If you’re in the market for a new job, and you haven’t done much with LinkedIn yet, then now is the time to start. LinkedIn offers several valuable job opportunities, which you can find if you have a basic account. However, with LinkedIn premiums, you’ll find better job opportunities, and you’ll also be able to increase your credibility within your career niche.
So, how can you use a LinkedIn premium account to find a job? You can use a LinkedIn premium account in a variety of different ways to help you find a job. We’ve listed fourteen ways you can use a LinkedIn premium account to find a position below:
- Maintain your profile so that it stays up-to-date. Provide comprehensive information about skills and objectives.
- Place emphasis on your recent experience
- Update your headline from time to time
- Inform people of your availability
- Build your network
- Look into companies you like and follow them
- Take advantage of the Advanced Search feature
- Get an introduction
- Search around for alumni from your college or university
- Don’t be a wallflower
- Get active with some of the LinkedIn Professional Groups
- Look into your future bosses and teams
- Network after the end of your business day.
Since there isn’t a lot of information available on the Internet today that discusses how you can use LinkedIn premium to find a job, we created this article to help you out. First, we’ll compare how LinkedIn premium works and compare it to a basic account. Then we’ll cover different ways you can use LinkedIn premium to find a job. We’ll start below with a comparison so that you can see why a LinkedIn premium account is worth it for job seekers.
Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It for Job Seekers
When considering whether LinkedIn Premium is worth it for job seekers, let’s start with some necessary information about LinkedIn. Jobvite recently surveyed LinkedIn and discovered that 94% of recruiters are already active on LinkedIn. However, only 36% of people seeking out jobs are members on LinkedIn.
What does that mean? If you’re trying to find a job, LinkedIn has a bevy of great opportunities for you. Based on the numbers we gave you above, recruiters outweigh job seekers on LinkedIn by 58%. So it’s very likely that if you use LinkedIn, you’ll find a job. Now, let’s compare the differences between a free account on LinkedIn and LinkedIn premium.
LinkedIn’s free basic membership is an excellent resource to use if you are looking for a job. Honestly, just using the free, basic account could help you attract interest. However, if you want to make sure you’ll get all the best features along with your job, then consider getting a LinkedIn Premium Job Seeker account. At the time of this article, these accounts cost $29.99 each month, or you can pay for the whole year upfront for $239.88.
Here are some of the benefits that you’ll get if you use LinkedIn’s Premium Job Seeker Account:
- You’ll pay $29.99 a month, which doesn’t seem like a benefit, but considering everything you’ll get for the money, it’s quite cheap.
- For the price, you’ll get several bonus features that the free, basic account doesn’t offer. That includes free InMails, profile views, more information about jobs and job applicants, and the featured applicant status.
- Also, having a Premium account is attractive to recruiters because many recruiters feel that applicants with premium accounts are more serious about employment than applicants that use a free account.
LinkedIn’s Basic (Free) Account
If you want to comprehend how valuable a LinkedIn Premium account is, we’ll have to start by first giving you an overview of what you’ll get with a basic (free) account. So, once you sign up for a basic (free) account on LinkedIn, you can do the following:
- Build your professional identity and presence online.
- Start networking with other professionals in your industry.
- You’ll get recommendations from members on LinkedIn, and you’ll also be able to give them suggestions as well.
- You’ll be allowed to ask for up to five introductions at once.
- You can look around for people, companies, employment, and much more, using a limited number of the advanced search features (remember, this is one significant limitation of a basic account).
- You’ll be able to save your search results and sign-up for weekly alerts.
- You can receive, but not send, unlimited InMail messages.
LinkedIn’s Premium Job Seeker Account
Now that you know what you’ll get with a basic (free) LinkedIn account, let’s discuss what you’ll get with LinkedIn’s premium job seeker account. With LinkedIn’s premium job seeker account, you’ll get several extra features that you wouldn’t be able to use with a basic account. We’ll cover some of those additional features below because once you see the other features, you’ll understand why paying for the premium job seeker account is worth it when you want to find a new job.
