How to Leverage LinkedIn to Land the Best Opportunities

LinkedIn is one of the most extensive networks that functions as a powerful tool for professionals around the globe. It is the perfect one-stop destination that cumulatively allows you to develop your skills, to build your network, to seek credible guidance from experts, to connect with appropriate recruiters, and to ultimately, thrive and accomplish the career growth that you have been dreaming about, for years. Despite the plethora of opportunities that LinkedIn may provide, it is however only as useful as you make it out to be. This makes it imperative for you to take a step back and ask yourself that all-important question:

How do I really leverage LinkedIn in the best possible way to land the perfect opportunities?

Here are ways to maximize the benefits that Linkedin offers. Below are a few essential pointers that will make your candidature stand apart from the rest and help you secure that job or position or client that you have been long aspiring to acquire.

1. Your profile is your strongest ally

Your profile is the gateway to establishing contact with your recruiters or clients. It is crucial to build it in a way that is bound to benefit you the most. Needless to say, an up-to-date professional profile picture and a concise profile summary are non-negotiable as it ensures that your profile gets way more views than a profile that lacks either. Alongside, it is also essential for you to insert multiple keywords keeping in mind what a recruiter will be looking for, so as to fit the bill of that ideal candidate.

2. Great stories are the best way to stand out

While LinkedIn is a search engine designed to help you achieve your dream position, it is, however, your job to make your profile interesting. Rather than mechanically listing facts and skills that you possess, weave stories that will evoke interest, on the part of the recruiter. For instance, instead of merely writing about your previous roles and designations, take the recruiter on a trip down memory lane with an account of success that you achieved or a crisis situation that you craftily handled, while you were on the job. Lay emphasis on executive education programs you may have completed. At the same time, however, make sure that you keep it short and precise so as to ensure that an employer does not lose interest, halfway through the narrative that you have spun.

3. Open that channel of communication

It is a grave error in case you are not providing your contact number or your email address on your LinkedIn profile. Whether you are a job-seeker or a recruiter looking for a perfect match, making yourself accessible always opens up gates of opportunities and in turn, makes your job easier. For instance, as an employer, you may find that the skill and that position that you have been seeking to fill, is one that one of your own employees is suitable for. As a connecting platform, LinkedIn brings forth such linkages that you must not miss out on.

4. Networking is essential

LinkedIn fosters connections often through the help of your contact lists and other associated means. Make sure that you build and work upon these connections and even reach out to alumni who attended the same institutions as you so as to connect. This is bound to extend your network and amplify your outreach, thereby bringing in a host of opportunities along with it.

5. Engagement is the key to building an authentic presence

To increase your visibility, it is necessary for you to engage yourself and actively be a part of conversations. You will end up building your personal niche of an authentic presence, online, only when you persistently make the best of your connections, make yourself heard, and articulate a credible impression of yourself. And the best way to do that is to leverage LinkedIn for job search purposes.

6. There is nothing like direct contact

As LinkedIn provides the unique opportunity of directly getting in touch with recruiters, it is always a great idea to make the most out of it. With a direct means of actually making an impression on a recruiter, first-hand, make sure that you stand apart from the rest. Alongside, it is also important to make sure that you do not appear excessively intrusive or impolite, by any means. Instead of directly broaching the subject of a role or open position, the trick here is to leverage LinkedIn to give the employer a peek into your admirable personality, one that they are sure to remember the next time you approach him or her regarding an interesting position or role that might open up.

7. Research is non-negotiable

Even in LinkedIn, information always gives you the upper hand. Your course of action should be to read up on all that is available about the companies and enterprises that you seek to be a part of and to understand the kind of employees and skills that they prefer. This will allow you to construct an appropriate profile, accordingly. Alongside, also consistently keep a track of all the positions and roles that open up, in regard to these establishments, so that you never miss out on any opportunities.

As an interactive platform designed exclusively for professionals, LinkedIn is bound to provide you with an ultimate edge, every time you are looking for a job or seeking a perfect candidate, to fill the shoes. Following the above-mentioned are top strategies to land a job using LinkedIn to its utmost potential and to help you land with the best of opportunities available out there.

In order to add to the credibility of your LinkedIn profile and therefore to your professional being, consider programs formulated for working professionals such as UCLA Post Graduate Program in Management for Professionals (UCLA PGP PRO) or even an online program such as Accelerated Management Program (AMP) from the National University of Singapore Business School.