Episode 243 - Boost Your Career Prospects on LinkedIn with Sarah Burgess

LinkedIn is a powerful tool to find a new career – if you’re using it right. By updating and optimising your LinkedIn profile, utilising the ‘Open to Work’ option, connecting with the right people, and even investing in career coaching, you can really make LinkedIn work for you. In this episode, I’m joined by LinkedIn Career Coach, Sarah Burgess, to discuss the reality of LinkedIn recruitment, how companies can attract candidates, and why universities should promote LinkedIn. The Top Three LinkedIn Mistakes from a Career Coach Not having a clear profile picture. Having an unclear/misleading headline. Not having enough experience listed. About Sarah Burgess Sarah Burgess started Koru, a LinkedIn career coaching company, in 2003 after a restructure left her facing redundancy. She is a self-confessed ‘LinkedIn geek’ and loves talking to people about how they can work towards finding that role they’ve always wanted. When she’s not coaching others, you can find Sarah on a paddleboard or otherwise being active outside. Career Coaching and Open To Work Your LinkedIn profile picture and headline are two of the most important things you can optimise on your profile. These, along with your experience section, are what LinkedIn recruiters look at when actively seeking candidates for potential job openings. Sarah recommends optimising these three sections of your profile if you’re looking for new career opportunities. Sarah also recommends using the ‘Open to Work’ option if you’re actively seeking a new role. Not only does this signify to recruiters that you’re a potential candidate, you can also write a message about the type of role you’re interested in and why you’re leaving your current role. You can also use the #OpenToWork hashtag, which will increase your posts’s reach and show it to more people in their news feeds. Sarah also recommends tweaking your profile regularly. How Companies Can Attract Top Talent Companies can also optimise their company pages to become more attractive to potential candidates. Writing a compelling about section helps give a good company overview. It really is about selling yourself as a company, too – posting as your company page and generally being active. If you’re posting jobs, Sarah says to be transparent. List the salary and provide a contact at the company for candidates to speak to. Finally, we talk about the use of AI on LinkedIn. From the built-in AI features to how AI is becoming more useful in career coaching and recruitment, the use of AI is not going away. It will only get more prominent, especially since LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. We ended our discussion with how and why universities and students need to use LinkedIn in their career search. Have you used a career coach to help you find new opportunities on LinkedIn? How do you make sure your profile is optimised and updated regularly? If you’re a company, how do you make sure you stand out to potential candidates? Let me know in the comments on the episode page. In This Episode Why your LinkedIn headline should reflect your job title [13:00] When to use the ‘Open to Work’ option on LinkedIn [13:30] Why your Experience section is more important to career coaches and recruiters [17:00] The benefits of using the ‘Open to Work’ option [18:30] How companies can use their company page to attract talent [21:00] The role of AI in recruitment on LinkedIn [24:45] How universities and students can use LinkedIn for career opportunities [30:00] Links & Resources Find Sarah Burgess Online Follow Sarah Burgess on LinkedIn Find Louise Brogan Online Follow Louise Brogan on LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube