As a Victoria’s Secret Model (and their photographers) know a secret or two about capturing beauty on film (and eliminating any blemish from view), recruiters and hiring managers know a thing or two about job search.

They both have a ton of insider secrets that you never know from the outside looking in.  What if you could have your own set of secrets you use to get similar results (in this case increasing your chances of getting that plumb job)?

We Know Recruiters and Hiring Managers Are Leveraging LinkedIn

85% of hiring managers use social media sites like LinkedIn to find candidates

89% of employers have hired someone through LinkedIn

94% of recruiters are active on LinkedIn

But the way nearly all candidates use LinkedIn is ensuring job search failure (you can’t just put up a LinkedIn profile and wait for hiring managers and recruiters to come to you or apply for jobs that way).

Life isn’t that easy.  You do actually have to work hard to land a job in a tight economy.

So rather than send you down the same road everyone else is headed.  Like a bunch of lemmings scurrying to their death.  Do what others aren’t.  Take a radical approach and boost your chances.

LinkedIn Resume Hack #1 – Find Comparable Profiles and Pull the Best Accomplishment Bullets

Accomplishments.

One thing I often find when working with people on their resumes is they struggle to come up specific, solid, detailed accomplishments.  And so many resumes are bland or only have a few accomplishments and a lot of filler “roles and responsibilities” that aren’t hard hitting enough.

Now you can find examples online.  And you can get the basic outline, “What did you do, and what was the result?” – in $, %, time saving, etc.

But they still struggle with coming up with things.  And if they don’t have it it is really difficult to create something for them or fine tune something that is too generic.  So here’s what to do.

Look for accomplishment bullet points that others have put into their LinkedIn profiles.  

You want to find those who are either in your current job or in the next job you want.

The current job ones will give you a source of accomplishment bullets to boost your current and past positions.

The ones in the job you’re going for will give you ideas of what it takes to be successful in the next role and what you might have already done that could make it easier for you to demonstrate your competence and likely success in the next role.

Start your search with current and past coworkers.  Then go to others you know in the industry.  Or others with that same job title (current or proposed) that you don’t know.

You need to look over the LinkedIn Profiles of people who are comparable to you.  Go through their accomplishments.  And pull out the most interesting and effective accomplishments (you’ll know them when you see them – pretend you’re the hiring manager).

Then use those best ones that align with what you’ve done.  And craft similar accomplishment bullets for your own resume.

It get’s you past writer’s block.  You take the best 10 or so and reduce them down to the top 5 that work for you.

LinkedIn Resume Hack #2 – Define Your Ideal Job Title

Many people cast too wide a net.

They’re ready to search for that next job but they aren’t specific about what they want.  So they get overwhelmed.  And they end up with a very untargeted search.

1% of candidates succeed with a shotgun approach.

But 9% succeed when sending their resume to targeted companies (when responding to online job postings).

So if you’re just sending resumes to any close position that shows up, you’re really doomed before you even start.

But how do you go about becoming more targeted?

The key is the job title.  You need to sort out what job title you’ll be applying for.  And there can be several that will work.

So step one is to go into LinkedIn and search for keywords or job titles that you think will work.  Try a few different variations.  And you’ll quickly find some job titles that match what you want.

Note those titles down since you can also use that later for searching the top job boards (Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster, Career Builder, Simply Hired, The Ladders, Craigslist)

LinkedIn Resume Hack #3 – Match Your LinkedIn Profile and Resume to Specific Job Title Keywords

Getting to the top of searches by hiring managers and recruiters who are using LinkedIn, Google, and Job Board Search Engines to find candidates is a daunting task.  If your resume or LinkedIn profile doesn’t have keywords that match what the searcher types in to the search engine, you’re toast.  You’ll hear nothing back as your resume is buried down at number 200.

So take the job postings you found on LinkedIn (or on other job sites) and review the posting.  Look for keywords you can put smoothly into your resume without it not making sense or putting in things that you didn’t do.

For anything that is not in the body of your resume or LinkedIn profile you can put a list of “Keywords” or “Core Competencies” at the bottom of your resume or at the bottom of the “Summary” section of your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Resume Hack #4 – Sleuth Out Target Companies and Referral Connections

So you have a target job title identified and your resume and LinkedIn profile are dialed in.  How do you target your search?

Given that:

• 68% of available jobs are never posted online
• 27% of jobs are found through referrals
• 2% to 5% of candidates get a decent response from an online posting

Now is the time to head offline.

You know, old school job search.

Networking.

But you can now get what you need on LinkedIn.

What you’re going to do is follow the connections.  Look first for people you know who went to other companies that would be a fit for you.  Then search that company name and find out who else you know who works at that company.  They are the people you’ll want to to talk to (by phone or in person) for your next opportunity assuming you’re staying in the same industry.

Here’s the places you can find leads for people (hiring managers, peers in the role you want, and recruiters).

Pull up their LinkedIn Profile

• From someone’s profile you’ll see on the right hand side, “People Also Viewed” listings.
• Under “Highlights” you’ll see the person’s connections.  If they aren’t closed to you then click on the  connections and you can see others connected with them.

Now go to Company Pages

Under the person’s “Experience” you can click on one of the companies they worked for (check current and past companies).

• At the top: “X connections work here.  See all Y employees” – click on “See all Y employees” to see the full employee listing – this is good for finding other job titles you might have missed that could be a fit.
• Right side: “Recently Posted Jobs” – gives you a clue as to what current positions are available
• Right side below “Recently Posted Jobs”: “Similar Companies” – these are companies that also might be hiring for your targeted job since they are similar to the company you’ve just pulled up.Down the page you’ll see, “# Connections At This Company” – these are your personal insiders (people you have a 1st level connection with on LinkedIn) – this is your short list of potential referrers

Make sure you are creating a list of companies, job titles, and referrers by company and job title.

Now you have some targets for your job search.

Now that you’ve got LinkedIn nailed, what about your resume? get this ONE THING wrong and recruiters and hiring managers will toss your resume in the ‘NO GO’ pile