Article: LinkedIn is at its best when you know exactly what you want to do, and just need to find the right people to talk to. Spend the most time making sure your profile has a concrete list of your achievements and notes the special skills, qualifications, publications and such that you have. If you have been quoted in the press, have a patent, or have a similar "wow" in your background, state it on your profile. Lying on a resume is never a good idea, but it is worse in LinkedIn. Potential employers can use your own LinkedIn connections to check up on you. Do not worry too much about filling out the recommendations and skills on your LinkedIn profile. Employers pretty much discount recommendations as being sappy and always positive. The skills are only useful for keyword searches. Building out your profile with the right skills can on occasion make highly qualified jobs come to you, instead of the usual other way around. It is still unlikely to get hit up out of the blue for a job, but it can happen. It mostly happens to people who have specific skills an employer is looking for. You can simply go to the Jobs tab on LinkedIn to find jobs that may fit your preferences. LinkedIn job postings are helpful, and you should look for them. Compared to free message boards, they tend to have higher quality jobs, and it is very unlikely that you would find anything unsavory or dangerous. Still, they are "just a job board." LinkedIn searching is best if you have a specific skill that an employer is hiring for. You may find an employer looking for someone exactly like you. Job seeker premium is best for helping you find specific people and/or specific companies. It costs between USD$20 - USD$50 per month. Job seeker premium lets you see the names of people at companies you might be interested in. Better yet, it lets you contact them directly via LinkedIn messaging (known as InMail.) LinkedIn gives you only a few of these premium messages a month, so it is useful if you know exactly what you are looking for. The other benefits of Job Seeker premium are not as helpful. Getting a badge as a Featured Applicant can actually be counterproductive, since recruiters might see it as you being desperate. So, again, better if you are looking for a specific position rather than just looking around. If you are looking for a job where there are a large number of people with similar skills (example: sales, office manager, CPA), you may find LinkedIn less effective. For these kinds of less specific jobs, the key to using LinkedIn is to target specific companies you might want to work for, or use it to find people in your network to contact.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Know when LinkedIn can help you find a job. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is accurate, updated, and showing you in the best light. Know that an up-to-date profile can bring the jobs to you. Find jobs posted on LinkedIn. Consider signing up for LinkedIn Job Seeker premium. Use LinkedIn differently for jobs that are less specific.