August 8, 2023, by ahyeo2

How I Used LinkedIn While Job Hunting

Emily Oxbury, History MA Student Blogger

LinkedIn can be an invaluable tool if you’re about to graduate and on the hunt for a career path after university. Connecting with professionals within the industry, finding job vacancies and highlighting your skills, qualifications and interests are just a few of the functions LinkedIn has to offer.

Here’s a few of my own observations I’ve made throughout my time hunting for jobs on the site. 

Job hunting  

The LinkedIn algorithm is incredibly clever at matching your profile to potential jobs you might be interested in. Therefore if your profile is rich with information on your previous jobs, education and interests, the site will be able to better match you to job vacancies. Sometimes you have the ability to message the hiring team directly, which I have found to be a vital tool to ask more details about positions I am applying for. You can also see who else works for the organisation, how many employers the company has, as well as how many people have applied for the role – all of which can help you make an informed decision as to whether the role is suited to you or not. You can also set up alerts for similar jobs, which narrows down the somewhat overwhelming task of job searching. LinkedIn also offers a function of providing feedback on their automated job suggestions, giving you the opportunity to ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ the suggestions. Through showing which jobs you’re most interested in, the site can gather more information about your interest and tailor your job suggestions even further. 

Connecting with professionals

Unlike Instagram, Facebook and other traditional social media outlets, LinkedIn is a great space to follow and connect with people you don’t know. With thousands of users, the site offers a plethora of professionals from across the globe, working within a huge variety of different companies and careers. If you’re applying for a job, don’t be afraid to research current employees of the company and find their accounts. This can prove incredibly useful, not only to find out more about the different roles available within a company, but also to see the previous training, education and jobs held by the employees.

One problem I’ve sometimes encountered is receiving blanket messages which have clearly been sent to a large group of LinkedIn users at once – don’t let this deter you from replying as I’ve still had success through interacting with these generic messages from employers. Remaining keen and persistent certainly pays off when using LinkedIn. 

Updating your profile

Your activity on LinkedIn can grab the attention of potential employers, so don’t be afraid to keep your profile up to date with all your latest activities! Whilst your previous jobs and education is saved to your profile permanently, you can also post timely updates of your recent activity. When making these posts, tagging others involved (be it individuals or companies) can help your posts to reach a wider audience. From my experience, adding photographs of the event, or links to the subject you’re talking about in the post also seems to enhance engagement. 

Overall, LinkedIn provides a fantastic networking opportunity, from which you can can gain invaluable advice from professionals. The main thing to remember when using the site is to not be scared to put yourself out there and begin conversations – be it commenting on people’s posts or messaging someone from a company you’re interested in working for. The whole site is built around professionals connecting with one another, your messages and questions are accepted and welcomed! 

Want to find out more about how to get started on LinkedIn? Check out the Careers webpage.

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