Unemployed? Create a “current” position on LinkedIn

Did you know that you score lower for jobs on LinkedIn if you don’t have a current position in your LinkedIn Experience section? You can find proof of that if you have LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium. Here’s what I mean and how to fix the problem.

If you have a Job Seeker Premium account and look on LinkedIn for a job that has had at least 10 people apply, you can see competitive intelligence like this: 

Notice how the current role has fewer blue bars than is optimal. That’s because this job seeker has not listed a current position after she lost her last job. Had she listed a current role with a relevant job title and duties, she would likely have all five bars showing in the Current Role section and would have a higher score than just being in the top 50%. 

To score higher for jobs on LinkedIn while unemployed, create a “current” position. Here’s how:

• Log into LinkedIn and go to Me & View profile
• Scroll to your Experience section and click the plus sign ( + ) to add a new position
• In the Title box, add your preferred job title(s), such as “IT Project Manager” (don’t use Founder, Owner, Consultant, or similar words because employers search for candidates by their sought-after job titles not by filler position titles)
• In the Company box, write “Available” or “Seeking New Opportunities”, or use a name that may be interpreted as a real company name like “Healthcare Opportunities” if someone was looking quickly at your entry
• In the Location box, add your current or target city
• In the Date boxes, make the “From month" the month after you left your last job and instead of clicking the “To" boxes, click the “I currently work here” box. Uncheck the “Update my headline” box so the system won’t accidentally change your main headline at the top of your profile.
• In the Description box, list all of the job duties that you are capable of doing that are listed for jobs that you want. (Study job descriptions to learn what these wanted duties are). The space allows you to include up to 2,000 characters including spaces.

Instead of stating that you are currently doing such duties, use phrase-starters like the following to show that you are capable of doing the work (even if you aren't doing them now). 

• Able to manage …
• Adept at handling …
• Proficient at overseeing …
• Highly skilled at …
• Extensive background includes …
• Well known for ...

Here’s an example of how that might look:

Note: To add bullets, copy a bullet from someone else's profile (On PC: Highlight the bullet, then type Control + C to copy it and then Control + V to paste it. On Mac: Highlight the bullet, then type Command + C to copy and then Command + V to paste it). Repeat copying the bullet for the start of each bulleted entry, or copy/paste a bulleted list of duties from Microsoft Word into the Description box. Most bullet types will transfer over from Word, but they may look smaller or different than intended),    

Turn the “Share profile changes” toggle switch off so that your network is not notified (otherwise your connections will be notified that you have been hired into this “new” position).

Score higher for jobs on LinkedIn! Add a current position in the Experience section by following this advice today! -- Kathy

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