After launching in 2003, LinkedIn quickly set itself up as the social media website for job hunters. In truth, it’s so much more than that. Now, it’s a place where you can go to network and share your insights, essentially building up a digital profile that earmarks you as an authority as well as a suitable candidate.
Still, it’s often one of the first places that a recruiter will check when they’re considering candidates.
According to The Social Shepherd, 72% of recruiters say that they use LinkedIn to hire talent – with 67% saying that talent tends to be of a higher caliber – meaning having a LinkedIn profile is essential. However, the question remains – should you let recruiters check that profile? Here are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to have professional LinkedIn profile writing service help you create a new profile, as well as a handful of reasons why you may want to keep your profile private.
The Case for Letting Recruiters Review Your LinkedIn Profile
The most obvious argument for letting recruiters check your LinkedIn profile has already been mentioned – most of them want to do it. Almost three-quarters of recruiters want to see that profile both to get a better idea of what skills you bring to the table and to see that you’re technologically proficient enough to have that profile in the first place.
But that’s not the only reason to let them look.
LinkedIn Is Selective About Which Recruiters See Your Profile
The most obvious way to make your LinkedIn profile available to recruiters is to take advantage of the platform’s “Open to Work” feature. Established in 2020, this feature puts your profile in front of LinkedIn users who’ve spent $10,000 for a yearly LinkedIn Recruiter License, making it a great way to get some exposure for your profile.
But there’s a worry that comes with the status:
What if a recruiter who works for the company for which you currently work sees your profile? If that happened, word could get back to your employer and you may be out of a job while you’re searching for a new role.
LinkedIn accounts for this issue.
First, you can set your profile so that the “Open for Work” signal is only shared with recruiters, ensuring no prying eyes from your current role can see that you’re actively looking. Better yet, LinkedIn won’t share that signal with any recruiters who currently work for your company. So, you can share the profile with those who need to see it – recruiters from other companies – while keeping your existing employer in the dark about your intentions to leave.
You Give Recruiters a Chance to See More
Let’s assume you’ve already submitted your resume to a company.
The odds are that your resume doesn’t say everything that you could say about why you’re a great candidate for a role. You’re typically trying to keep the resume to two pages or below – recruiters hate long resumes – so you must be careful about what you keep and what you cut.
That’s not the case with your LinkedIn profile.
If a recruiter accesses that profile, especially after reading your resume, it’s a safe bet that they want to learn more about you. They’ll expect to see the information you shared in your resume, such as education and previous roles. But they’ll also be looking at the size of your network, with a network of fewer than 50 people suggesting that you’re not doing enough to further your career.
That’s a bad thing – the recruiter may assume that you’re not putting in the effort for yourself, so why would you put in effort for them? Beyond that, the recruiter will look for details, such as recommendations from other LinkedIn users, that support the information you shared in your resume.
Savvy applicants can use these facts to their advantage by transforming their LinkedIn profile into a supplemental source of information for recruiters.
The Case Against Letting Recruiters Review Your LinkedIn Profile
Though the upside of letting recruiters check your LinkedIn profile seems powerful, there are a handful of issues that may give you pause before you grant that access.
An Empty Profile Can Be a Turn-Off
If you haven’t used LinkedIn much before – not every industry deems it important – you may have an incomplete profile. While that limits the number of recruiters who’ll even find that profile (those who have complete profiles get 20 times more views), having an incomplete profile is damaging to you for a different reason:
It shows recruiters that you don’t care.
If you’re not willing to put the time into uploading a high-quality profile photo or adequately describing your current and previous roles, having a recruiter check your profile can be dangerous. They’ll compare it to every other profile they see, and you may come out on the losing end in that comparison.
The “Open to Work” Feature Can Make You Seem Passive
Though recruiters expect to spend some of their time seeking potential candidates, they also want to see an active effort to get recruited on the candidate’s part.
LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” feature doesn’t necessarily show that you’re actively looking for a specific role. Rather, it can say “I’m willing to see what comes my way” to recruiters, with some having an inherent bias toward that passive approach.
Including a pitch and talking about your job targets – such as what you want to achieve in your career – helps in overcoming this passive appearance. But then, you may open yourself up to suspicion from your current employer.
Make the LinkedIn Profile Decision That’s Best for Your Situation
The conclusion we can draw here is that making your LinkedIn profile available to recruiters is best done when you’re actively looking for a new role. Otherwise, you may seem passive and uninterested, and some might say you’re playing hard to get – which can be a red flag to any recruiter who lands on your profile.
Let’s assume you want recruiters to find you.
In that case, you need a complete LinkedIn profile that does as good a job of showcasing you as a candidate as your resume. With Expert Resume Pros, our skilled LinkedIn profile writers in Denver – each of whom is a Certified Professional Resume Writer – can help you create a LinkedIn profile that says what you need it to say to the 58 million companies on the platform.
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