You can be forgiven for thinking that if you write your CV or résumé to a high standard and cover all the elements of the job description, that you have a great chance of getting an interview. Unfortunately you may be missing one vital ingredient – your LinkedIn profile.
But what makes having a LinkedIn profile on your job application so special, and why do employers favour candidates more with this profile?
What is a LinkedIn profile?
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 17 years, we’ll answer this one. LinkedIn is the name of a social networking site which specifically caters for professional communities. The aim of the site is to allow its members to create a network of people they know in a professional capacity.
A LinkedIn profile will contain information on skills, employment history, education and qualifications. In essence, LinkedIn provides a platform to create a virtual CV or résumé. Millions of people all over the world use this business network to further establish and verify their own and others’ professional abilities and experience.
How can a LinkedIn profile boost my chances of an interview?
A recent study was conducted by ResumeGo that tested 24,570 fictitious job applications through numerous different recruitment websites such as ZipRecruiter and Glassdoor.
The study was split into three main categories:
- No LinkedIn profile
- A bare bones LinkedIn profile
- A comprehensive LinkedIn profile
The comprehensive profile had over 1,000 characters and over 300 connections to ensure there was a clear difference between this and the bare bones profile.
The results of the study were staggering – it clearly demonstrated that a comprehensive LinkedIn profile substantially boosted the chance of getting a callback for an interview. Further still, candidates had a slightly reduced chance if they provided a bare bones profile in comparison to no profile at all.
Here are the results with over 8,000 applications for an entry level position:
- No LinkedIn profile – 7.8%
- A bare bones LinkedIn profile – 7.4%
- A comprehensive LinkedIn profile – 15.8%
As you can see from the above stats, with a comprehensive LinkedIn profile there are significantly more callbacks. What is also interesting is that candidates are slightly better off with no profile at all when compared to a bare bones profile.
“If you don’t have a LinkedIn page, you might look less legitimate, no matter what experience and accolades you’ve racked up. A lackluster profile can be just as bad.”
~ Beth Luberecki, Washington Post
What can we learn from this study?
After seeing these results you are faced with two choices. The first is to have no LinkedIn profile, or to not provide details of it on your job application if it is what we are calling a ‘bare bones profile’. However, with the latter option, be aware that employers may go looking for the profile anyway. According to Recruitment Experts Robert Walters, 64% of hiring managers say they have viewed a job seeker’s professional social network profile (such as LinkedIn) at some point as part of the recruitment process.
With this in mind the second and more obvious choice is to create a comprehensive LinkedIn profile to see a dramatic increase in the number of callbacks you get for a job interview.
It will take time to build up what we would class as a ‘comprehensive profile’, but that shouldn’t put you off from doing so. There will be some people reading this article that have never created a profile and should now go ahead and get started. The sooner you begin to build up your LinkedIn profile, the sooner you will be able to get it up to speed for future job opportunities.
What are the benefits of having a LinkedIn profile?
It’s important to realise that having a LinkedIn profile will provide more job opportunities. In many cases you will find that you have more success through social networking than through more traditional methods of job hunting. The age old phrase of ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ applies perfectly here.
The more people you know in your chosen industry, the more chances you are going to get of seeing an available position. You may also get head-hunted through LinkedIn, which adds another benefit to being connected to an online business community.
“By creating a LinkedIn account, jobs could come to you!”
~ Megan Lacombe, Liberty Staffing
Creating a comprehensive LinkedIn profile is not easy, so to help you in your quest to create the ultimate online CV or résumé, watch this video by Marat from recruitment experts EMMOTION:
We also recommend these helpful articles:
- Building a killer LinkedIn profile to complement your CV : covering both building your profile AND using the platform to maximise your chances of being head-hunted.
- The 31 Best LinkedIn Profile Tips for Job Seekers : “everything you need to know – from crafting a stunning summary to selling your accomplishments, projects, and skills – in one place.”
- 7 LinkedIn Profile Summaries That We Love (And How to Boost Your Own) by Kate Reilly. Kate is a writer, content strategist and marketer in the Greater New York City Area. She has written more than 50 articles for LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions business.
- Add Punch to Your LinkedIn Profile Using These Examples as Inspiration by Kylee Lessard, Product Marketing @ LinkedIn in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- 6 awesome LinkedIn features to help you build your network
- The new LinkedIn job interview app preview
Wow that’s insane, I am working on mine today!