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Using LinkedIn and Job Portals to Search for Jobs

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Using LinkedIn and Job Portals is a great way to find a job.

A job portal or a career portal is an online job board that assists applicants in finding new positions and employers in their search for qualified individuals.

This might be your great resource for learning about career opportunities in your industry and geographic area.

Because job portals can produce a large number of results, it is critical to personalize your search in order to identify the best suitable career opportunities.

Job portals on career websites like WhatJobs.com, Indeed, Monster, and Glassdoor provide a diverse choice of employment in a wide range of industries.

Some government agencies, NPOs, colleges, and private corporations have their own employment portals, which are accessible through their website.

This article covers all you need to know about job portals and social media sites and walks you through how to utilize them in your next job hunt.

How a Job Portal Can Help Job Seekers

Nowadays, job portals are a key source of recruitment, thus it is critical for a job seeker to create a profile.

In fact, using LinkedIn and Job Portals can be one of the easiest methods for job application.

When you sign up on any job portal, you can get the preferred lists of available job vacancies. The great news is these websites store a large database of vacancies submitted by various companies.

Many businesses register with these online job portals in order to research job candidates and acquire the support they require in discovering more prospective employees.

  • The Importance of Job Portals

Job seekers can contact an enormous collection of job postings using job search engines.

Aside from that, several job portals have filters that allow users to narrow down their search results. This attribute makes it easy for job applicants to choose a career field.

Similarly, job search websites can aid employers in expediting their recruiting process.

Rather than manually scanning hard copies of resumes, hiring managers could easily validate applications online.

READ MORE: How to Find a Job Quickly and Easily

Using LinkedIn and Job Portals for Job Seekers

  • Getting Job Alerts

A good job portal will send you job alerts whenever there are new job postings.

This means you won’t pass up an opportunity to be considered for your desired position and begin your career. You can also find additional posts to expand your selections.

  • Maintain Confidentiality

Once you register with a job portal, all your accomplishments, talents, and personal information will be kept private.

Unless you give them permission to share other information with potential employers, this will be treated confidentially.

These portals keep your job hunt story secret, allowing you to complete the process covertly.

  • Vast job opportunities

Job portals provide a comprehensive selection of job openings from leading firms. It ensures you have a better chance of finding the employment you want, wherever and whenever.

  • Your job hunt becomes easier

The portals can make your job search much easier.

You can submit your resume online instead of visiting your preferred firm. After submitting, you may sit back and wait for the prospective employers to respond.

Why should you use LinkedIn and Job Portals?

On the surface, LinkedIn appears to be nothing more than an online CV – but it is a platform where hundreds of recruiters are seeking top prospects nearly every day.

It’s a fairly handy CV to have; in fact a powerful networking tool.

Besides being a great place to connect with industry leaders, it is useful to promote your accomplishments and establish a professional presence in the online world.

Furthermore, if you have the entrepreneurial drive, you can expand your own firm there.

It is critical to generate awareness across every other social media platforms in order to increase your social media presence.

You can include your Twitter handle in your LinkedIn profile. If your connections are not LinkedIn members, this is a great way to share your LinkedIn activity with them.

Create a Facebook profile, as it is the largest social network. There are other social media sites that help job aspirants such as Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

READ MORE: How to Look for Jobs Online

5 Steps to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Pop

Using LinkedIn and Job Portals
Using LinkedIn and Job Portals

Before getting started with your job searching it is necessary to create a professional profile. Your professional social media profiles have the capacity to make employers approach you. But you should know that all social networking sites have their own distinguishable characteristics.

If you are new, it is always advisable to visit top influencers and thought leaders on LinkedIn to know more about the way of using it. This section will give a clear picture of setting up your social media profile from the basics. Take a look at it. 

  • Choose the right profile photo

Select a high-resolution and work-appropriate photo of yourself, as profiles that leave photos blank appears inactive and uninteresting in search results.

Avoid blatant selfies or group shots (even if you’ve edited them out).

Graduation photographs are a great option to try, but avoid making your shot overly stiff and official. Make an effort to smile and appear approachable!

Remember, you’re attempting to pitch yourself as someone who is good at working with.

