It was in year 2006 that I created my profile on LinkedIn. One of my friends sent me an invitation and I created my profile on LinkedIn, the largest network for professional networking. Currently I have 500+ professional contacts and I can leverage these contacts for my business. In this post, I am giving some benefits of LinkedIn for job hunters.
Why LinkedIn is so popular
LinkedIn is the only network that is designed for professional networking. If you look at Facebook and Twitter, they are designed for social networking.
It has over 100 million active users and adding one new member per second.
In addition to this huge user base, there are many benefits of LinkedIn for job hunters.
1. Search Engine Prowess
If you’ve a profile on LinkedIn, just type “your name” in search box of Google and enter. In first few results, you will see your profile link on LinkedIn. Here’s the proof:
2. User Friendly URL
Look at the image above and see the URL. You’ll see the URL as http://in.linkedin.com/in/avadhutnigudkar which is by my name. You can create your own profile and give the profile link to your employer or you can also put it in your email signature.
3. Stay Connected
You can stay connected with your professional contacts that you make at conferences or social gatherings. Next time, when you attend networking event or social gathering, ask people politely whether you can add them on LinkedIn. This gives you benefit of staying connected with your professional contacts even if you don’t make a deal immediately.
4. Providing Key Information
When these professional contacts visit your profile, they get key information about you, your skills and your professional experience. You can add your LinkedIn URL to your resume, business card and email signature.
5. Endorsements
Once you create your profile on LinkedIn, you can contact people with whom you’ve worked and ask them for recommendations. These recommendations play an important role when employers plan to hire you because the employer can check who has recommended you and so, that leaves an excellent impression.
6. Expanding the Network
When I was looking for a job as an Equity Research Analyst, I networked heavily on LinkedIn. I got in touch with people through LinkedIn and asked for their help. If you’ve done your homework well, people will help you.
7. Recruiters’ Favorite
Worldwide, recruiters use LinkedIn extensively for their recruitment. According to one research, 85 per cent of recruiters use LinkedIn to find talent. So, this is a major benefit of LinkedIn for job hunters.
8. Helps You in Brand Building
LinkedIn is my favorite because it helps me in building my brand. Once you have a resume, you can build your profile by mentioning your skill set and demonstrate your expertise by contributing to Questions and Answers on LinkedIn. The features on LinkedIn gives you ample scope for professional brand building and networking.
9. Access to International Community of Professionals
LinkedIn have professionals in 200 countries and half of it’s user base is outside of the United States. So it helps you build your network in different countries.
I’m sure these benefits of LinkedIn for job hunters will convince you to create a profile on LinkedIn.
Please let me know in “comments” section below, if you need any help in creating your profile on LinkedIn.