Feature #1: Premium Profile
The first additional feature you’ll get when you apply to LinkedIn’s Premium Job Seeker Account is the premium profile feature, which helps make your LinkedIn account more attention-grabbing for recruiters. With this feature, you can use a more extensive profile picture on your LinkedIn account, and you can also customize your background.
If you have signed up on LinkedIn as a premium member, you’ll be able to use this feature by going through the settings page. With a more extensive profile picture and more customizable features, you’ll be able to more easily stand out from the crowd when it comes to recruiters. Also, with a customizable background, you can even use this feature to focus on attracting specific professional markets or individual recruiters.
Feature #2: Featured Applicant Status
Another additional feature that you’ll get when you sign up as a LinkedIn premium member is the featured applicant status. Once you’ve signed up as a premium member, your job applications automatically appear above those of non-premium members whenever you apply for a job on LinkedIn. This type of feature resembles sponsored search status on Google and increases your chances of finding a new job.
Feature #3: Full List of Profile Views
Another impressive feature that LinkedIn premium members get is a full list of profile views. If you’re a primary member on LinkedIn, you’ll only be able to see the last five people that looked at their profile. However, if you’ve bought a premium membership, then you’ll see people that have looked at your profile within the last three months.
Not only does LinkedIn premium allow you to see a full list of your profile views, but you’ll also discover how those people found your profile online. So, you’ll be able to personalize the way you contact these individuals quickly. That also makes it much easier to strengthen some of the pathways you’ll use to find recruiters.
Feature #4: InMail
Another great feature you’ll get when you become a LinkedIn premium member is full access to InMail. On LinkedIn, InMail is the personal messaging system most people use to communicate privately with each other. Also, InMail allows you to message people that are outside of your personal LinkedIn networks, which can be very helpful when you are trying to find a new job.
Most LinkedIn members place a lot of faith and trust in InMail because the likelihood of receiving a response from a recruiter through InMail is a lot higher than what you’ll get with traditional Email. Also, once you pay to have the LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium account, you’ll be able to InMail messages for free.
Feature #5: How You Rank
With LinkedIn Premium, another impressive feature you’ll get is called “How You Rank.” While basic members also have this feature, you’ll get more information if you sign-up for a LinkedIn Premium account. The How You Rank feature allows you to see how you compare to a few of your connections and gives you advice about how you can drive up your rankings.
Once you become a premium member on LinkedIn, you’ll get more information out of the How You Rank feature. With a premium membership, you’ll unlock the capability to view the top 100-plus rankings when you look for “professionals like you.”
Feature #6: Advanced Search
While basic LinkedIn members do have access to the advanced search feature, they only have access to this feature on a limited scale. If you have a premium LinkedIn account, then you can fine-tune your searches more efficiently so that you save time looking for the right types of jobs, and the right kinds of recruiters.
With the premium LinkedIn membership, the advanced search feature will allow you to look for people based on the size of a company, their seniority, a Fortune 500 ranking, and other search parameters. You won’t have a limited set of search parameters anymore, and that will make it significantly easier to find what you are looking for on Indeed.
Feature #7: Job Listing Breakdown
Another useful feature that you’ll get with a LinkedIn premium membership is the job listing breakdown. You can use this feature when you search for jobs. With the feature, you’ll be able to see how your fellow job applicants stand up to a level of experience, skills, and education. By being able to know the competition a bit, you’ll be able to figure out whether you should apply to a job or not, based on where you’d fall in the pool of applicants.
Feature #8: OpenLink Network
Once you sign-up for Linked In Premium, you’ll also be able to use the OpenLink Network feature. With OpenLink, anyone can contact you on LinkedIn without the need for an introduction or a connection. When you have a standard basic account on LinkedIn, you have to be connected to a person to contact them or obtain a connection using an introduction.
It might not be self-evident how this feature would benefit you yet. However, if you think about it, you’ll be more easily approachable by people, and you’ll also be able to approach people more easily with the use of the OpenLink Network. That can be invaluable when you are trying to make new networking connections that would lead to new employment opportunities.
