Start with a plan, not LinkedIn Jobs — Profile (1/3)
Only when I worked as a recruiter did I realize that LinkedIn Jobs should be the last thing applicants turn to.
This is part one of a three part series on starting your job search. Read part two here.
The biggest problem that jobseekers face is LinkedIn Jobs.
In March 2021, I spoke to 10 strangers about their job search experience. Most were in their 20s or 30s and were looking for a job in tech. 7 out of 10 mentioned they relied on LinkedIn Jobs to find job openings and send applications, yet the results were far from ideal. They had been on the hunt for a few months but landed very few interviews.
One said, “I’ve been on LinkedIn looking at job postings but the number of other people applying is very deterring.” Another said that she’d been searching for 6 months using LinkedIn as the primary source of job postings, yet she was “not seeing results“. The only person I interviewed who landed a job through LinkedIn Jobs, applied to 600 jobs over 15 days, had 35 recruiter screenings, and took 2 weeks off to go through 30 interview stages. He felt like he “cheated the system”, and “if it weren’t for LinkedIn Easy Apply”, he wouldn’t have landed a job. “LinkedIn was the best.” He said with a smile.
No one, absolutely no one, should have to become a full-time job applicant, sending hundreds of applications and waiting for months in order to land a job. Before my recruitment career, I was a jobseeker and also thought LinkedIn Jobs was my holy grail. I sent out 80 applications via the platform and barely even received any replies, let alone interview invitations. I am extremely proud of these jobseekers who persisted and managed to succeed while at the same time deeply heartbroken that I am part of a system that creates unrealistic job descriptions and sends out rejection emails. While the system will take a long time to change, the best thing jobseekers, especially early career jobseekers can do, is to stay away from LinkedIn Jobs.
Why LinkedIn Jobs won’t work
LinkedIn Jobs are expensive for companies. Each job posting works like an ad campaign (it’s called a job ad!). The company decides on a daily budget, a total budget, then decides on the demographic they want to show the job to. Once the job is published, it’ll be shown to people in the demographic until the budget runs out, then it won’t show the job to any more people.
At any given point, the jobs you see open on LinkedIn are only a tiny, tiny portion of all the jobs that are open. On top of that you are competing against potentially 756 million LinkedIn users, out of which hundreds or thousands may apply.
Getting rejected hundreds of times from LinkedIn Jobs is not even nearly as bad as the despair that comes from getting rejected hundreds of times, or the thought that you are not good enough for any of these hundreds of jobs, or thinking that job search is just banging your head against hundreds of walls until one wall cracks open to show you a door. Too many times I’ve heard people who left their old jobs that they hated, worked hard to learn coding, then couldn’t land a new job due to a similar experience with LinkedIn Jobs, and had to go back to their old jobs.
What to do instead
At this point I’m sure you are thinking, where else can I find openings except LinkedIn Jobs??
Most people browse LinkedIn Jobs with no clear objective in mind. They are not sure of the specific position or company or working environment they want to find. They rely on LinkedIn Jobs to tell them whether they are a fit or not (even though the recommendations are highly questionable — I was often matched with jobs that were completely unrelated to what I do).
Figure out what you can offer, what you want to find, and make a plan. There are always three elements in a job search strategy: your profile, the company, and your approach. In this issue, we will first focus on your profile.
Your Profile
Profile does not always equate to resume; it’s the total package of what you bring to the table. Always start by asking yourself questions: what are your personal strengths? What do you enjoy doing the most? What type of environment would you like to work in? I recommend looking into the following four areas that could make up your professional profile.
Skills
When it comes to strengths, think of technical skills and interpersonal skills. There are traditionally called hard skills and soft skills, which are incredibly misleading names given that interpersonal skills (or the lack of) tend to be more important in later stages of the interview process, whereas technical skills are usually easier for the company to compromise on.
It’s important to be specific when describing your interpersonal skills. You wrote that you are a good communicator and team player? Unfortunately, every single application I review has the words “communication” and “team player” on it, at this point these words don’t mean anything to me as a recruiter. Ask yourself, why do you think you are a good communicator? Is it because you are a highly empathetic listener? Is it because you are an excellent public speaker who can command any audience? Is it because you can get along with colleagues from any cultural background? Don’t settle at generic labels; dive deeper and bring out what truly makes your interpersonal skills unique.
If you struggle to be specific, find a friend, a colleague or a family member. Ask them how they would describe you. Then ask them what made them think that. It’s very likely that this person will be able to come up with stories and examples that can help you be specific.
Motivation
Motivation is a highly underestimated advantage. If your motivation is aligned with the company’s goals and mission, companies know that you’ll find a way to make things happen even if you’ve never done it before. They know that you’ll be more willing to learn and learn faster.
Sadly people make the same mistake here as they do with their interpersonal skills. “I’m highly motivated to work for your company and contribute to your goals” is written on every application too. It’s unclear what you are motivated by and it’s unconvincing. Try this: if you were a one-person company, what would be your mission? Is it to promote a sustainable lifestyle or is it to make education more accessible? Now that you have a mission, what is the product or service your company would offer? Elegant product design (if you are a designer) or innovative mobile apps (if you are a software engineer)?
Even if your motivation is financial, that’s not a problem. Many people work in tech because it pays well. But knowing your salary expectation should also help you avoid spending too much time and effort on applying to companies that might not be able to pay you by that standard.
Experience
The best way to make your experiences stand out is to think of achievements, not tasks. In fact, most recruiters have hired for a broad range of positions, so if I read the job title “Sales Development Representative”, I already know that you work to reach out to potential clients and qualify leads. But what makes you different from other SDRs on the market? Your unique achievements and impact. How was the company better because of you? It could be that you were the first person in your job function and built every process from scratch. Or that you signed 50 new customers in the first 6 months and brought in 500k in revenue. Use numbers to illustrate the scale of your impact.
Once you’ve created a plan with your profile and ideal company in mind, you will realize that many positions on LinkedIn Jobs would not be a good fit from the get go. Your search will be more focused, and there will be better return on your time/effort investment. The next step is to approach your ideal companies, which we will discuss in-depth in the following newsletter issue.