their talent acquisition team members and interact with the right people via their posts. This will give you the opportunity to virtually communicate with the right people, establish new professional relationships, and grow your network.
Plus, interacting with these people on LinkedIn will help you stand out amongst the competition.
Erin Banta, Co-founder and CEO, Pepper
Share Knowledge Authentically
Professionals on LinkedIn can often get “paralysis by analysis,” in that they think so much about how they may be perceived and the information that they share that they avoid it altogether.
From a hiring perspective, I would say that you shouldn’t be afraid to share your knowledge consistently and showcase your own personality and flair in relation to the information you’re conveying, as you never know who could be on the lookout to hire you based on what you’ve been sharing with your wider network.
Wendy Makinson, HR Manager, Joloda Hydraroll
