LinkedIn, the professional social network, has become an essential part of many professionals‘ working lives. In 2020, it had 690 million registered members, and by 2023, that number has grown to 875 million members and 57 million registered companies. For many people, especially headhunters, LinkedIn is of vital importance.

What specifically makes LinkedIn so important to headhunters?



Although the principle of a headhunter’s work remains essentially unchanged – direct and discreet approaching of candidates and presentation of suitable candidates to clients – LinkedIn has significantly facilitated the process of finding potential candidates. LinkedIn provides information about who is working where and in what position, which is particularly crucial in the first stage of the process of filling a position, i.e. the ‚search phase‘.

In recent years, LinkedIn has become the primary source for finding candidates for almost any position that a headhunter fills. The online era brought about by the onset of the covid-19 pandemic has further contributed to this.

But even today, in the age of modern technology, when everything is clearly dominated by AI and sophisticated digital tools, LinkedIn still remains the primary source of information for most headhunters and does not serve now as a „method“ of hunting.

 

Key aspects of a candidate profile on LinkedIn

When viewing the profiles of potential candidates, Headhunter focuses on the career facts of the LinkedIn profile owner.

What work accomplishments he or she has had, where he or she studied, what experience and knowledge he or she has. From the knowledge on LinkedIn, it tries to determine in the first stage whether or not he or she is a good fit for the position being filled. Therefore, it is definitely a good idea if the profile contains enough information so that the headhunter can read everything they need from it.

LinkedIn is still perceived as a professional network and the information provided here should be professional and supported by facts. Every LinkedIn user (and therefore a possible candidate for a position in the future) should always ask themselves whether the information on their profile is accurate, sufficient and whether a headhunter could even get a complete picture of their job skills and abilities from it. If not, they should start caring more about their Linkedin profile.

But here too, it’s important not to overdo it.

On the other hand, a profile whose owner has tried to „make it much more better“ or they try too much be different, or which contains too much inconsistent or irrelevant information, can sometimes discourage Headhunter.

Reaching candidates on LinkedIn

The most common way Headhunter reaches out to candidates on LinkedIn is through an invitation to „connect“. If a candidate accepts an invitation on LinkedIn, and is willing to provide Headhunter with their phone number or email in addition, it can make the entire communication and recruitment process extremely fast.

However, if a candidate resists the offer to connect for a long time, it is possible to send him a private message with a short explanation of why we are asking for the connection, and in the meantime, it is possible to look for other opportunities to connect directly with the candidate through online resources or other personal contacts. However, as Headhunters, we never include specific information about the position and the client in our messages.

It’s also very important to monitor the responses of those you reach out to for job postings via LinkedIn. However, when Headhunter sends invitations to connect and replies to messages explaining the reason for the connection request, we, as Headhunters, receive mostly positive responses. People seem open to new opportunities and are happy to learn about the possibilities we can offer them.

In terms of LinkedIn users themselves, it is not uncommon for Headhunters to approach us with job placement requests. Almost daily we receive many requests for help in finding a job, not only from people in the Czech Republic, but also from candidates from all over Europe who are interested in working in the Czech Republic.

The best Headhunters recommendations for LinkedIn candidates

When looking for a new job, it is important to have a well-developed LinkedIn profile.

Candidates should update their profile regularly to include relevant information from the last 5-7 years, their work history, and updates on education, training or certifications. Marking your profile photo with an „Open to Work“ graphic is also a useful tool for us.

The next step is to keep track of companies that are interesting or significant in the industry.

Following these companies allow job seekers to receive updates and offers directly in their email. It is important for active job seekers to keep a record of their responses to advertised positions, including dates and specific companies.

Before submitting resume and responding to an advertisement, it is important to carefully read the requirements of the employer and self-critically evaluate whether you as candidate meet the requirements.

It is still true that fortune favours the brave, but too much „boldness“ may not be always the best option and on the contrary may harm you in the future when you have enough experience but the door is already closed in the company.

As Headhunters, we quite often come across profiles that are set up on purpose. There are passive profiles, with no photos, no posts, they don’t respond to calls to connect, they don’t respond to messages.  Most of the time these profiles are set up with the purpose of having access to the other LinkedIn profiles and their data.

Also, we often come across two or three profiles of one participant who sets up a profile at the company address and when he changes location, i.e. changes his e-mail address, he does not access, update or delete the profile. This creates so-called „dead souls“.

But LinkedIn has been working on eliminating these dead souls for several months now, eliminating these profiles and deleting inactive accounts, and in the future this should definitely help us active users to have a little better overview of who is actually following us.