The job market is getting more competitive each year. If you are noticing that finding the right job and getting hired is now more challenging than ever, you are not alone. But did you know that you don’t need to spend months trying to land that ideal position, and instead fantastic job opportunities can start chasing you? When you’re working with a headhunter, that is exactly what will happen. But how to get headhunters to notice you? Here are 7 tips that will get you on every headhunter’s radar.
It’s no secret that LinkedIn is the most popular tool for recruiters to find candidates for open positions. No matter which industry you are working in, LinkedIn is your best bet of landing a great job at a top company outside of referrals. However, in order to land you the job, your LinkedIn page must be carefully filled in and regularly updated. It’s not enough to simply list your qualifications and experience — you will also need to fill it with relevant keywords. You can take the right keywords from job descriptions at the companies you would like to join. When you think your LinkedIn profile is perfect, don’t forget to upgrade it several times a year with new career information about yourself.
If you haven’t considered developing your personal brand to improve your career prospects, now is the right time! Your personal brand includes all the things that characterize you from a professional point of view. Now that the vast opportunities of the Internet are at our complete disposal, building and strengthening your personal brand is easier than ever. You need to make sure that when people Google your name, the results the come up are exactly what you want them to see. If you want that information changed, use content marketing and SEO.
While you’re waiting for headhunters to discover you online, you can waste no time in being proactive and searching for the headhunters on your own. You don’t even need to leave LinkedIn to do it! The method of looking for headhunters depends on the type of job you want. If you know which company you want to work for, you can search for the list of their employees on LinkedIn and then find who is responsible for recruitment or scouting the talent. In case you only know the industry where you want to work and not the specific company, you can look for headhunting agencies on LinkedIn or Google.
An active online presence is one of the top requirements in a modern job search market. While it’s essential to focus your efforts on LinkedIn, since it’s where most of the professional communication takes place, you also shouldn’t ignore other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. Even Pinterest can be very helpful for getting your name out there and meeting people from your industry if you’re using it the right way! With the help of social media, you can build your professional network, meet some amazing like-minded personalities, be the first one to know about new job openings, and get a few steps closer to your dream job.
While some professionals can get away with only having profiles on social media, others need more opportunities to stand out. A personal website offers you lots of additional opportunities for getting discovered by the headhunters. First, it’s the ideal place for hosting your portfolio, whether it’s writing, graphics, programming, or other content. Second, your personal website will likely contain your personal blog, which will give the headhunters an insight into your personality and will serve as your advantage in the hiring process. Third, a website is essential for building a personal brand — since it will be one of the first things people discover when Googling your name, you can completely change your representation online with the help of a website.
Since it’s very likely that the headhunters won’t contact you immediately with a job offer and will instead establish contact with you first, the things you say on social media and on your personal website have a crucial effect on the way you perceived as a professional. One of the big no-no’s of the career world is saying negative things about your current or past employer. These things should never be made public and they can damage your chances of landing the job. Obviously, posting controversial statements, online feuds, odd photographs, and other questionable content on your social media is also not the best way to portray yourself as a professional on the Internet. If you want to get noticed by the headhunters, write every word on your social media with caution.
Once you do everything to make your professional social media profiles attractive to the headhunters, you will likely receive offers and other queries on a daily basis. Your job is to react to them the right way. If you want to accept the offer, do it in a professional manner. If you are not satisfied with the offer for any reason, the worst thing you can do is just ignore it. If you leave the offer unanswered, you can rest assured you won’t get any more offers from this headhunter. Chances are, they will spread a word about your behavior in the headhunting community and you will receive fewer and fewer offers. The best solution here is to politely decline the offer but express the desire to stay in touch.