The Best LinkedIn Profile Tips for Engineering Job Seekers in 2018
2018 Guide to Creating the Best LinkedIn Profile for Engineers: Tips from a Recruiter
Over many years working with employers and candidates in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island to fill positions across engineering disciplines, I’ve gained firsthand experience connecting engineering job-seekers with employers offering in-demand engineering positions. When engineers and candidates for engineering positions apply proven tips and strategies for using LinkedIn as a powerful networking tool, they maintain relationships with multiple audiences that use LinkedIn as a starting point for employment discussions. Each LinkedIn profile update and interaction is a chance to nurture mutually-beneficial professional relationships that can lead to career enhancement, mentoring opportunities, engineering job opportunities, and more.
A recent Adweek Article cites a Jobvite survey of thousands of recruiters that identified social media as an almost universally-adopted hiring tool. 92 percent of recruiters surveyed use it as part of their process, and 87 percent of recruiters reported using LinkedIn.
Your Three Major LinkedIn Audiences
I encourage engineers and engineering job seekers in all stages of their career to remember that LinkedIn is a powerful professional network, with customizable tools designed to connect you with the audiences you seek. The more active you are and the more connections you have, the easier you will make it for a recruiter to find you and connect you with opportunities to which you may not otherwise gain access. If you cannot be “found” on LinkedIn, you won’t be considered for the opportunities presented by your three major LinkedIn audiences, as outlined below:
Professional Staffing Firm Recruiters
Many professional recruiters use LinkedIn as one of their primary tools to identify the best engineering candidates for particular positions — many of which are not advertised elsewhere. Recruiters look for candidates with the knowledge, experience, work history, personality and temperament that best fit the corporate culture of their clients, the employers. As the market for engineering talent continues to tighten, more and more firms are turning exclusively to professional staffing firm recruiters to identify talented engineering job seekers in disciplines such as Mechanical, Electrical, Quality, Manufacturing, Robotics/Automation, Civil Engineering and more.
Potential Employers
Some internal recruiters within engineering firms actively use LinkedIn to search for and contact potential candidates. These firms may or may not post their open positions.
Professional Peers and Industry Groups
When you properly maintain and use your LinkedIn profile, it can serve as an important networking tool, and present you and your engineering experience well to your industry peers. Regardless of whether you currently seek a new job opportunity, it’s important to maintain your LinkedIn profile, so you are ready if an opportunity presents itself. Industry groups use LinkedIn to promote their mission and share relevant information, so it’s a good idea to selectively join groups of like-minded professionals.
Key Sections of a LinkedIn Profile and How to Write or Edit Them
Pull quote Linkedin recruiter tip
Below you’ll find the descriptions of key LinkedIn profile sections for engineering job seekers. Be sure to fully complete the seven sections titled Summary, Skills, Experience, Industry and Location, Education, and Connections in order to achieve Linked All-Star status – a designation that signals you’ve completed these seven key sections – thus making it easier for recruiters to notice and review your profile.
Recruiters can search for engineering professionals by using filters, or by performing Boolean searches (using key words and “and/or/but” scenarios), or both. Whether or not your profile comes up depends on the criteria for each of these searches. Therefore, it’s very important to pay particular attention to your Skill Words, Job Descriptions, Location, and Education/Dates.
Information Displayed at the Top of Your LinkedIn Profile
Headline
By default, your headline appears as your current job title and company name, but you can manually edit it, up to 120 characters. For example, a compelling headline could read: I’m a mechanical engineer and results-oriented problem solver with a strong background developing cutting-edge medical devices. A headline is required to achieve LinkedIn All-Star status
Learn How To Edit The Headline of your LinkedIn Profile
Current Position and Company
Following the headline is your current position and company, which is auto-populated from the Experience section of your profile. If you display multiple current positions, the one with the most recent start date is listed first. Note: If your profile’s headline and current position are the same, the text will not be duplicated; only the name of your current firm will appear.
Education
This line includes only the first entry from the Education section of your profile. You cannot display more than one entry; however, you can select which entry appears by rearranging the order of your education entries.
LinkedIn recruiter tip pull quote on advanced search
Location
LinkedIn lists your geographical location based on the location you list for your current job. Edit this to be as location-specific as possible. According to a LinkedIn article, more than 30% of
Kristen Roper is Owner and President of TRIAD Engineering Corp. (www.triad-eng.com), an engineering staffing firm based in Lynnfield, Massachusetts that connects successful firms with technical talent throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. For almost 50 years, TRIAD has provided clients with flexible staffing arrangements including contract, contract-to-direct, and direct placement services.
