As an actual, direct, job-searching tool — in the way that it was intended to be, LinkedIn is generally worthless. The only people who are on it are other people that are looking for jobs; people who actually have jobs check it much less often. Of course, there are recruiters on there, but they are generally immune to receiving emails… they are using it to source and headhunt others. And since LinkedIn has started monetizing their email service, it further reduces the value offered.
However, if you have JUST a bit of courage, ingenuity, and ability to use search tools, LinkedIn is actually invaluable… in a completely different way.
The first trick is to build your network as WIDE as you can… I don’t care if you will never talk to that person again, it doesn’t matter. You just need to have as much access as possible.
This gives you free access to enough data to allow you to use LinkedIn as a research tool, to pinpoint potential connections in companies that you would never have known about before. Why? So you can COLD-CALL them.
I once was able to cold-call and obtain FOUR interviews in one day…it’s incredibly effective. LinkedIn is a goldmine of good information for this purpose. Looking for a particular role in a particular company? Do a search for that function or one close to it in the company. If you have a big network, you should have tons of access to data.
Now simply look at all the people and check their history. See anything in common? Same school? Past employer? Have the same type of major? Are both of you goldfish fanatics? Perfect. Those are all your go-to people. It doesn’t matter how relevant it is… you can spin anything into being a connection. ‘I was just curious, I’m really interesting in potentially working for Bain, but I was wondering if they allow fishtanks on desks? By the way, how do you like you job, can you tell me anything about it? What do you think I should do?” You’re 80% of the way there.
That’s once you get them on the phone. We don’t have that yet, but fortunately it’s relatively easy to get their work phone number. Google for it first if you can — hint: thing like a customer that they would profit from and you’ll find it much quicker. If not, simply call any random person at the company and act as if you have the wrong number, and see if they can instead ‘help you out’ and give you the correct number. 99% of the time they will. Then you simply give your target a call.
This isn’t an article about how to cold-call effectively, but basically the person doesn’t know that they aren’t remotely connected to you through LinkedIn, so simply mention that you found them through LinkedIn and really wanted to reach out to them to learn more about the company and possible roles. There is a lot of good cold-calling books out there, but really the book that made the difference for me was a negotiations book called Getting More by a Wharton business school professor that just blew my mind. I highly recommend reading it if you want to get good at networking.
Another great use for LinkedIn is career progression research. Say you want to take this one job, but you don’t know what doors it might open. Well LinkedIn can come to the rescue. All you have to do is do an advanced search for people that USED to hold the job that you are about to go into. Voila! You can see your likely future.
Overall, LinkedIn will not directly get you a job, but it is a goldmine of information that will be invaluable in INDIRECTLY helping you get a job. And for people who are already employed and need (paid) assistance, it is just incredible. So the correct way to view LinkedIn (and really, any resource in general) is to look at it outside the box, and see how you can use the data to your advantage.
