Recruiters, LinkedIn, and Playing Games

I have left this blog unattended for a while during which I was alternately employed and unemployed. After more than a year's service, one employer generously provided the outsourcing services of Right Management Corporation. Right Management is a Subdivision of Manpower, so what is happening at Right is generally current with what the rest of the Human Resources industry is doing. And there are a few things that, at the end of July 2012, every job-hunter ought to know. 

Right's counselors will provide some help in getting your employment materials lined up with LinkedIn. Linked-In operates something like a kiosk where people who have jobs let it be known what jobs they have. Job seekers create a visible profile that is usually based on what they want the employing world to know about them. LinkedIn is a a social media network for professionals and emphasizes the job placement process. But as social media, it also establishes groups within industries where ideas are exchanged to the benefit of group members. Groups determine relevant topics for themselves, and posting is voluntary.

So what a person gets from a service like Right is a lot of advice about two things: 

• networking
• making an impression on LinkedIn

As far as networking goes, there is a general truth that what leads people to jobs is usually something other than the display of their qualifications, and that the presence of many people who know you and think well of you is likely to lead to you and your next job connecting more quickly. Networking is a subject that should not be dismissed lightly, and, as this writing progresses, expect to see the subject arise again. But for this article, I would like to concentrate on   

Making an Impression on LinkedIn 

I hesitate to say this, but the key advice to be given here is to anticipate that the people looking at your profile will be so swamped with things to look at that they are unwilling to explore beyond the first line. They ate similarly unwilling to look at at profiles that are not 100% completed. The technical reason for this reluctance is that the programming of LinkedIn prioritizes and orders its databases with priority apportioned according to the completion percentage of the profile. Frankly, this simply creates a disadvantage for anyone using LinkedIn who honestly wants to acknowledge their existing status of unemployment. In other words, I'm accusing LinkedIn of discriminating against the unemployed. Here's why:

When a person is unemployed and honest, the first line of the profile editing within the system will show:

Current   + Add a current position.

And unless a current position is added, the percent of completion cannot rise above 90%. This feature is the equivalent of having the technology automatically shuffle the unemployed person’s profile to the bottom of the list. So, if you are going to avoid the automatic shuffling, you need to fill in something. In other words --- Lie! Or you might, as an alternative, fake something to fill the spaces that are keeping you from successfully completing the form. Here are the spaces that must be filled in:

·  Company Name:

·  Title:

As you fill these in, keep in mind that your profile will be broadcast to potential employers in the form of:

<Title> at <Company Name>

You cannot control the appearance of the word “at”. It will be there regardless of what you choose to place into the Company Name and Title blanks. For instance, you could fill in the blanks with

<unemployed> at <the moment> which would tell the world that you are

Unemployed at The Moment.

Think about this for a moment and you may come up with better things to say about yourself. For instance, you might say that you are

<Very proficient> at <making money for clients>.

OK! So you fake something that gets you past the need to bring your profile to 100% completion. At that point, you have your posted profile in place where it can be seen by potential employers and their recruiters. Now you become concerned with the issue of how the recruiters find you. This is where the content of your profile comes into play. You have listed your strengths and accomplishments in your profile. But how did you know what to list? Here’s how to use technology to get employers to notice you.

1.     Decide on an ideal (for yourself) next job.

2.     Use a service like indeed.com to find 5 positions for that next job that you think you would be qualified to hold

3.     Copy the descriptions of all five into a word document. Go through the list and delete words that are used to frame the description – words like “qualifications”, “work history”, “education”, etc.

4.     Take what is left of the document, go to tagcrowd.com, and paste the document into the part you want “visualized.” Choose to show frequencies. Then visualize the document.

5.     Look at the visualization and write down a list of the 10-15 physically largest words. These are words you will want to get into your profile.

6.     Write your profile so that it describes you and contains your top words. Each of your top 5 words should appear in your profile at least twice. Also make sure that each of the top 10 words becomes a keyword for your profile.

You are doing this because it is a high-tech tool that recruiters use. The recruiter is asked by the company to find talent. They are given a job description. It is often the same description that was used the last time the company hired for that position. They will be doing keyword searches on words from that job description. Your profile will pop up if it matches enough keywords. Only after this search has been conducted will the recruiters take the additional step of reading your profile.

This may seem like a game. It is one. But it is one that you will need to play in order to have the profile that pulls the recruiters too look at you.