10 New LinkedIn Features To Help Your Job Search
LinkedIn rolls out many new features throughout the year. Yet, because communication about them is not easily found, it is very easy to miss them or stumble on something and say to yourself, “is that new?”
For job seekers, some great new tools were introduced in 2022 that may help you as you seek work. Here are some of the best new LinkedIn features for job seekers to use.
Notification That Someone Is Following You On Their Profile
LinkedIn allows members to connect with each other or follow each other. It has been difficult to quickly see if a specific individual is following you. On the desktop version only, you can go to My Network icon, click on People I Follow, and then click on [Number] Followers to view a list of followers. But there is no search availability, so depending on your number of followers, it is of no use to identify if a specific person is a follower.
Now, you can see if a person is a follower right on their profile AND when they started following you.
The blue button (like below) will indicate they are following you, and you can follow back by tapping on it. Still, there is now an indicator in the Highlights section with the notification that the person is following you and the month and year they started following.
Hint: If someone is following you that you would like to connect with, reach out to them, noting that they are a follower and that you would like to deepen the relationship by making them a connection.
Add a Link
Adding links to a post has always been somewhat problematic on LinkedIn. While LinkedIn has always said it doesn’t penalize having external links in a post, it does seem that when a link is in a post, the reach of the post is less. This may be a function of people going off LinkedIn to the site and therefore never coming back and engaging with the post.
LinkedIn has now rolled out a feature that should help posters that want to add links to their content. For job seekers, this could be a link to a personal website, other social media sites (such as YouTube for a video), or a site where you have been featured in an article, for example. This feature allows for a new tab to open up, but it is available only on Mobile, and you can add links only to a post image or video. A recent addition to this is that you can also add a profile or a company page (still mobile only).
More Information About a Profile
Like any social media platform, there are scammers out there. How can you tell if a profile is fake or real? LinkedIn now provides more tools for a member to use to get an idea if the profile is legitimate.
Let’s take the profile below. It looks pretty generic.
What you can now do is go to the More (Desktop) or three dots menu (Mobile) and click or tap
Then you will get information about the profile.
When they joined LinkedIn
When their contact information was last updated
When their profile photo was last updated
Whether their work e-mail or phone number has been verified
Auto Captions on Video
Video on LinkedIn is a great way to develop your personal brand as a job seeker. Yet up until October 2022, the LinkedIn application did not natively add captions. You had to go to a third-party video editor to add captions, which was too much trouble for many people. Yet captions are important for accessibility and because many people want to view videos on mute and read the captions.
Now LinkedIn will allow you to add captions to your videos, and you can do this on Desktop or Mobile. You will see a CC icon at the bottom of the screen. Click or tap on it, and you will be asked whether you want LinkedIn to post the video with captions without you reviewing it first or if you would like to have an opportunity to edit them. If you want to edit them first, I have found that you sometimes have to reload the page to see the generated captions. You only get one opportunity to make edits, so ensure your review and edits are thorough.
Create a Job Alert For A Targeted Company Made Easier & Subscribe to a Company Page
So you are interested in a company that has a page on LinkedIn. You go to the Jobs area, and maybe you don’t see the right job, but you want to be alerted when the right job is posted.
Now you can set up an alert right from the Jobs area of a company page.
If you follow a page, you will also get the option to turn on post notifications from the company. This can be handy for tracking company news.
Scheduling Posts
Members have been asking for a native post scheduler, and now LinkedIn has brought this out as a feature. This can be helpful if you like to write posts in advance and would like to queue them up for publishing without you having to remember to post them at a certain time. This should never replace you being accessible at the time of posting to respond to comments. You need to do that to encourage engagement and visibility on LinkedIn.
To schedule a post, add your text or media, and click or tap on the clock icon. You will then be asked to put in a date and time.
Networking Tab Added to Events
Want to be able to network with people that have similar interests? LinkedIn has made it easier with the recent addition of a networking area with live events broadcasts. You can message any attending and view their profile, even if they are not in your network.
Hint: If you are attending a live event, it can be helpful to introduce yourself at the beginning of the broadcast with a bit about yourself and where you are from. Not only will the attendees see this, but so with the host, which is a great way to get noticed and potentially develop relationships.
Meet the Hiring Team
On the page with the job details, you will find the name(s) of people designated as part of the hiring team. This information is near the top of the listing. You will see information on the level of connection, part of the headline, and the number of connections with a clickable link to get the full list. You will also be able to message the person directly from this page.
This allows applicants to understand who is on the team, including the Job Poster, Hiring Manager, and Team Members. It also shows the mutual connections (including 2nd-degree connections) between the applicant and the hiring team to help facilitate a productive conversation. A template will populate a message, but I suggest that you edit the template to add information relevant to your candidacy that shows value to the hiring team member.
Skills Assigned to Jobs, Degree Programs, or Credentials
The skills section has always been at the bottom of the profile and often overlooked. LinkedIn has made the skills area more relevant by letting members assign skills to positions in their work history, their education, and credentials areas.
An easy way to do this is to click/tap on the pencil to edit your Skills section and then click/tap on a specific skill. You will see a check box next to all your positions, education areas, and certifications. You can then select all that are appropriate for that skills.
This can help Recruiters and Hiring Managers understand your transferable skills.
Adding a Career Break to Work History
Many people have had a career break to stay home with children, care for a family member, or relocate with a partner. LinkedIn now has a way for you to indicate what you were doing during an obvious gap in your work history.
Here is the list of career breaks available to you:
Bereavement
Career Transition
Caregiving
Full-time parenting
Gap year
Layoff/Position eliminated
Health and well-being
Personal goal pursuit
Professional development
Relocation
Retirement
Travel
Voluntary work
You can put in a location, start and end date, description, and any media.
Hint: It is helpful to add any learning you have done or experiences you have gained that may show additional value to an employer.
LinkedIn is ever-evolving, and this year has added close to 100 new features for members. It is good to be aware of the new features that are available to you that may help you in your job search. Using them may get you seen and potentially, as a result, new and exciting opportunities.
Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.
