Your LinkedIn Profile is Invisible to Recruiters and You Probably Didn’t Even Realize it. Here’s Why!

Although I consider myself an expert on the use of LinkedIn for both job seekers and as an entrepreneur, I currently subscribe to other experts’ companies, newsletters, and podcasts.

I feel that this time is well spent because LinkedIn is constantly upgrading and adding new services (Did you know Microsoft owns LinkedIn?) that very few people are aware. I recently was listening to a podcast from another expert and learned several techniques for improving both your ranking and the ability to be found by recruiters as well. What I didn’t realize was that not only would these techniques significantly increase both of these, but that failure to correctly use these techniques actually have the reverse effect, making your profile completely invisible when people are searching for you. The items below are what I recently learned and changes I will be making in the coming week to many of my clients profiles to GREATLY improve the optimization of their profile.

1)    What Being Invisible to Recruiters Really Means. When recruiters are searching for you, they are selecting certain criteria based on the requirements of the job description. These include Title, Years of Experience, Education, Skills, and Specific Key Words. Failure to include these and include these correctly will result in your profile not showing up and basically be basically invisible to the recruiters.

2)    Titles from Drop Down Lists – We all have different titles for our current and past positions. However, many of us have non-traditional titles such as Technical Evangelist, Brand Warrior, Sales Rockstar, Chief Inspiration Officer, Vice President of People Operations, and many, many others. The problem is when a recruiter using the paid versions of LinkedIn (LinkedIn Recruiter, LinkedIn Talent Solutions) is searching for you, they are selecting titles of standard titles from a drop-down list. If you title is not standard, you will be invisible to the recruiters that are searching on those titles

3)    Skills For Each Position (use of dropdown skills provided by LinkedIn) – In the skills section of LinkedIn, you are allowed up to 50 skills. However, in relation to the above example, it is important to choose skills from the drop-down menu. If not, if a recruiter is searching based on specific skills and you used a different name for your skill, you will be invisible to the recruiter in their search (just based on that alone). It is also important to view your full list of skills (you can have up to 50) and reorder them, placing them at either the top of the importance list or by the number of endorsements. You can really only optimize your profile for 3 or 4 skills and keywords. These 3-4 need to be from the drop-down menu and be included in key strategic areas of your profile. These include the master skills list, the skills section for each position, and the skills section of the About You section. I used to think that completing the skills section position was irrelevant. However, I was incorrect. I saw many job seekers that just keyword stuffed these sections and had used way to many skills. Basically, having too many canceled each other out.

4)    Skills For Each position – After the description section in each position there are new fields that allow you to put in skills for that specific position. It is important to use no more than 3 or 4 (the same 3-4 that are at the top of the list in the master skills list and the same 3 or 4 that are used in the About Section. I also learned that when a recruiter is searching for someone that has 5 years experience or 10 years experience with a skill, you will be included in the search results if you put those 3-4 skills in each of your positions, because LinkedIn adds them all up from all the positions. Failure to include these skills will make you appear as if you do not have these skills, which will make your profile invisible.

 5)    Skills for Your About Me Section - After the description section in Your About section, there are new fields that allow you to put in skills for your About Career Summary. It is important to use no more than 3 or 4 (the same 3-4 that are at the top of the list in the master skills list and the same 3 or 4 that are used in each position section.

6)    Use of Education Degree Titles From Lists of Dropdown Choices – This is something that I just learned and it really is a game changer. Many people are currently invisible because they are completing this section incorrectly.  When a recruiter is searching for you, they are using predefined degree titles from drop-down menus. Although many of the degree titles are actually the same thing, just said a different way.. Bachelor of Arts, BA, B.A, MBA, M.B.A, Master’s Degree, Master of Literature. If you do not choose a title from the drop-down list, your profile will be invisible to a recruiter if you use your own title, because the way you described your title doesn’t exist in the drop-down list.

7)    Including Dates For Your College Education - And here is something else. Something I was unaware of. Many of my clients are in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, and many do not wish to show their dates of graduation because it will give away their age. What I found out is that failure to put a graduation date (if you leave it blank), if a recruiter is searching for people that only have degrees, only those people with those degrees that have a graduation date will be visible to a recruiter. Those that leave the date out, will be completely invisible because it will appear as if you do not have a degree.

8)    Importance on Receiving Endorsements From Your Connections – So not only is it important to include the 3-4 top skills in the master skills list (listing them in the top 3-4 spots), the skills section for each position, and the skills section in the About Section of your profile, it is equally important to have people endorse you for those top skills. I recommend that after I make all these changes to your profile, you post in your feed and you ask your 1st degree connections, to endorse you for those skills (list those 3 or 4 in the message) and say that you will reciprocate by endorsing them for their top skills as well.

Please visit my profile and endorse me for the following skills (global job search coach, global job search, executive career coach, career coach, executive coaching, outplacement and job coaching. Please let me know what skills I can endorse for you

9)    Recommendations – Many people do not realize that not only do endorsements of your key skills in the master skills list GREATLY increase the likelihood of you coming up in a recruiter’s search, but recommendations have an even greater impact. However, it is extremely important that the recommendations are written correctly. Meaning, when one of your connections recommends you, it is important that they use 1,2,3, or 4 of your top skills in that recommendation. Otherwise, the recommendation does not have the same impact. You need all the available LinkedIn juice that you can get. I GUARANTEE, that the overwhelming majority of the competition for those recruiters’ attention, are not utilizing the above techniques.

10) Interest in Working for a Specific Company – This is a relatively new feature that lets you notify a company and the recruiters within a company that you are interested in working for them. What you do is to go to that company’s LinkedIn page, go to the About Tab, scroll down to the bottom of the section, and there will be a Box that says “Interested in Working With Us in the Future”?, click the box that says “I’m Interested”.

You can privately express interest in working for a company without having to apply for a specific role, and even if there are no open roles at the company, using the I’m interested button. You can find this feature on the company’s About page under the Overview section. Once you signal that you’re interested, recruiters at the company will be able to view your profile when searching for interested candidates.  

Hirers can share your profile with others on their company’s hiring team, but this information isn’t shared publicly on LinkedIn’s newsfeed, to your connections, or other companies. To protect your privacy, only hirers within the company you’ve signaled interest will see that you’ve signaled interest – hirers from other companies won’t be able to view it.  

Interest you’ve expressed will expire and no longer be visible to recruiters after a year. 

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