Five Things Applicants Should Know about LinkedIn Jobs

More and more businesses are using LinkedIn as their primary or exclusive job-posting site. Likewise, more and more applicants are finding LinkedIn’s solution to be the best source for finding gainful employment. Despite this significant trend, most applicants do not have a clear picture of what recruiting professionals and hiring managers actually receive. Having just been involved in recruiting a new employee, I now know what and how LinkedIn provides information about applicants to employers.

Your application arrives as an email with attachments. While this may seem simple and straightforward, it does beg one to consider the role timing plays. An evening or weekend application will arrive in a very large morning pile. But a weekday application might indicate the applicant is either unemployed or applying for jobs when technically at work. Applicants might find the proverbial best of both worlds by submitting applications during lunch hours.

The body of the email contains a truncated version of your LinkedIn profile. Picture the text at the top of someone’s LinkedIn profile minus the picture. The email lists the applicant’s name, headline, location, industry, current positions, past positions, educational institutions, the number of LinkedIn connections, email and phone number with a link marked “View Full Profile” at the bottom. Since this is the first impression LinkedIn recruiters see, it is worth managing. Too many applicants have a stale or unremarkable headline, for example.

Links to your profile may not work when the email is forwarded. When anyone other than the “owner” of the job advertisement (normally the recruiter in the HR Department) clicks on “View Full Profile” LinkedIn rudely informs the interested party (such as the hiring manager) “You cannot view this applicant because either the application does not exist, or it is not for a job that you own.” Although LinkedIn allows applicants to apply using only their profile, this annoying feature ensures the LinkedIn profile is not ready to replace the conventional resume. Make sure to always include a resume.

Your resume file arrives exactly as provided. As such, applicants should take note of two things. The first is that recipients can see the filename and not merely the file. Strange filenames such as Resume7 might create unwanted questions. The second is that a PDF file will preserve formatting better than other file types, since the Adobe Acrobat Reader is a free application.

Your cover letter arrives as an unformatted text file. It is titled Lastname-coverletter.txt. For many users, the default text file reader (including mine) does not automatically format a paragraph into multiple lines. As such, most recipients will need to take the extra step of either (a) inserting line breaks, or (b) pasting the text into a more user-friendly document reader if they want to read a cover letter. For some recipients, this extra step will be a deterrent. The best course of action for most applicants is to refrain from long cover letter paragraphs. Limit each cover letter paragraph to one short sentence. Use asterisks as bullet points in one or two lists. For applicants whose resume is in no danger of failing the HR screen, a cover letter is unnecessary.

Depending on the nature of the job search, the LinkedIn Job Application may not be the only LinkedIn tool to use. Smart applicants can identify and leverage LinkedIn Connections who can get these best applicants past the initial screen. In my most recent recruiting effort, the applicant we chose made the final six out of over ninety resumes by coming in via one of my professional connections, rather than LinkedIn Jobs. This person who was executing a career change probably would not have passed a conventional resume screen. And fortunately for us, this wise applicant did not let the conventional resume screen get in the way. But the principle does not merely apply to career-changers. It is easy to upload a resume and hit the “Submit” button. In contrast, it takes effort to negotiate an introduction from a contact in common. Smart hiring managers will recognize the value behind the extra effort.