Being the world’s largest business networking platform, LinkedIn is a great social media tool for professionals to interact, share insights, and network with one another. But what truly makes LinkedIn so powerful is when it’s used as a search engine for jobs. In this guide, we are going to discuss why you should use LinkedIn for your job search.

Whether you’re graduating soon or a career change is on the cards for you, you can use LinkedIn to your advantage to find your dream job.

LinkedIn gives job seekers a fantastic opportunity to promote themselves and find the right position with various profile settings to attract recruiters and potential employers and the ability to apply for jobs directly on the platform.

Not yet convinced? Here are my top reasons for using LinkedIn to bolster your job search.

More than just a CV

When you submit your CV to recruiters or potential employers, you provide them with a very limited view of who you are and your experience.

LinkedIn takes this a step further by allowing you to paint a broader picture. Look at it like this, LinkedIn is your own personal website. A place where you get to showcase who you are and what you can do.

The platform gives you various sections that you can fill out to give people a better understanding of who you are and the value you can bring to your next role.

For example, your LinkedIn profile lets you do more than simply list your previous work experience. It also gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself with an about section, and you can include all kinds of details under each job entry.

Recruiters and companies can also see your past achievements, educational background, and what kind of role you’re looking for.

While your CV should be tailored to the specific job you are applying for, you can use your LinkedIn profile to reach a larger audience.

Top tip: Make sure every aspect of your LinkedIn profile is completed in detail.

Filters to find the right fit

There are plenty of job websites out there that let you search for jobs based on specific search terms that you enter. LinkedIn, however, allows you to get a lot more specific and targeted in your job search.

Unlike most job websites, you can use LinkedIn’s job search filters to get really specific about the job you’re searching for.

You can search for jobs based on the following:

• Particular companies you are interested in.
• The date the job ad was posted.
• The experience level of the job.
• Types of employment such as contract or permanent.
• How easy it is to apply for the role.
• The location of the job and whether you want to work remotely, hybrid, or on-site.
• The industry the business is in.
• Job functions.
• Job titles.
• Ads that have fewer than 10 applicants.

As you can see from the list above, LinkedIn allows you to really narrow down your job search so that you are only applying for positions that are the best fit for you.

Top tip: Click on ‘All Filters’ when you search for a job on LinkedIn to view all the available filters.

LinkedIn Learning for career success

An added tool that LinkedIn offers is called LinkedIn Learning. This is essentially an online learning platform that offers a variety of courses taught by industry experts.

Most of the courses are based on software, creative, and business skills, but there are some courses that fall outside of these categories that you may also find interesting.

The wonderful thing about LinkedIn learning is that once you have completed a course, the certification becomes a part of your education history on your profile. You can also share a post about it.

I work with year 12 students, undergraduates, and experienced professionals by showing them how to use LinkedIn to land the job of their dreams. If you’re interested in learning how to use LinkedIn for your job search and creating a profile that gets you noticed, visit my website to get in touch. I’d love to tell you more about how you can use LinkedIn to promote yourself and get the job you deserve.