Who cares?
If you want a job more quickly, you should.
Think about it…if you know how recruiters search for candidates, don’t you think you could reverse engineer your resume and LinkedIn profile so when they conduct searches, there is a greater chance of finding you?
Okay, how do recruiters find candidates?
Glad you asked. Recruiters and Talent Acquisition Managers have a “requisition.” You would call it your job title. Whether on a Job Board or LinkedIn they start a search by typing the job title then add 3-5 sets of keywords or “long tailed strings” of keywords to get a manageable number of results. They are looking for 20-25. Think about how many people in your area have the same job title as you. Are recruiters finding you or are they finding someone else for your job?
To reverse engineer your profile (and resume) to get found, you need to start with your desired job title as stated in the headline section, but you want to use a job title that recruiters might actually look for in a job search.
What do you mean…that they would actually ‘look for’?
A lot of people have lousy headlines and don’t use a title that recruiters would search for. Is your desired job title good or bad? To find out, all you need to do is conduct a search for your title. Are there many jobs posted nationally? Are there many people with the same job title? If the answer is no to either of those questions, you might want to rethink your headline and job title. Translate what you have called it in the past to what it’s called widely.
Here are a few examples of bad headlines and job titles (I’m not making these up):
- “Founder”…when I searched for jobs for founders there was a whopping total of 117 nationally, gulp!
- “Jill of All Trades”…There were two more posted jobs than I expected to find; I found two.
- “Strategic Thinker | Team Player | Proven Leader” Are you serious?
- “Marketing Manager”
Hey, what’s wrong with the title of Marketing Manager?
LinkedIn has 4474 jobs posted for Marketing Managers!
Nothing is wrong per se, but those are the only two words (17 characters used out of 220 available to you) in the person’s headline and the headline seems to carry the heaviest weight in the LinkedIn algorithm leaving 203 characters on the table.
So what?
Think of job search like fishing. If you want to catch a fish, or want to catch a job, you need something on the end of your line; you need bait. And in a job search your bait is a combination of your desired job title and keywords that you want to get found for.
What do you mean?
Hang with me a minute…Instead of just Marketing Manager, let’s change your headline to read as below. Up from only 17 characters, the new headline uses 214 of 220 available):
Marketing Manager | New Product Launch | Data Analytics | Search Engine Optimization | Content Creation | Brand Management | Business Development | Strategy | Market Research | Public Relations | Digital | Pharmaceutical
Now let’s test this idea.
Like recruiters, I have a huge network and am connected to over 3.7 million marketing managers globally, with 92,000+ Marketing Managers in the greater New York City area. If the recruiter (me) searched for Marketing Managers who also have a strong background in data analytics, brand management, business development, and market research in the Greater New York City area, I would come up with 288 people. And if I limited that search to just people in the pharmaceutical industry, I would come up with 24 results.
Wow! From 3.7 million down to 24!
Right! Your headline isn’t the only thing you need to optimize to get found by recruiters, but it’s a big part. All my clients go through the process I call “Words-to-Work.” They get found by recruiters more often!
Get Found!
Get interviewed!!
Get HIRED!!!
And don’t forget, in this season of job transition and searching, we can always look to scripture for encouragement. Matthew 5:45 says “…He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.” You may feel like the rain is falling on you like a tsunami, but the sun will shine again!
Al Smith is a Career Coach, Head of Job Networking at Unity North Atlanta Church, long-time volunteer at Roswell UMC Job Networking, keynote speaker and author of two job search books including the Amazon #1 Bestselling, HIRED! Every Employment Method.
Website: thehiredguy.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alsmithhired
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