Headhunters are always looking for new talent for their customers. High-performing executives are in high demand. To be noticed by a headhunter, you have to put yourself in his place. He spends a lot of time on LinkedIn and he has a specific position to fill quickly. He searches for such candidate profile and will consult your profile for less than a minute. You will need to demonstrate your skills and achievements in a few lines, a few titles and some company logos, if possible. Here are some tracks.
Stay focused on your skills
There are many private social networks, specialized professional networks or alumni networks that allow you to exchange with your peers. But today, if you want to progress in your career through a social network it is LinkedIn. This is where most of the headhunters’ research is concentrated.
In 2021, the Californian social network owned by Microsoft had more than 774 million accounts. We can talk about an ocean of skills compared to any other social network. It is normal for you to feel like a bottle in the sea. And like any bottle in the sea, it is the message it contains that is important. Fortunately, LinkedIn’s search engine allows the headhunter to “read the messages through the bottles.”
Of course, since it is a social media, each member has the opportunity to be proactive and join other members. This is what makes the network so successful. Everyone knows someone who knows someone.
In any case, your LinkedIn profile should summarize WHO you are and what you excel at. A headhunter will spend less than half a minute reading your profile and they will get an idea. Reading too much information will be as frustrating for him as not enough information. When it comes to social media, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making a profile for yourself. Think like a headhunter and stay focused on promoting your career.
Remember that at any point in your career path, it helps to have a conversation with a headhunter. Not just when you’re more actively looking for a new job.
Your LinkedIn profile can be presented more dynamically than your resume. This multimedia flexibility in presenting your skills can be an advantage, but also a disadvantage. All elements of your LinkedIn Profile must be consistent.
Link each section of your LinkedIn profile
From the point of view of a headhunter, here is the function of the different elements of your LinkedIn profile:
- Title
It is essential in the operation of search engines (therefore the search of the recruiter) and the support of keywords by algorithms. Be specific.
- Summary
The recruiter will read it quickly and from the first words this essential text must highlight your achievements.
- Coordinates
They must always be up to date and allow the headhunter to reach you easily.
- Experience and training
The information should be consistent with your CV and summary. Recruiters are often looking for specialized profiles. Go into the details.
- Skills
These elements will be very useful to the headhunter to judge your technical and behavioral skills (soft skills).
- Publications
Your posts have little interest in the headhunter unless they are directly related to your work.
- Photo
The photo is important and increases the potential visibility of your profile, without being supported by the search engine.
The three pillars of credibility
A headhunter spends a good part of his days analyzing profiles on LinkedIn. Since he consults a good hundred profiles every day, he can not dwell on all the details, but considers it essential that some details are there! Here are some practical tips to attract your attention and gain credibility, and therefore attractiveness.
Work experience
Be sure to indicate your title with the dates of employment. Don’t forget to put the end of employment dates. The headhunter also looks at the stability and coherence of the course. A candidate who changes jobs every year will be less appreciated.
Professional achievements
The headhunter likes the achievements to be summarized under your job title. This helps them quickly analyze whether you are a good candidate with the experience and skills required for the position they have in mind.
Academic training
The headhunter appreciates that the graduation dates are there. This allows him to see if you have studied in the sector of activity and if you have acquired other training during your professional career.
Does an executive’s LinkedIn profile have to be different?
In all cases, it is necessary to have a concern for consistency for the entire profile. What is different in the case of an executive?
A middle or senior manager will benefit from highlighting their achievements and career path. His role as a manager or strategist calls on specific qualities and therefore, if you are an executive executive, do not forget to highlight your soft skills.
Recruiters are often looking for mixed profiles, that is to say both specialized in a field and having demonstrated leadership qualities. These two factors combined are very attractive to them. To be spotted by headhunters, it is important to present all the richness of your course, especially if you are an executive.
Develop your professional network
You probably are already doing that. The fact that LinkedIn is a social media allows you to join people and groups and publish content. It is desirable to maintain your network to get noticed in your community.
Posts that will become popular, even viral, can help you rank higher in search results, while bringing you credibility in your industry. Indirectly, this could influence the choice of the headhunter to contact you for a first conversation. LinkedIn is a professional network. It’s up to you to judge what is relevant.
For the recruitment of an executive, it is more the presence of achievements and the style of personality will lead the recruiter on the trail of your skills.
Putting more keywords isn’t always better
LinkedIn works on several algorithms. The search algorithm for people in LinkedIn aims for relevance in search results and works in the following way.
First, when searching for profiles on LinkedIn, the algorithm ranks profiles that contain the keywords searched for in the profile geographic areas where they are searched. Inserting more keywords is not always wise and can be confusing. LinkedIn recommends Include only the keywords that best reflect your expertise.
Then, the search engine establishes a personalization of the results. Two members of the social network will have different results depending on their activity and their search history for example.
Contact headhunters directly
Why not? But this must be done tactfully.
You can contact headhunters only and only if your approach is targeted and relevant. You can send them spontaneous applications at any time via their website, which will allow them to integrate you into their databases.
Headhunters are always looking for good candidates. In the same vein, don’t forget to update your information as you develop your career or if you are taking training to improve your skills. This can pay off and accelerate your career development. Do not become too insistent in your efforts, as this would have a deterrent effect on the headhunter.
A headhunter by direct approach like Recruscope can help you boost your executive career. Do not hesitate to contact us and send your CV .
