Success in 60 Seconds: LinkedIn

by the Marketing Department at Laurus College

“If you’re not on LinkedIn, you don’t exist to employers.” – The Undercover Recruiter

“Success in 60 Seconds” is a weekly blog meant to be read in 60 seconds or less that’s dedicated to helping recent college graduates achieve success in their careers.
Everyone from your college instructors to your career advisor has told you to create a portfolio on LinkedIn, right? While LinkedIn offers some great tools to help you search for jobs and keep up with industry trends, its most important function is to simply show a future employer that you exist. This might seem a little harsh, but it is the reality of today’s business world. Here are a few scenarios as to why:

Networking: You’ve just met a potential employer at a hiring event or trade show, and they pull out their smart phone to add you to their LinkedIn network. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, you just reduced your likeliness to connect with that employer by 90%. Oh, there’s still a chance they keep the business card you just handed them, but do you really want to play those odds?

Resume Screening: The employer reviewing resumes for your dream job just ‘cut’ the initial applicant list down from 150 resumes to 15…and you made it! Next, they proceed to look up each of the remaining candidates on LinkedIn to learn more about them. If they search your name and can’t find you, your resume is likely to get placed on the bottom of the stack; or, even worse, into the pile of applicants they already cut.

Un-posted Job Openings: An employer is getting ready to post an opening for a position that you would be interested in. However, they decide to use LinkedIn first to see if there are any potential candidates already in their network. They end up finding two people to interview, hire one of them, and the employer fills the position before you even get to apply.

This Week’s Success Tip – Prove you exist to employers and get on LinkedIn today!

Leo Craven is the VP of Strategic Planning for Laurus College.

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