As a job seeker, you should ensure your digital persona reflects your professional image because that is where recruiters search for you. LinkedIn remains your best bet when it comes to getting hired through social media as less than 1% of technical recruiters source on tech sites such as GitHub.

Use LinkedIn to your advantage

Exporting your LinkedIn profile or sharing it with a link is a tempting shortcut for creating your CV, but easy seldom equals effective. Your exported list of past responsibilities and experiences may or may not be aligned with the recruiters’ requirements.

A more effective approach is to use your LinkedIn profile as a launchpad for a position-specific, customised CV tailored to convince recruiters that your skills and experience match their job requirements.

Exploit the almost infinite space LinkedIn offers to build a robust account of your skills, experience, qualifications, certifications, publications, and projects. Select and tweak the bits and pieces you feel are relevant to the job you are applying for to create your job-specific CV. Be sure to include a link to your LinkedIn profile on your CV so recruiters can discover even more about you.

Pro-tips for your LinkedIn profile

1. Make yourself easy to find by creating a customized URL for your LinkedIn profile.

2. Add a professional photo - it helps to put a face to a name.

3. Instead of displaying your job title in the headline under your name, insert something more reflective of what you do such as “Backend Engineer and Kotlin Evangelist”, or “iOS Developer | Swift |Objective-C | Cocoa”. This is what appears on Google searches of your name.

4. Add your blog, portfolio, or personal website that you want recruiters to see under your contact information. Remember to add your GitHub or other tech repositories to showcase your technical abilities.

5. Create a concise and memorable summary of who you are, what value you bring, and what drives you. Using relevant keywords emphasises your expertise and is invaluable for search engine optimization.

6. Add profile sections that support your skills, experience, and value. Use these to expand on the information on your CV such as projects, publications, patents, or even test scores.

7. Ask your LinkedIn contacts for endorsements or a recommendation to build your credibility and complement your formal references.

A well-constructed and professional LinkedIn profile is an invaluable source of information to recruiters – use it to your advantage!