Adriaan Kolff's Ultimate Guide To Finding A New Job - Part 1
Adriaan Kolff is the Co-Founder of MatcHR, a recruiting firm in the Kiev Region of Ukraine and a contributor to recruiting associations and publications. Here are his tips as published by www.sourcecon.com.
Finding opportunity during COVID-19
Due to COVID-19 many people have lost their job. Together with experts from different fields we created the ultimate guide to maximize your chances of finding your next job as fast as possible 🙏🏻.
Why are these articles useful for you?
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It is hard to find a new job in a market where job opportunities are limited and unemployment rates are rising
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You will need the right tools and knowledge to truly stand out, so we have teamed up with industry experts in recruitment, sales and sourcing to help you
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You need to have a process in place that can help you find a job as quickly as possible
The only thing standing in the way of you being successful is your commitment to follow the steps in these articles and to simply not give up 💪.
These articles will show you how to:
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Create a stellar LinkedIn profile
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Create a resume that will land you an interview
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Find relevant jobs at scale
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Find the right stakeholders and their contact details
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Stand out with your application
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Prepare for your remote job interview
These articles have been created with the help of Marcel van der Meer, Mike “Batman” Cohen, Dean Da Costa, Anna Brandt, Jonathan Kidder, Jules Maregiano, Tom Gerencer, Tris Revill, Alexander Gerritse, Maarten van der Kwaak and Guillaume Moubeche. Each individual is an expert in his or her field and have shared their advice and experience with the sole purpose to help ❤️.
1. Create a stellar LinkedIn profile
This section will show you how to create a stellar LinkedIn profile that can easily be found by recruiters 🕵️♀️.
Having worked in the recruitment industry for many years it still takes me by surprise how little time people spend on crafting a professional and representable LinkedIn profile even when they are actively looking for a job. When you apply for a job recruiters and hiring managers will check out your LinkedIn profile so make sure it represents you in the best possible way.
Your profile photo
Make sure that you have an updated LinkedIn photo that looks professional. No pictures with sunglasses on, that one photo where you look great but it is clear that you have cut out your girlfriend or boyfriend (yes people do that on LinkedIn to…) or even worse… Have no picture at all 👻…
Look into the camera, look ‘friendly’, only put your head and shoulders in the frame and have a calm background.
Your background photo
Your background photo is the second visual element at the top of your profile page. Alexander Gerritse, Sr. Customer Success Manager at LinkedIn, advises to change your background as it grabs people’s attention, sets the context and shows a little more about what matters to you. More than anything, the right background photo helps your page stand out, engage attention and stay memorable.
Open to new opportunities
Update your profile that you are “Open to new opportunities”. Everyone visiting your profile will immediately see that you are actively looking for a new opportunity and in what kind of roles you are interested in.
Go to your profile. Click on “Add profile section” and then click on “Intro” and select “Looking for job opportunities”.
Specify what job titles (max 5) you are looking for, what location, what kind of contract and make sure this is visible to everybody on LinkedIn (default is recruiters only) and save it.
Location
Jonathan Kidder stresses the importance of adding the right location.
You can restrict yourself from appearing in searches by not correctly adding the right location diameters. The best solution to this is to simply include your Zip or Postal code in your profile. I also recommend including (Greater Minneapolis-St Paul Area) under your experiences. You can include a zip and (Greater) in both areas to cover all your bases.
About
The about section, or summary section, is your change to write a short summary on who you are, what you excel at and to tell something (personal) that is ‘not on your resume’. What do you like to do? What do you find important in life? What are you proud of? How would you describe yourself or how others would describe you? Check out the “About” sections of the people mentioned in this article for some inspiration. Jonathan Kidder also recommends to add your contact details in this section so recruiters can easily reach out to you.
Keywords, skills and job title
Recruiters use job titles, keywords and skills to find potential candidates that might be a fit. You can make their life easy to be easily found on the right keywords, skills and job title.
Job title
Your job title should reflect what you do. Refrain from using buzzwords in your job title like “Recruiting Ninja” or “Wizard of Engineering” and try to stick to the industry standards of your job. Now is not the time to play around and be funny. You want to be found. 🔍
Keywords
Next to job titles, keywords are used by recruiters to find specific qualities and skills a potential candidate might have. Add these keywords in your summary and/or job description. You can even use hashtags at the bottom of your “About” section and/or job description to make sure that you have the relevant keywords in your profile.
Skills
Update your skills in your LinkedIn with skills that are related to your field. This is an often overlooked section but it is widely used by recruiters to search for potential candidates that are not looking for keywords but skills specifically.
Job description
In your job description be as specific as you can on your responsibilities and achievements. Think about someone who visits your profile for the first time. Does he/she immediately understand what you do, in what area you excel and why you could potentially be a great fit for the role that you are interested in?
Two tips from Mike Cohen:
Be mindful of the verbs and the pronouns — avoid things like “maintain” or “support”, talk about what you actually did / built / created
Be aware of using words like “we” and “they” — you want to talk about things that you did — being a team player is great! But they want to hear what you did specifically.
Recommendations
Since you are actively looking for a job it is time to ask your network for help and ask for recommendations. There is absolutely no shame in doing this! Ask the people that have worked with you to write a recommendation.
Go to the bottom of your LinkedIn profile and click on “Ask for a recommendation” and select the person you want a recommendation from. Give them a heads up that you ask this so it doesn’t get lost in all the LinkedIn messaging.
Check your LinkedIn profile
If you want to double check if your LinkedIn profile is ‘stellar’ enough, Marcel van der Meer, suggests to run your LinkedIn profile and/or resume through Resume Worded. The software tool of Resume Worded, will scan your LinkedIn profile and resume for free and will suggest in what areas you can improve. If you want to unlock all suggestions you have to pay a small fee. Worth to give it a try!