How To Get Recruiters to Notice You As an IT Professional

Well, I have officially made it through my first year of being a technical recruiter and what a year it’s been. 

Since starting in recruitment, I have been incredibly lucky to have been surrounded by such an experienced, knowledgeable and supportive team. The amount of technical and industry knowledge I’ve gained has been extensive and I’m grateful for all of the coworkers, clients and contractors I’ve had the opportunity to connect with and learn from. I feel that it’s time I gave back to the IT industry by providing my insight and guidance into the recruiting process in hopes of further helping my connections to land their dream jobs.

With LinkedIn being one of the most popular platforms utilized by recruiting companies, I’m here to give you some tips on updating your LinkedIn profile to not only attract recruiters but to attract the RIGHT recruiters.

Finding The Right Recruiter

Having been on both sides of the recruiting process, I have a good understanding of the benefits and the nuisances of when it comes to working with recruiters. 

Benefits of Working With a Recruiter:

• Exclusivity: Some recruiters (including Jarvis recruiters!) have access to exclusive roles that are never posted on public job boards or company websites.
• Visibility: There are LOTS of new tech roles opening up in recent years and it’s hard to stay on top of the who, what, where, when and why of these opportunities. Recruiters can provide valuable insight into the employment market and available openings in the industry. 
• Personalization: Recruiters can bring forward options that are personalized to you, your experiences and your career ambitions.
• Simplicity: Recruiters will work closely with both you and any potential employers to make the entire hiring process as quick and easy as possible.

Nuisances of Working With a Recruiter:

• Inmails: Unending, irrelevant and vague inmails.
• Uninformative: Not having thorough information regarding the client, job requirements and hiring process.
• Unresponsiveness: Not receiving updates or feedback throughout the process.

If these nuisances sound like something you have previously experienced working with recruiters, then you haven’t been connected with the right recruiter. The following tips and tricks will help you to take full advantage of the many benefits that recruiters can offer, while also reducing the nuisances and ensuring that the opportunities presented are well suited to you and your experiences.

How To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile so Recruiters Find You

The Importance of Your LinkedIn Biography:

One of the most effective ways to improve the visibility of your profile is by writing a brief biography in the “About” section on your LinkedIn profile. 

This feature appears right at the top of your Linkedin profile, therefore making it a quick and convenient way for recruiters to judge your compatibility with the positions available. Including the following details can help to ensure that the opportunities being sent to you will match up with your expectations: 

• Experiences Summary: Include years of relevant work experience, your job title, seniority level, industries and work preferences for your next role.
• Technical Skills: Include keywords associated with your technical skills such as coding languages, frameworks, databases, reporting tools, testing tools, etc… Only include the technologies that you are looking to work with in your next position. If you include every piece of technology you’ve ever touched, you will likely receive inmails pertaining to your unpreferred or outdated technical skills.  

Optimizing Project Descriptions:

Catching the attention of a recruiter based on your technical skills is usually not enough to confirm your fit for a job, context also matters. A key aspect of a qualified candidate is not only what type of technologies you have used, but how you have used those technologies as well.

Employers are often looking for candidates who have experience working in a specific type of industry, project or team. The most clear and organized way to depict this information is by filling out a description under each of your job titles in the “experience” section. Include keywords and information such as:

• Team: What kind of specialized team were you working on (eg. AML, Big Data, QA, DevOps, etc.)
• Project Description: Include a brief project description outlining exactly what was being done in the project.
• Your Role: There are many moving parts to a project so make sure to emphasize what your specific role and responsibilities were on each project.

Topping It All Off:

Although your Linkedin Biography and Project Descriptions are going to be your biggest asset when it comes to attracting the right recruiters to your Linkedin page, there are a few additional steps you can take that will help you even further in getting noticed by the right recruiters.

• Open to Work: The “Open to Work” function will allow recruiters to quickly recognize if you are actively on the market for a new role. Further specify your preferences by filling out the given options for job titles, job type, location, etc…
• Resume: Attaching your resume to your LinkedIn profile gives recruiters the chance to see a more in-depth description of your previous roles so that they can confirm your candidacy for a position.
• Phone Number: LinkedIn gives you the option to add your phone number at the top of your profile. As some of my best mentors have said, “Phones before everything”, meaning that if we have your phone number at our disposal this is going to be the quickest, easiest and best way to get in touch with you.
• Email Address: You can also add your email address to the top of your profile so recruiters can reach out to you directly, instead of through inmails. Consider creating an email account exclusively for your job search to avoid overwhelming your personal email account.
• Updated LinkedIn: Keep your LinkedIn updated! This way you will receive job opportunities that are actually relevant to your current role rather than one that ended years ago and was never updated. 

Recruiters can be a very useful tool in your job search and one of the best ways to be found by recruiters is through your LinkedIn page.  By following these guidelines, you will not only be increasing your visibility to recruiters but will also be saving yourself a lot of time and frustration by targeting the right recruiters and job opportunities.