This article was initially published by Concordia University’s AHSC Student Association. We thank them for their interest in such an important topic

Now that you have set up an impeccable profile and that you know what type of activity to engage in , are you wondering how you can benefit from LinkedIn when looking for a job? Expert Jessica Gohier, the founder of Profilia, has helped shed light on what you can do to get noticed by recruiters.

If LinkedIn should not be a copy paste of one’s resume, how should the ‘Experience’ section of one’s profile be constructed?

Contrarily to your resume, your LinkedIn profile should include personal pronouns and should not include as much detail.After your short paragraph, it is beneficial to include key words that relate to your experience. This allows your profile to appear in searches completed by recruiters.

Side note – hyperlink your LinkedIn profile in your resume!!

How does one get recruiters to notice their profile?

• Have the right content/key words – without them, no one will find you

• Connect with people in your field and recruiters. Be proactive – aka do not wait for others to connect with you!!!! When sending an invitation to connect, include a note as to introduce yourself.

• Learn to see opportunities. Look at what your connections are doing on LinkedIn and, most importantly, follow through. What I mean by that is comment, follow pages, research about a new organization that you saw in your news feed. This is how you build your feed to include aspects that are of interest to you.

• Share content – they will see your name frequently

• Be part of groups – there are groups on job hunting, experts in a specific field, etc.

• Engage in posts that are relevant to what you do, or to what you want to do

• Follow company pages that are of interest to you

• Do people frequently get hired through LinkedIn?
• Absolutely!! Companies that are posting jobs on this platform have invested a lot of money. In general, the quality of such jobs is higher than those that one would find on a free platform. This signifies that the company is looking for quality candidates and, consequently, that they know that LinkedIn is the right place to find such candidates.
• What can I include in my profile that would increase my chances of being contacted by a recruiter?
• Other than what has already been covered, it is important to have a good and catchy headline.
• A headline is the text that is found right under your name. Although the platform will automatically include your job title as your headline, this does not have to be your headline. In fact, it is better to include something about yourself by using, again, the right terminology (i.e. I engage with community leaders to achieve X objective).
•  Another component is your summary story. That is the block of text found under your name. As previously mentioned, it is important to tell your personal story in a fun, creative, and engaging manner. You can have a few paragraphs or a few bullets that highlight what you do or your field of study.
• It is also important to choose the right skills in the ‘skills’ section, found at the very bottom of your profile. Unless you are applying for an administrative position where all you will be doing is working with Microsoft Office, putting skills in Microsoft Word and Excel is useless – it does not say anything about you to a recruiter.
• Choose skills that are specific to your area of expertise, or your field of study.
• Finally, there is a function on your profile that can let recruiters know that you are looking for a job. If you are looking for a job, turn it on!!
• What are tagline examples that students can use?
• An example could be ‘student actively learning about _______’. The important thing here is to make it personal, fun, and engaging.
•  Again, terminology is crucial. When a recruiter is looking for candidates, they search key terms such as program coordinator. Therefore, if your tagline says ‘actively looking for new opportunities’, your profile would never appear in recruiter searches.
• About Jessica:
• Jessica Gohier is an AHSC graduate and has created her own company, called Profilia, in 2008. She specialises in resume and cover letter writing, LinkedIn profiles, job searches, and much more. Her philosophy is “centered on a professional yet personalized approach to fulfilling each client’s needs as individuals”. She offers many great tools and CV templates! To view them, go to: https://www.profilia.ca/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicagohier/
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