King Recruit’s Covid-19 pledge is to help and support the Southwest business community during the crisis and beyond.

  • FOR INDIVIDUALS: We are here to provide advice and support to anyone who has been made redundant.
  • FOR BUSINESSES: We’ll support local businesses by reducing and extending our terms of business.
  • LATEST NEWS: We will be keeping you updated on what is happening across the Southwest in the employment market. SIGN UP for all of our latest news and FOLLOW US on LinkedIn.

You may be reading this at a time where you’ve been made redundant or you are concerned about your future.

Now is the time to take decisive action.

Aside from perfecting your CV, writing a great cover letter and smashing the interview, how else can you stand out from other applicants? It’s simple, LinkedIn. It’s as much as a site for careers as it is a networking site.

“Making an impactful LinkedIn presence could just be the decider between you and another candidate,” Says Helen Plumridge, MD of King Recruit.

Here are King Recruit’s top 5 pointers for making an impact on LinkedIn and ‘getting hired’


1. Fill in the blanks.

It sounds obvious but you would be surprised at how many LinkedIn profiles are missing some basic information. Go through your profile and fill in the blanks, your skills, your contact details and your career history.

Don’t forget to include a headline, this needs to be a one-liner that sums you up. The best use of the headline is to show your specialities or what you have to offer that sets you apart from other candidates. This one-liner is a great way to inject some personality into your page, remember it will be one of the first things recruiters will read on your page.

Your summary space on your LinkedIn page shouldn’t be a wasted space it’s another platform to show your personality! Write a couple of paragraphs about your key skills, your interests, any qualifications and different sectors and industries you have worked within. If there are any achievements or some great numbers you want to show off do so here. The summary box is a great opportunity for some visual representation of your accomplishments, use photos of awards or some of your work, a visual profile stands out against others without that representation.

Another key element to your profile is your picture, remaining an anonymous blue box isn’t the way forward. Choose a clear, friendly, and appropriately professional image. Appropriately professional can be different depending on your occupation and which companies you wish to work for. Unsure? Have a look at your competition or others that work for your top companies for inspiration.


2. Use LinkedIn like a CV

We touched upon your job history and your achievements above, but we can’t stress as to how important these details are and most of all ensuring your LinkedIn profile matches your CV!!!

Make sure that all your previous roles are in there and completed with your main duties and tasks. A great way to stand out is to make your standard duties into achievements, if you hit your sales targets add in the numbers, how did you stack up against the rest of your team, and were your targets met consecutively? Note again your accomplishments, any successful ad-hoc projects and training undertaken.

Any periods of unemployment should be listed in there too, if you took a career break to travel definitely don’t miss it out, these types of breaks show a lot about your character.

If you are looking for work at the moment state you are unemployed and looking for new opportunities, put the job title you desire as your job title and add seeking new opportunity in the company box. This ensures that when a recruiter or employer is searching for candidates with that job title you will show up.


3. Recommend and be recommended

Whenever you receive positive feedback on a project, or you get a commendation from a client ask them to recommend you on LinkedIn. Ask them to include in your recommendation what you achieved and how they found you to work with. Some great examples are very specific, they detail the project, turnaround times what you brought to the project and the reasons why you made it a success, they give the recruiter an insight into working with you.

In turn whenever you received a recommendation give one back. When you give you are more likely to receive.

Endorsements are another great way to show off your skillset. It’s much more impactful to have endorsements, it shows to potential employers not only do you think you have these skills others do too!


4. Connect but make them meaningful.

LinkedIn connections are great but too many or too few can have a negative impact on your LinkedIn presence. Too many, it looks like you connect with anyone and everyone and too few could mean you are closed off towards the idea of social media.

As a starting point, it’s suggested around 50 -100 connections is around the right amount. These can be made up of people you work with, people you know and people you get to meet through networking or events and connections through your current role.

Joining groups on LinkedIn is a great way to boost your career search. By joining groups relevant to your industry or profession you are connected to a wide range of people. These groups regularly have discussions and by joining in you are putting yourself in front of companies you want to work with.


5. Be active

If you are looking to get yourself noticed then get involved. Contribute to discussions, give praise, share your thoughts, be a cheerleader of yourself and of others.

If you blog then share your blog on your page and look for some interaction from your followers. Ask though-provoking questions and get a debate going. The more interactive you can be the better.

Make yourself a social media plan, as soon as you become inactive again you will fall from people’s minds. Try creating a succession of posts and schedule them throughout the month, Hootsuite is a great tool for putting posts out on your social media accounts.


CONTACT US.

King Recruit is an independently minded recruitment and search agency, covering Exeter and the whole of the South West. For ambitious companies and professionals alike – the core of our mission is to help drive your success.

If you’d like to speak to King Recruit by video or telephone interview advice, please call us on 01392 790725 or email enquiries@kingrecruit.com to arrange a convenient time. There is no obligation. King Recruit is making a Covid-19 pledge to help anyone who needs advice, support and guidance.

Follow us on LinkedIn for all of our up to date news and views from around the Southwest region


Other useful content in King Recruit’s Covid-19 pledge series:

King Recruit’s Redundancy Guidance

COVID-19: FAQ’S ON FURLOUGH

‘Get Hired’ – Improve your LinkedIn Profile

How to survive the 30 second CV scan – Compiling a great CV

6 reasons to use Zoom for interviews

“Acing” the video interview

Covid-19: 16 ways to get productive

Covid-19: Redefining your business goals