How to Find Work Opportunities on LinkedIn

It’s true that LinkedIn is a powerful virtual job fair, for those seeking steady, traditional employment. It’s also a great place to pick up freelance contracts and new clients for your online business. You can search the “Jobs” section, which will be optimized for your Profile. Nicole Munoz LinkedIn You can also see what your competitors are offering – and what potential clients really want from your type of business or your skill sets. But it doesn’t matter what type of employment you are seeking – traditional steady or part time, contract or online freelance – you need to reverse-engineer the business research company recruiters will use. This fraternity usually doesn’t have a background in marketing.  When they search LinkedIn, recruiters (freelance and company-employed) most often use simple keywords based on criteria you might find in a job ad:
  • Specific skills or skill sets
  • Degrees or certification
  • Licenses (e.g. “plumbing license”)
  • Industry jargon and terminology (try to stick to straight terminology, if in doubt)
Go through relevant job ads – and your own resume – and make sure that you highlight key words and phrases regarding these terms, skills, accreditation and terminology. Recruiters set great store by industry influencers, so find out which ones they follow – and follow them too.  (Or just find influencers yourself and follow them.)  

How Do You Find Recruiters?

find-job It helps to study a variety of recruiters – just the way writers study agents and publishers – to see what type of other, key search words they might be using.  Avid Careerist, Donna Svei supplies tips and keywords in one of her recent July 2013 posts.  In fact, virtual assistants who write resumes and CVs are also good to follow for tips – and good to connect with on LinkedIn.

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Hunters study the habits of their prey.  While your intentions are not in the least predatory, LinkedIn is one social network where the habit of study and research is far more important than other, more social and personal platforms – especially for job hunters.