Feature #9: Connecting with Executives
With LinkedIn Premium, you’ll also be able to connect with executives more easily. You’ll discover that many of the nation’s top business leaders will use several privacy settings on LinkedIn, making it a bit more challenging to reach them. That’s where you can use InMail. Since it’s a trusted way to connect with people on LinkedIn, you’ve got a higher chance that a potential employer will respond to you.
With a LinkedIn premium account, you can easily use InMail to facilitate connections to people you might not otherwise be able to interact with within your industry. Remember, you can receive as many InMail messages as you’d like with a basic account, but you can only send InMail messages if you have a premium membership. So, the importance of reaching out to well-known people in your industry and connecting with them becomes a real possibility once you’ve signed up for a LinkedIn premium account.
Feature #10: Higher Response Rate to InMail
If you’re searching around for a new job, you’ll love the fact that InMail has a higher employer response rate than traditional Email. Much of that has to do with the fact that people do trust InMail much more than your standard Email. While the response rate you’ll get will vary, most people feel that the response rate goes up when they use InMail as opposed to traditional Email.
With a LinkedIn Premium account, you’ll be able to send InMail messages easily. That can facilitate more connections and lead you to discover a new job more quickly.
Feature #11: Increase in Profile Views
Another reason why a LinkedIn premium account is worth signing up for is because of the increase in profile views you are likely to experience after you get your premium account. If you think about it, your profile reviews can impact how you connect with the right employer in several ways. If you’re able to facilitate more views, you’ll increase your chances of finding a new job dramatically.
Most recruiters will notice potential employees that have taken the time, trouble, and expense of getting a premium membership. That’s because applying for a premium membership makes you look much more formal about your professionalism and potential employment. So, it’s far more likely that a recruiter will look at a profile of somebody that’s paying for a premium account.
Using a LinkedIn Premium Account
So, is it worth it to use LinkedIn’s premium features? You probably won’t be able to assess your experience until you try the service. Keep in mind that if you’re planning on trying LinkedIn premium, you’ll also have to take the time to make a better profile. You can get a one-month free trial of LinkedIn premium, which is easy for you to set-up and try.
So, if you’re going to try LinkedIn Premium, we highly recommend that you sign-up for the trial, but some time and effort into developing your profile, and see how it works out. Once the test is over, you can assess whether or not continuing with LinkedIn Premium is beneficial to you so that you can justify the cost. If you don’t like it, you can go back to the free membership plan smoothly.
Keep in mind that if you are planning on using LinkedIn Premium to find a job, then those extra features that you get will only be useful if you are going to spend the time and effort using them. So, if you sign up for the Premium Job Seeker account, make sure you’ve got the time to test out the available services and try to use them. If you don’t, you’ll never know what feature you could have used to discover the job of your dreams.
Now that we’ve covered why LinkedIn Premium might be worth it for you, we’ll discuss why you should use LinkedIn Premium for your job search.
Why Use LinkedIn Premium for Your Job Search?
LinkedIn is such a valuable job search tool because it is the top professional social networking site in the world. It currently boasts about 133 million users, which are located in the United States alone. LinkedIn members can be located in over two hundred different countries and territories all around the globe. A recent Jobvite survey stated that at least 87% of recruiters utilize LinkedIn to find new employees.
Most students and professionals love using LinkedIn to network and find jobs. Recently, former U.S. President Barack Obama said that he would join LinkedIn so that he could find a job once his term was over. However, know that if you do plan on using LinkedIn Premium for your job search, then you’ll need to spend a little time learning how to get the most benefits out of LinkedIn Premium.
Using the features on LinkedIn Premium can help you cut back on time you spend searching for jobs by hours. Also, you’ll be put into contact with many recruiters, and you’ll be able to reach out to people more freely via InMail when you start using LinkedIn Premium. How can you make sure you’re getting the most out of your LinkedIn Premium account?
LinkedIn’s CEO recently appeared on CBS This Morning, and gave us three different ways we can maximize our use of LinkedIn:
- Make it a point to update your profile regularly.
- Be detailed about your current skills and your job objectives.
- Emphasize your recent experience.
