LinkedIn has become the leading resource that HR professionals use for recruiting. Therefore it is essential that you are able to make the most of it.

Complete your profile

It is important to have a complete profile because then it will show up higher in search results, and it shows that you taking an organized, professional approach to developing your career.

Add a professional picture

Take a high quality picture with your smartphone or, even better, an SLR camera.

Dress in a shirt or suit, stand in front of a neutral background like a brick wall, and have someone take a picture. Shallow depth of field will blur the background and allow the subject to stand out. To achieve this, stand far away from the background.

Complete headline, summary & skills

The three things that will always show in search results are your headline, location, and industry. Make sure you complete these three.

Change your headline from the default option, which is your current position and company. Choose words that best summarize your background and indicate what you are looking for, such as Software developer looking for product management roles post-MBA.

Keyword-optimize your summary, so that someone looking for certain characteristics and skills will find you.

Beware of overused buzzwords or jargon. Avoid words like motivated, track record, strategic, driven, passionate, enthusiastic, responsible, extensive experience, exceptional, and creative.

List jobs and education

At a minimum, list the dates and the places. Best practice is to add details about job responsibilities and achievements as you would for a resume. This will help you show up higher in search results because you are using more keywords that could be searched for.

Get recommendations and endorsements

Aim to get endorsements for skills that are required for your target job. Endorse people in your network and many of them will endorse you back.

Aim for one or two recommendations from people you have worked with. It is OK to email people you trust to ask them to write a recommendation for you on LinkedIn.

Make your profile visible

LinkedIn only works if you allow people to see your profile. There is no downside to this, and it is the practice we recommend.

Change your settings in Profile. Ensure you have checked  ‘Make my public profile visible to everyone’.

Set up a shortened URL

While you’re in settings, under ‘Edit public profile URL’ you can claim a short, personalized URL. Once you have this, ensure it is included in your email signature.

Grow your network

Connect with at least 50 people, but more is better
The more people you connect with, the better. Having less than 50 connections might give the impression that you are not a good collaborator or you don’t have many connections from your current and past jobs.
Most importantly, the more connections you have, the easier it will be to get in touch with people you don’t know. LinkedIn allows you to see more of people’s profiles the closer connected they are to you.

LinkedIn will show people who are closer connected to you higher in search results.

Likewise, when a recruiter does a search, you are more likely to show up in their results if you are more closely connected with them.

LinkedIn provides a great way to connect with people and stay in touch with those you worked with and met before. It is easy to send a request to connect. Sometimes it is too easy and before you know it you have sent a connection without a personalized message.

When connecting with people via the app or through the ‘people you may know’ option, you will not be able to customize your message. Therefore it is best to use the website.

Always customize your message to connect

Even if you are connecting to a friend, It will take you ten seconds to write something specific to you and to them, indicating that the relationship matters to you.

If you want to connect with a second connection, the best practice is to email your first connection and ask if they will make an introduction.

Use InMail for people you aren’t yet connected with

For people you don’t know, it is a good idea to reach out via InMail with specific requests, such as an informational call.

Remember that the person receiving the message might not know you, so make sure you explain early in your note your connection (if any) and why you are reaching out.

Another way of connecting with people is to join groups. Joining groups helps in several ways: Groups will be visible on your profile and joining industry-specific groups can embellish your profile; any activity within the group will also show up in your home feed, so it is a nice way to stay up to date with information; finally, you can reach out to anyone within a group without spending any InMail credits.

Rather than sending an InMail through the person’s profile, you have to go to the group, click on members, find the connection, hover over their name, and finally clicking on ‘Message’.

Consider joining Dartmouth College Alumni and Tuck School Alumni groups.

Use it as a job board

After Tuck Recruiting, LinkedIn is the most useful job board.

Compared to Indeed.com, which is simply an aggregator of existing jobs, LinkedIn hosts postings that recruiters have specifically published there. Often you can see additional information that is posted only on LinkedIn. For instance, the hiring manager is sometimes posted as is the number of people who already applied. (With a premium account you can also compare yourself to those applicants.)

LinkedIn provides other benefits, such as:

• You can see similar jobs or other jobs that people looked at
• LinkedIn will recommend jobs based on your background and your geography
• ‘Apply now’ doesn’t need a résumé

Use Premium functions

If you are actively searching for a job we recommend upgrading to premium.

The key benefit of premium is that you get more search results shown to you, and in addition:

• Larger profile picture, plus background picture
• Your profile appears 2x larger in search results, showcasing more of your professional highlights
• Your job application will appear above job applications from non-Premium members
• See who’s viewed your profile for the past 90 days (as opposed to last five people)
• See how you compare to other job applicants and see salary comps
• Premium search filters
• 10 InMails a month