Job Hunting: Raising Your Profile As A Candidate

HOW TO LOOK FOR A NEW JOB

Job Hunting: Raising Your Profile As A Candidate


Overlooked LinkedIn Profiles:

Often times, in being a recruitment consultant, a candidate will send me a LinkedIn email requesting that I look at their profile through LinkedIn. Needless to say the response will be low on these types of requests. These requests are generally completely overlooked, depending on the recruiter’s workload at the time. This is not an effective way of getting the attention one would require.

The Reasons For This Are The Following:

A client gives a recruiter a position to fill according to a deadline. So finding the right candidate for this particular position is the primary focus. Recruiters look for specific candidates who would fit an open position they are trying to fill as opposed to just randomly gathering CVs or profile information. They will therefore avoid viewing random profiles as it is time consuming and a distraction to the main goal.

The candidate does not pay the recruiter to help them find work, the client does this. The work obligation is not firstly to the candidate, but to the client and treated accordingly.

What Are Better Ways To Get Noticed?

  • Take the time to go through the agency website and job board. View the agency’s current open jobs, and industry they are in. Find out what the agency specialises in. Should you be in line for one of these jobs or in the same industry of specialisation, you would stand a much better chance of getting a noticed and more so getting a response.
  • Make sure you write a good CV in the first place. Review the following CV writing tips at: Link to Tips
  • Rather email your CV directly to the agency/consultant. This way your CV will get into the right hands. Alternatively if you can see that there may be interest in your skills for future positions, register on the Agency’s job board. Depending on the system the agency uses, your CV may go directly into the agency database and your details will therefore become searchable for future job positions.
  • A recruiter works against time, and is highly pressured. Bearing this in mind, key information is on your CV, not available on your LinkedIn profile. Unless you are an exceptional candidate, no one is going to copy and paste your LinkedIn profile into their database, especially when not given complete contact information from the candidate. Without being in the agency database, your details will not come up on future word searches when pulling from company database information.
  • Use clear and understandable subject lines in your email. Your application/request will stand out. It is recognisable. If you use a random subject line, you might end up in a “DEAL WITH LATER” folder or something similar. For e.g.: CV of John Smith (Electrical Engineering Positions). With a subject line like this, a consultant will know immediately how to deal with your paperwork or interest.
  • Do not story tell. Please note that most recruiters scan through CVs. A story telling, long winded CV will not get you the attention you deserve, and frustrate the reader as they will lose interest and patience quickly, requiring greater concentration to withdraw key information that the candidate should have done.
  • Apply to positions relevant to your experience. This seems like a no-brainer, but more than 50% of CVs received are not in line with advertised positions. A recruiter will just move this CV aside to view later, or worse, just delete it. This is an unfortunate reality within most agencies.
  • Be punchy, and to the point on your CV, but not to the point of being skeletal. A recruiter must be able to see key information within seconds on your CV. This way a recruiter can scan through your information and discern your relevance quickly. Should you seem to be in line, even if to just some extent, a recruiter will then certainly have an in depth look at your CV.
  • Improve your LinkedIn profile. Keep it targeted towards your experience. Use many different relevant keywords.
  • Do not oversell yourself on attributes as this is mostly viewed as subjective. People want to see your experience and not hear how wonderful you are.
  • Use correct dates. Often time people have jobs overlapping or huge gaps in employment periods. This is not helpful to a candidate wanting to be noticed as you will lose credibility quickly and unnecessarily cause questions to be raised that could have been avoided.

In Conclusion:

Recruiters are not going to give themselves unnecessary work on LinkedIn when they have to fill jobs and meet strict deadlines, focusing on targeted searches as opposed to dealing with general queries. If you want to come up on a future job search, rather email/register your CV directly to the agency to save onto their database as LinkedIn is often not a primary search focus. Limited keywords on your profile will hinder your chances of getting noticed/found. Lastly, write a good CV and make sure you send it directly to recruitment consultants using the best subject line possible.

Top