Of late, there have been more and more stories of people finding work through LinkedIn. In fact, most recruiters I talk to say they are actively seeking candidates through keyword searches on LinkedIn.
So why would a job seeker look anywhere else for their online networking? I think there are 3 reasons why it is a bad idea to corner yourself, as a job seeker, to just LinkedIn.
But first let me preface this by saying I LOVE LinkedIn and have used it for years. I’m not saying not to use it, but that it can be limiting for the unique needs of a job seeker if that’s the only tool.
Reason 1: The 1-Resume Problem
It is common knowledge when applying for a job, the candidate should customize their resume to that position.
I’ve blogged about the importance of keywords before. Basically, if you want Google to return your name when a recruiter searches a keyword, you need to have chosen the right ones to put in your profile.
When going for a job, the hiring manager will look to see if your resume is generic, or if you have really addressed the organization’s concerns.
But wait!
LinkedIn only gives you one resume.
And to make matter’s worse, people are actually uploading a traditional resume to be downloaded from their LinkedIn profile. Once someone get’s control of that document, you have no idea where it will end up. And if you haven’t’ customized it, you could be written off completely.
I have several clients who are testing the waters in 2 or more different industries. There is no way for them to cover all bases with just LinkedIn alone. If you are looking to have multiple online resumes, I highly recommend an online resume service called VisualCV.
Reason 2: The Boring Personality Problem
The first thing I teach clients is to have a very clearly defined personal brand before writing your online profiles. And then when crafting their value statements, to make sure to take yourself from commodity and into personality.
There is always going to be someone smarter, more educated and more qualified than you. Especially these days. (Don’t worry, you are still the prettiest/handsomest person ever.) So the sooner you can take yourself out of simply listing your skills and into demonstrating your value, the better.
LinkedIn’s framework is limiting. Yes, there are now ways of uploading videos and slide-shows. Xing.com offers users many more application features, such as mind mapping, document sharing (free), car-pooling, Wall Street Journal and more. These combine to create much more personality online then ever before.
Reason 3: The Unwritten Rules of LinkedIn
There are some unwritten rules that make networking with large numbers of people difficult.
For example, if you decide to add someone to your network that you’ve never met, they are perfectly encouraged to say, “I don’t know you,” and ignore your request. If this happens too many times, you get a polite wrist slap from LinkedIn.
In response to this, LinkedIn Open Networking was created.
I would encourage you to join this group and take advantage of thousands of people willing to accept your invitations and help you get out there and meet possible job opportunities.
[This article was originally posted on an earlier date]
Joshua Waldman is the founder of Career Enlightenment and specializes in helping job seekers leverage social media to find work quickly.
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9 Comments
The strength of LinkedIn is the groups and the participation in the groups. When a job candidate has actively participated in the forums provided by the different groups then the hiring manager or the recruiter can get a better gauge of the type of person they are dealing with, vs having to depend on a resume that may or may not be an accurate depiction. There is also the contact list which helps to give an idea of the types of people you hang with…but the article does bring up a valuable point that LinkedIn is not the holy Grail…one thing they could do is to develop a superset of all fields that all the different proprietary company career websites asks for and make that the profile, and then make it possible for the different companies to suck the profiles into their databases so that job swelter don’t have to fill out hundreds of different applications all asking for the same thing, and this would help the companies have a larger pool of potential applicants to pick from because many times the best person for the job is not the person that took the time to fill out that hundredth online application.
Thank you thank you thank you for warning people off the practice of uploading resumes to their profiles via Box.net. I have never understood why some folks propagate this practice.
“Once someone get’s control of that document,” should of course read “gets.” It's not possessive.
“Once someone get’s control of that document,” should of course read “gets.” It's not possessive.
“Once someone get’s control of that document,” should of course read “gets.” It's not possessive.
Joshua, Thank you so much for writing this! I heard from my JOB SEEKING client today that as soon as she updated her Linkedin profile (which we refined in our work together) she started getting random invitations to connect and recent graduates literally asking if she had a job for them??? She is not even employed! Not only are new job seekers totally ignoring online etiquette, never mind the rules of networking 101, they are not even reading the Linkedin profiles properly. Not a good image to convey, and no doubt unlikely to result in any response. Of course, Linkedin will then be seen as a futile endeavor. I run regular webinars and workshops on how to network and use Linkedin effectively, and the amount of information out there on the rules of job searching are so easy to find, and yet it's still so difficult for many people to figure it out. I hope they watch your video. I too am currently working on 2 projects to teach people how to embrace these tools. Lets hope our work pays off. Good luck to you!
Thanks Donna, Your service…no…Our service….is very needed. And it's great to know we are makig a positive difference for people.
So what about the limitations of recruiting with LinkIn. Sure it's free, but is it really all that effective in finding the right candidates if you are a recruiter? It seems that LinkedIn is swarming with hungry recruiters so are the good candidates all being picked over? Are the candidates really all that great? Does the saying hold true that “you get what you pay for”?
Hi Amy,
That's such a great point. LinkedIn is not the only place recruiters are looking. And for candidates to really stand out, they should be investing some time learning the other platforms available, such as VisualCV and Xing.com.
As far as LinkedIn being FREE and not valuable, I'm not so sure that argument holds. All social media is free, for the most part. Yet is providing people and businesses with tremendous value.
There are still ways to use LinkedIn and stand out from the crowd. Definitely check out my video on the “7 top mistakes”.