Give Opportunity a Door to Knock On
I believe we all have a dream job. Maybe it’s a specific company you would like to work for or an industry you want to be a part of. You know what it is, and maybe you even scroll their career pages from time to time.
Great companies like the one you'd like to work for are always looking for the right people, sometimes even without a specific job opening. They are very rarely just sitting back and waiting for resumes to come their way. While this tactic can produce a great hire, usually the top talent is acquired from active searches of passive candidates. I often hear my fellow recruiters and hiring managers say, “The best people are already working.” Not to say an unemployed job seeker is not a quality individual, there is just something about hiring someone who is currently working that makes them feel good about the hire and sometimes that's all they need to make the decision.
I was speaking with a friend recently about a new job they had taken and how they were enjoying it. My friend mentioned to me that if I had asked what they would be doing today 5 years ago, it would not have been the current position. It was not a bad thing, just not what they had expected. A recruiter had reached out about a new opportunity when they were not even looking. The recruiter had noted their LinkedIn profile and how it looked to line up with the job. My friend entertained it and the job turned out to be a great next step in their career. Ultimately, if they had not had an effective social presence, they never would have gotten that call.
There is a high volume of profile searches being conducted at all times by recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn. It offers a vast network of resumes and has search tools that allow them to maximize their efforts. They are plugging in keywords and scanning profiles for the right candidates daily. Depending on the candidate search being done, this could turn up thousands of results. The next step from there is to scan over the profiles and further narrow the search. This process is all built off the content of your profile.
Take a moment to look over your profile and do a tune-up in a few key areas:
Ensure you have a title in your Headline under the Intro section.
Have your Current Position and Industry sections populated.
Make sure you have the About section filled out with an engaging description of what it is you do and how you do it.
Build out your Experience section with actual job descriptions for each one and ensure you have linked them to company pages if they have one.
If you are not currently working your dream job and have that little voice in the back of your head wondering what else might be out there, it’s imperative you have a well-crafted and optimized LinkedIn profile. The only doors opportunity knocks on are those that can be found.