For recruiters, LinkedIn has become an excellent tool to discover new talent for a role, but I appreciate for many people it can be frustrating being contacted about roles which may seem irrelevant. As a consultant who recruits a lot of contract positions I am constantly looking for new ways to identify interim talent, but this can be challenging if potential candidates aren’t making the most of their profile meaning great talent or opportunities can be missed!
I have described below how hiring managers and recruiters search your profile, so keep reading if you want to understand how you can make profile standout.
You’re open to (work?):
Selecting you are ‘open to work’ is one of the easiest ways you can identify that you are searching for new opportunities, and it is worth noting that you can control who sees your open to work so the fact you are looking isn’t visible to anyone in your company if you do not want it to be.
When deciding to put this on it is always beneficial to be as detailed, and as accurate as you can in describing what you are looking for.
When searching for interim talent, a key point for recruiters is what type of job you’re currently in. ‘Full-time’ is generally understood as permanent; this means you are most likely to be in the market for a permanent role whereas if you mark a position as ‘Contract’ it’s clear that you are in an interim assignment. This is a great way to make yourself visible as a contractor. Similarly, ‘Temporary’ is very clearly also intended for people doing freelance work or shorter term contracts.
Your Bio:
This is where you can give a summary of your work, and this text can be searched by recruiters for key words. It can be useful in this section to highlight key parts of you experience which are relevant to the role you’re looking for next, for example, stating you have FTSE, global, or international experience. In this section you can also highlight your sector experience:
“Experienced communications professional with extensive global and FTSE experience in the Financial and Fintech sectors.”
Or if you work in agency with multiple clients you may want to list key disciplines and sectors you have covered:
“Account Manager with corporate and consumer PR experience, working with international clients across a range of sectors including, FMCG, tech, and pharmaceuticals.”
For contract opportunities it is also useful to highlight your availability, it can be as simple as “looking for next contract role” or “immediately available”, or “available from August”.
Your Experience:
This doesn’t need to be as detailed as a CV, but as for your bio, recruiters and hiring managers can search for key words in this section. So, when summarising your experience, it can be useful to list key points, for example any systems you have used in that role such as intranets, or marketing and social media channels, as many employers may be looking for technical knowledge. You can also reiterate the markets and types of organisation you have worked in.
If you are a contractor, it is also beneficial to put “(interim)” or “(contract)” next to each position as another way to highlight your availability for contract roles.
If you found this post interesting and would like to discuss further, please do feel free to reach out on florence@ellwoodatfield.com