How to Use LinkedIn Premium to Get a Job
While the CEO of LinkedIn makes three excellent points with his suggestions above, there is a lot more you can do with LinkedIn than what his above list demonstrates. If you want to get the most out of LinkedIn Premium, you’ll want to use LinkedIn Premium, following the tips we have for you below.
Maintain your profile so that it stays up-to-date.
We can’t stress the importance of keeping your profile up-to-date enough. That includes putting up a recent picture of yourself on your profile. If you have a profile picture on your LinkedIn page, you are fourteen times more likely to get those vital page views. If you also post your skills, you are thirteen times more likely to have profile views compared to those that don’t put their skills on their pages.
When you get into LinkedIn, you’ll see that there are over 45,000 different kinds of skills you can pick from and then place on your LinkedIn profile to make your profile stand out a bit more. If you want to get noticed and have people come to you, keep that profile updated, put a picture up, and make sure you’ve listed your essential skills.
Provide comprehensive information about skills and objectives.
If you plan on using LinkedIn Premium to seek out jobs, then you don’t want to omit anything when you start describing both your current skills and your objectives. You want to be as detailed as possible here, and keep your objective on the forefront.
For example, you can utilize your heading to emphasize your primary goal and then put your skills on your profile. Remember, you never want your profile to look like you haven’t updated it for a while. If your profile seems neglected, you’ll probably get passed up for those job opportunities.
Emphasize your recent experience.
When you go over your profile, make sure you emphasize your recent experience. You want your current knowledge to be very evident to every individual that stops by your page. That’s especially true if you are speaking with different connections and companies and trying to find a job.
Update your headline from time to time.
If you don’t have a headline on your LinkedIn profile, now is the time to make one. You want to make sure you have your photo up, your name, and the headline, which appears below your picture. Remember, these are the first things people see when they search, so that headline becomes crucial when you realize how you show up on LinkedIn searches.
To make the most out of your headline, you want to make your headline stand out as much as possible. Try to use your headline to highlight your experience or the type of job you might like to land. For example, you can say something like, “Marketing pro looking to connect with employees and recruiters.”
It’s better to use a clear headline and also lists what your objective on LinkedIn is. Avoid using dull headlines like “Marketing pro for ten years,” and instead highlight your goals on LinkedIn briefly with your headline.
Inform people of your availability.
You should also use your LinkedIn Premium profile to make sure people know about your availability. If you want to tell people you are looking for a new job, then do that with your profile. You can even do this in your headline, like “Marketing pro searching for a new career path.” With a headline like that, you’re letting people know you are available for work, and recruiters will be more likely to contact you directly.
Build your network.
With LinkedIn Premium, you’ll also be given many tools that will help you build your network, which can increase your chances of finding your next excellent job opportunity. You’ll want to use the extra tools and features that come with LinkedIn Premium to boost your exposure and make new connections. Since LinkedIn Premium makes it quite easy for you to connect with new people that are active in your industry, you’ll be able to find new opportunities more quickly.
Look into companies you like and follow them.
With LinkedIn Premium, you’ll be able to find companies with which you might want to work efficiently. Besides just finding the companies, you’ll also be able to follow them. When you first join LinkedIn Premium, consider forming a list of the different companies you might want to work for and follow them. If you stay on top of company news, you’ll know the next time the company will be hiring.
Take advantage of the Advanced Search feature.
With LinkedIn Premium, you’ll be able to get all of the significant benefits out of the Advanced Search feature. For starters, you can use advanced search to look at some of the companies with which you’d like to work. You can seek out connections this way and make a list. You can also try to contact people and make new connections based on the companies for which they work.
Once you’ve connected with people that already work for some of the companies you are interested in, you can start asking those new connections about company culture. You can also cultivate relationships with people who already work for the company. That way, you’ll know a few people that work for the business before you apply for a job there.
Final Thoughts
If you’re truly serious about capitalizing on LinkedIn to find your next job, then you should consider signing up for a LinkedIn Premium Job Seeker Account. For $29.99 monthly, you’ll get access to all of the premium features on LinkedIn. Plus, you’ll also be taken more seriously by recruiters on LinkedIn because they’ll know you are investing time and money into finding a new job.