5 Unconventional Ways You Can Utilize LinkedIn for Your Job Search in 2022

Originally published on Medium.com

LinkedIn has been around for years. At first as a digital resume with an option of one-click-apply, now as a social media network with huge potential.

Unfortunately, many people are still unaware that LinkedIn is an amazing tool for building relationships, finding career opportunities, and lead generation.

If you are looking for unconventional ways to utilize LinkedIn to find your dream job in 2022, read on.

Keep your LinkedIn profile active.

There are millions of profiles on LinkedIn — and most are “dead.”

Yes, years ago you could get away with a resume-looking LinkedIn profile with a boring summary and description, but not in 2022.

Close to 80% of job openings are not posted on sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor. What you see there is just the tip of the iceberg. To tap into the pool of job openings, you need to keep your eyes out and adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, even if you are working for a company full-time.

Back in 2012, co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman published a book “The Startup of you,” that conveyed the idea that no one can expect the job to be handed to them anymore.

Every single one of us must take action to build our professional brand to attract the best job offers. It’s not a short-term solution because personal and professional branding takes time, but it will pay dividends in a long run.

So, keep your LinkedIn profile active with regular thoughtful posts, share industry-related news, and engage with content by hashtags or by following companies and individuals in your targeted industry.

Connect with people in your industry — genuinely.

Have you ever gotten a message from a stranger asking you to review their resume or asking to hire them? Well, even if you didn’t, hiring managers and CEOs get them all the time. That’s what I call networking gone bad.

Networking used to be a thing. Now, transactional relationships like this won’t work.

What you can do instead is make a list of companies you would like to work for, find out if you have any connections who work at these companies — and give them something first. This can be attention — follow their content, engage with it, see what they are up to. If they start engaging with you, you can get to know them over direct messages or set up a quick virtual call.

Don’t pitch yourself though! Ask them about what they do, how they like it, and leave it at that. After some time, you may reach out to ask for a little favor, for example, an introduction to their co-worker from a different department for instance.

You may also mention that you are looking for a position and ask if they know if their company is hiring. Again, don’t ask people to forward your resume to their hiring manager. The favor should be easy to execute for the other person. So, keep it simple for them. Keep engaging with them after the favor — you are building a relationship for the long run.

Follow companies you would like to work for and also their CEOs.

Although LinkedIn offers job search functionality, 80% of the job openings never get posted online. Why? Because they get filled in other ways.

By following the company’s page and their CEO (especially if they are active on LinkedIn), you will be the first to find out if a new position opens. Many CEOs post a short job posting on their page and get candidates from their network. These job postings never appear on job posting sites — the company already has several good candidates to choose from.

It’s important to note that engagement means commenting meaningful and thoughtful comments, not liking the company’s posts once’s in a while. Often, likes to get overlooked while comments are not. You may also direct message about the post you’ve read to express your gratitude or your opinion on it.

Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels

Focus on your professional brand — on and off LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great platform to build a personal brand — your digital image. But don’t limit yourself to only LinkedIn, diversify your efforts.

If your line of work allows creating portfolios, there are several sites like behance.com, dribble.com, etc., that allow you to showcase your work. This is important because potential employers are most likely to search your name on Google after they come across your profile. Make sure that your online presence is intact by Googling your name and taking proactive action in case if something undesirable pops up.

Now, if you are wondering what your personal brand should be about, it’s very simple — it’s about you. Share things that matter to you — companies don’t hire robots; they hire people with their lives and interests.

You will be surprised but it’s possible that your post about your favorite book will resonate with a hiring manager who also loves that book — which will start a conversation. To see how you are doing with your personal branding efforts, check out LinkedIn Social Selling Index, I wrote an article a while back on it.

If you are already active on LinkedIn — reach out to your fans.

Say, you’ve already been doing some consistent work towards personal branding. By now, you know several people whose content you love and who support you and your content. If you are still working at your previous job, ask them over the direct message, or if you are unemployed — make a post on LinkedIn mentioning what you are looking for and some of your strengths. Many of such posts go viral on LinkedIn, but don’t get discouraged if yours doesn’t — simply report it a few times, try different types of content such as a text post, text and a photo, a short 1 min video.

In today’s world, every employee is a startup. You are in the business of selling yourself, and it should be your goal that your personal brand attracts potential opportunities instead of you having to look for them.

About Tetiana Furmanchuk

Tetiana Furmanchuk is a digital marketer and a content creator passionate about self-education, mindful living, philosophy, and storytelling. In 2020, she co-authored the Digital Career Change ebook to help fellow retail professionals enter the digital marketing field without going back to receive formal education. Tetiana is also a founder of Digital Presence Lab, LLC, helping clients with their online presence and podcasting needs.