BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Expert Tips For Using LinkedIn

This article is more than 10 years old.

When I wrote a story about LinkedIn back in April, I was struggling to grasp how the site could be useful to me personally, a baby boomer with a full-time job. Now I get it. LinkedIn gives me not only a place to display my work and credentials to colleagues but also a kind of passive invitation to recruiters and potential employers who might want to seek my services.

I also understand that I've so far only scratched the surface of what LinkedIn can do. People actively searching for jobs can make use of oceans of data that LinkedIn's 70 million users have created.

In Pictures: Expert Tips For Using LinkedIn

Video: Job Search 2.0

For more advanced advice on how to use LinkedIn to find a job, I got back on the phone with Krista Canfield, a spokeswoman at the Mountain View, Calif., company. She offered a number of suggestions.

First, she showed me how to search geographically for contacts who work in the human resources departments of companies. At the top right-hand corner of the screen, next to the search box, click on the word "Advanced." That takes you to an "Advanced People Search." On the right-hand side of the screen, in the "Title" box, type either "HR" or "human resources." Below the title, there's a drop-down menu where you choose "Current."

Your next move is to narrow that search by location, which you do on the left-hand side of the screen. You might stick close to home, or, if you're open to relocating, cast the net wide. Just below location, you can choose an industry to narrow down to.

I admit that while Canfield was laying out this strategy I was skeptical. Would anyone really find a job through a cold connection to someone in H.R.? But that's the point of LinkedIn. You're looking for a link through someone you know. I'm afraid I didn't come up with much when I tried this method, checking off "newspapers," "online media" and "writing and editing" as my industries. It seems I'm not connected to any H.R. people at companies where I'd want to work. This exercise reconfirmed how important it is to keep adding to your list of connections. The more you connect, the exponentially greater the chance you'll link to someone who can help you find a job.

To refine this approach, Canfield suggested entering the name of a specific company, just below the title box where you wrote "human resources" or "HR." Ideally, a list will come up with little blue numbers next to the names at the top of the list. If "2nd" appears next to a name, click on that name, and on the right side of the screen you will see who among your connections links to that person. I tried a couple of companies, like Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, and met with no success, but perhaps if I had more connections this would work for me. Canfield also suggested using the title "recruiter" and the company name.

Next Canfield suggested a tactic to use if you're thinking of changing your whole career. In the title box, put your dream profession or dream title. You can gather all sorts of information this way. You can pore over the profiles of people who have your dream job now and consider how they got there. If you share a connection, then you have an excuse to send them a quick e-mail, preferably with your mutual connection's name in the subject line, and suggest you go for coffee or have a phone chat.


You can also use LinkedIn to follow what's happening at companies where you'd like to work. Go to the gray bar at the top of any LinkedIn page. Hover your cursor over the word "More" at the center of it, and click on the word "Companies." Once you enter your company of choice, you'll get all sorts of info, including a list of current and former employees and new hires to whom you may have connections. All of these connections present networking opportunities. If there are a lot of new hires, that means the company is in expansion mode, Canfield points out. Information on this page can also provide fodder for questions you might want to ask in an interview, should you get your foot in the door.

At the top of the page, under the search box, you can click on a link that says, "Follow company." That will feed you news about new hires, promotions and departures, which will appear directly on your LinkedIn home page.

Finally, a piece of advice that didn't come from Canfield: Stay in touch with your network. I spent July 4 weekend with a pair of successful thirtysomething design and media professionals who told me how they make maximum use of LinkedIn. One of them, Jennifer Gormley, a designer who's also the mother of a 19-month-old, has a lucrative business doing freelance projects. When she's ready to take on new work, she runs through her list of LinkedIn contacts and sends out short personal notes, letting potential clients know she's open for business. Her husband, Matthew Rechs, who left a high-level job at a digital marketing agency last year with a nice package, is getting ready to go back to work. He's currently juggling three or four serious job discussions. He found all of them using the same strategy--running through his LinkedIn list and letting his connections know he's around.

In Pictures: Expert Tips For Using LinkedIn