Andela Webinars: How to improve your visibility on LinkedIn to attract global companies

At Andela, we’re committed to building remote engineering teams with the world’s top talent, matching technologists with some of tech’s most exciting organizations.  And to ensure we’re successful in connecting brilliance with opportunity, we offer insights, advice and learning opportunities to help technologists improve their chances of finding their next dream role.

LinkedIn is an essential tool for any technologist, showcasing their skills, experience and expertise to a global community of potential employers.

Over the course of two webinars, held in Portuguese and Spanish,  we asked two of Andela’s experts to offer insights into how you can improve your profile’s visibility on LinkedIn to attract international companies.

Gabriela de Luca, Head of Talent Acquisition at Andela, offers tips from her personal experience in the field and working for Andela, while Romina Mezzabolta, a Technical Recruiter at Andela, provides information about often unexplored LinkedIn features that can be extremely useful to get the attention of international companies.

Navigating LinkedIn – Gabriela de Luca

To begin the process of refining your LinkedIn profile, it is important to make the most out of LinkedIn tools and features. However, Gabriela emphasizes that one of the main issues people face in the planning stage of redeveloping their page is that they tend to get overwhelmed by the amount of information and functions that this platform regularly introduces to users. With constant updates and new tools, it can take a while to familiarize yourself with the platform.

Gabriela comments that it is essential not to lose sight of the three basic aspects of the website/app:

People search tool: One of the most neglected tools that LinkedIn offers is the “people search bar” at the top of the LinkedIn home page. This box is especially useful as not only can you search for colleagues and possible future employers, but it allows others to find and contact you! LinkedIn can also send you notifications whenever someone views your profile, allowing you to analyze your views and make new connections.

Networking: Similar to the search tool, the networking process is something that can be used to maximize a user’s visibility. LinkedIn has implemented an algorithm that suggests similar contacts to your recently added ones. More connections equals more job opportunities that can be shared by colleagues.  

Job search tool: Just like the contact search bar, this option allows users to search for vacancies by using specific keywords. Additionally, within this option, it’s possible to create “job alerts” based on those keywords and then receive notifications whenever a job opening under that category is posted. LinkedIn also uses an algorithm that recommends employment opportunities with similarities to recently searched ones.

With this in mind, it is now time to incorporate one of LinkedIn’s fundamental pillars: keywords.

Keywords: What they are and how to use them

Whenever a user is trying to search for certain industries, it’s important to be familiar with the correct terminology. One of Gabriela’s main recommendations is to use the industries that you’re interested in as a blueprint to create keywords. It’s also important to create your profile in the language used by your desired companies.

Keywords enable and support LinkedIn algorithms by helping to gather, articulate and categorize information submitted by users. If you’re looking for a job as a software developer, those two keywords will gather information related to your job hunt. The one downside is you may also encounter pieces of information that aren’t quite so useful, yet connected to those same keywords. Therefore, keywords can either be a shortcut or a detour on the path to creating a fruitful network.

How to increase your profile visibility

Keywords not only play a major role in kick-starting algorithms, but they’re also the final destination of that process. As such, these tools are the backbone of your LinkedIn profile and, specifically, they have to be integrated into the following section of your page:

• Background summary.
• Education information.
• Skill set.
• Profile’s URL.
• Interests.
• Recommendations.
• User’s connections.

Where to start?

Gabriela acknowledges that editing and refining your LinkedIn profile can be an arduous task. Nevertheless, she also recognizes that there are ways to ease yourself into an effective visibility modification process. Among the choices, the “version system” is one of the most time-efficient. The objective of this system is to create a workflow that not only makes the editing much more accessible, but also more keyword-optimized. Usually, this system is divided into three steps:

V0: Background summary, setting a profile picture, and choosing a location. It’s particularly important to pay attention to the location you select on your profile, since while it is useful to pick one that matches with a potential work opportunity, it is also crucial to have in mind the permits and restrictions regarding jobs in different countries. Regarding the background description, it has to incorporate the most important keywords from the very beginning to increase your profile visibility. Lastly, uploading a profile picture not only makes the profile look more polished, but also fulfills the “finished” aspect of the profile, which makes it seem more professional. In this section, it is also important to implement keywords while filling in the information concerning your career path, education, skill set and experience, as well as languages spoken.

V1: Catchy headline. While the last section aims to boost the visibility of the profile by using keywords, the intention of this one is to use phrases that differentiate your profile from your competition. It is essential to have a punchy and short headline that captures your experience, to help you stand out from the crowd. Mention some key skills and achievements that can showcase you to potential employers. Incorporate keywords into your URL, to enable employers to find your profile as they search. Finally, do not forget to click the option “open to”, so that talent acquisition specialists know that they are seeking a new role.

V2: Networking process. You need to make connections that help make you more visible to recruiters. You can create these connections by searching for people you know in the search bar tool, by their name or company. It is also possible to use “hashtags” to explore relevant topics on your field posted by future connections.

