The Job Shop
- Jan 2, 2020
- 3 min read

To Be Noticed on LinkedIn, Nail These 10 Fields

Updated: May 27, 2020

thor: Donna Svei Source: Avid Careerist

This morning, I got some compelling insight into the best LinkedIn profiles for job seekers. If you’re in a job search, this matters big time. Keep reading!

Tony Restell, who runs the social media marketing agency, Social-Hire, asked this question on LinkedIn:

LinkedIn Increases the Number of Search Results

“So LinkedIn has just increased the maximum search results from showing 1,000 people to now showing 2,500 people. I wonder how many users actually need that…would you use this if you had it on your account?”

Sanjay Sodhi, a staffing industry researcher and candidate sourcer, replied:

“Hopefully this becomes an option on the Recruiter side, too. It’d give us 2.5X the sample size for running search insights and a bit more wiggle room for one-shot-search market mapping. Can’t imagine why Recruiter users wouldn’t want to be able to operate on more search results at once.”

Then, Tony asked Sanjay for more information:

“That’s an interesting observation Sanjay. I would’ve assumed that by the time you get to the 1,000th result, the people appearing in searches would diverge too much from the search criteria specified to be a strong enough match to pursue.”

How Recruiters Really Search — the Best LinkedIn Profiles

And then, Sanjay shared this golden insight into how recruiters use LinkedIn to develop their target candidate lists:

“So, the thing is that we don’t really go that far down the rabbit hole for a specific search. It’s more on the background research and market mapping where you’re casting a **very** wide net and tagging/classifying profiles as you go.

By the tail end, you’re moving at a very quick pace and classifying off the profile summary [my emphasis] rather than clicking through…you want to be selecting the full page of 25 profiles and operating on all of them (likely to classify them out) and only stopping for exceptions.”

What Recruiters See First on Your LinkedIn Profile

So, I got curious.

I asked Sanjay:

“Sanjay, Would you please clarify for readers exactly which elements of their profile you see in the “summary” you mentioned? Much appreciated! Thank you, Donna”

I didn’t know if Sanjay had referred to the summary section of the LinkedIn profile (now called “About”), or if he was talking about a LinkedIn profile summary that LinkedIn shows to people using their Recruiter product.

Sanjay was kind enough to send me this screenshot of what he sees in Recruiter when LinkedIn serves him my profile as a search result

The Best Job Seeker LinkedIn Profiles for Recruiter Users

As you can observe, recruiters get a snapshot of your profile.

Also, as you learned from Sanjay’s comment, and as I know from my executive search experience, recruiters don’t always look at your full profile.

Thus, you have to optimize the 10 aspects of your profile that display in the Recruiter screenshot:

1. Your Profile Picture

I’ve written a lot about LinkedIn pictures. In looking at the screenshot above, you can see how much they matter to Recruiter users. They’re the first thing they see and, research has shown, the first place their eyes go.

So, click to get the lowdown on optimizing your profile picture. The best LinkedIn profiles ace the photo.

2. Your Name

I’ve also written a lot about LinkedIn names.

Beyond being the second thing Recruiter users see about you, the Name fields are more important than you might realize:

First, be sure to use your full name and any previous name people might use to find you.
Second, if you have relevant credentials, add the best one or two to your last name. You will see why this matters towards the end of this post.

3. Connection Level

Following your name, LinkedIn tells recruiters if you’re connected to them or not. As you can see, Sanjay and I are first-level connections. Thus, I’m more likely to:

Appear in the early pages of his search results.
Get outreach from him.

Because of this, connect with your target recruiters whenever you can.

4. LinkedIn Premium Membership

Next, recruiters immediately see if you’re a LinkedIn Premium member or not. If you’re a member, it’s free for recruiters to contact you. If you’re not, they have to spend InMail credits or dig around your profile looking for your contact information.

The best LinkedIn profiles make recruiter contact easy and free.