Iterating: Putting a visible profile into good use

Editing a profile on LinkedIn based on the “version system” is useful, but “iteration” is essential. Gabriela defines iteration as interacting with companies and potential colleagues to gather information and refine your profile. Using companies and job openings as benchmarks allows you access to their employees’ profiles, as well as the ability to check their specific requirements and use them to adapt your profile to meet their expectations, making it accessible, attractive and convenient.

Utilizing hidden features on LinkedIn – Romina Mezzabolta

In her webinar, Romina Mezzabolta suggested taking a closer look at the features which you’re already likely to be familiar with to tap into their full potential, rather than just trying to build superficial knowledge of new tools.

LinkedIn: Unexplored wonders

Headlines: Romina points out that some important tools that go frequently unnoticed in this section are “hashtags”. Here, candidates normally focus on describing their professional information. However, including hashtags is an excellent way of optimizing keywords and attracting new connections.  

Profile pictures: A picture where you are alone, with good lighting, a neutral background, oriented to a professional social network, can make all the difference. According to the information provided by LinkedIn, having a profile picture can increase nine times the number of connections, generate twenty times more profile visualizations and make the user receive thirty-six more messages.

About: The importance of filling in this section should be clear by now, as it is the first contact a recruiter will have with a profile. However, an often-neglected aspect of this process is how this information should be presented. Besides keeping it short, Romina recommends writing in the first person when drafting personal information, which can create the effect of having a one-on-one conversation with potential colleagues or employers.

Highlights: Another aspect that tends to be overlooked when creating a LinkedIn profile is the “highlight section”. Users can take advantage of the visual interface of this section to incorporate short text and attractive images that showcase their most important achievements. Every piece of information included in this area has a “drag button” that allows you to move and rearrange highlights by relevance over time.

Activity: As a social network, LinkedIn allows users to create posts – whether they contain pictures or text – as well as the interaction with other users’ publications. The activity section functions as a summary of your timeline, as well as featuring your interactions with your network. As a result, it’s extremely useful to use this feature to highlight your interests that can appeal to talent acquisition experts.

Skills and endorsements: While a lot of users are aware of the fact that they can add a set of skills and endorsements from previous colleagues, a great number of users are unaware of the possibility of combining those two options. LinkedIn allows you to request and provide reviews on every specific skill listed on a profile, which makes it more specific and, therefore, more professional. To emphasize the importance of this section, Romina states that, from her professional experience as a recruiter, candidates with at least five skills on their profiles are 27 times more likely to appear in searches.

Downloading a LinkedIn profile as a CV and uploading a CV to a LinkedIn profile: A feature that can both help you save time and optimize your profile. Uploading an extended CV to LinkedIn can be especially useful for those with visual or long-format portfolios.  

Personalizing job preferences: To ensure that your profile is getting views from companies that fit your needs, it is crucial to use the extensive number of filters that LinkedIn has made available to customize vacancy expectations. Some of the filters included are “part-time jobs”, “on-site jobs”, and “location”.

Groups: Maximize your network by being part of relevant groups in your field. They are a great chance to connect with potential colleagues that, otherwise, could be out of your reach. Additionally, these spaces tend to be fertile environments to obtain job-hunting tips and information about education opportunities.

“Incognito” job searching: If you’re currently employed, but are considering changing jobs, then this is the perfect feature for you: by activating this filter, LinkedIn will prevent your profile from appearing on your company’s recruiting searches.

LinkedIn help section: Lastly, if you ever need to recapitulate or get more detailed information about LinkedIn’s most relevant tools, you can use its “help section”. There, you can find in-depth articles with step-by-step guides on how to navigate your way through the platform.

In summary

If you’re concerned you aren’t being discovered by potential employers on LinkedIn, it’s time to take measures to increase your visibility on the platform.

As our experts have demonstrated, your best results for generating interest and views will come from utilizing the right tools and ensuring that your profile is optimized. An optimized profile makes it easy for those looking for your talents to find you.

By implementing these LinkedIn tips, you’ll ensure you stand out from the crowd, and increase your chances of being found by the right people more often.

Join Andela

At Andela, we thrive on connecting brilliance with opportunity. We’re seeking the most dynamic, talented and skilled technologists to join our ever-growing network, so we can help to match them with roles at some of the world’s most exciting organizations.

From product managers to software engineers, we’re placing talent in fantastic, life changing roles all around the world, regardless of location.

All you need to do to join the Andela Talent Network is to follow our four step sign-up process:

Submit your details via our online application.

2. Complete an English fluency test – 15 minutes.
3. Complete a technical assessment on your chosen skill (Python, Golang etc.) – 1 hour.
4. Meet with one of our Senior Developers for a technical interview – 1 hour.

Visit the Andela Talent Network and let us match you with your future.

We’re waiting to meet you!

If you found this blog useful, check out our other blog posts for more essential insights!

Are you a developer interested in growing your software engineering career? Apply to join the Andela Talent Network today.