Avoid Snapchat filters, but LinkedIn now has a filter tool that allows you to alter the colors of your photo for the best impact.

There’s also the option to add a cover photo.

This is a less important part, but if you have anything relevant, then do it.

A photograph of your work or of you ‘in action’ could be more appropriate here. You may even include your image to advertise any related expertise.

Consider any portraits you have drawn, your photography portfolio, your personal website, or any of your work samples.

Your title appears just under your name on your profile and is the first thing visitors read. Your data on your current position can be filled in default.

  • Write a LinkedIn headline that will set you apart

But it may be anything you wish.

With only 120 characters to write, why not put down something captivating?

Consider it a mini-billboard advertisement for you and your personal brand.

Instead of just giving your job title, describe your specialty and how you help your organization or clients. Focus on your desired audience.

Analyze whether you are addressing industry colleagues, consumers, or recruiters? Write to your intended audience. As an example:

Advertising Sales Rep assisting customers in developing effective branding strategies.

Over 300+ satisfied customers. You’ve quickly and efficiently informed them of your job, what you contribute to the table, and established some credibility.

READ MORE: How to Write a Good Resume

  • Add a professional summary to your profile

You have the chance to express your narrative in the summary section of your profile. The summary can also be a larger version of your headline.

Here you have to work on 2,000 characters or 50–100 words,  so you can go a bit deeper.

Concentrate on your strong points and what else you can offer a potential employer other than your past experience. Note that keywords are important here – choose buzzwords that you would like to be strongly associated with in your field.

Because people’s attentiveness to using social media sites is so brief don’t use the full 2,000 characters.

Instead, limit the word count to half.

  • Highlight your work experience on LinkedIn

Draw a picture of who you truly are as a professional using your creativity.

You can go above and beyond merely putting your resume on your profile.

There is no set of guidelines, but you do have audiences with short attention spans.

Include any positions you believe are relevant to your career destination, and utilize a few engaging bullet points for each role.

Make use of the media section to promote your ongoing projects or accomplishments.

Include blogs, articles in magazines, your artwork, a company you built, videos, or social media accounts that you assisted with. If you’re proud of anything, put it here and flaunt it!

Use action words to showcase your achievements in each role.

The goal is to illustrate your influence, the change you’ve implemented, the efforts you’ve led, and the outcomes you’ve achieved.

  • Customize your unique LinkedIn URL

The LinkedIn URL is your profile’s web address.

The default URL will include your name as well as some random digits. Why not make it more relevant? On the right side of your profile, you can modify your URL.

Use this feature to make your URL shorter and more aesthetically pleasing. You can make alterations by adding a sequence of your name, work title, or any keywords. 

This will make your account more visible in search engines.

READ MORE: How To Get A Job After Graduating

Top ways to use LinkedIn to land your dream job

We have listed 8 steps to ease your social media job search:

  • Start building connections

Adding people you don’t know on LinkedIn is often considered bad etiquette, but it’s absolutely fine if the other person can easily identify from your profile that you have comparable interests or common connections.

So it’s not necessary to only add close friends to your network.

LinkedIn may also be used to remain in touch with company staff after an interview, or with anybody, you may have met on internships or work experience placements.

If you’re concerned that they failed to recognize you, send personalized messages to refresh their memory.

Use your professional contacts as positive examples!

Examine how others in your area are developing their profiles and notice what career route they chose and, more particularly, which firms were willing to hire them when they just started.

LinkedIn is all about connecting with individuals in your sector or area of expertise.

Because of LinkedIn’s first, second, and third-degree relationship structures, you must continue to broaden your network as you meet new people and stay connected. Having a large number of connections keeps you discoverable to others.

Make contact with everyone with whom you’ve worked or studied, and encourage them to bring you to their connections as well.

  • Obtain recommendations and endorsements for your professional skills

This is significant.

Consider people with whom you’ve had a positive working connection in the past.

When you change your profile, you’ll see a tab that reads Ask for Recommendations for any projects or skills you’ve included.

Simply click on it.

You choose what you want to be recommended for and can select from a list of persons in your network. Then, send it out and hope for a positive response.

Making your profile stand out requires recommendations. Employers want to know that your work has been endorsed by others.

You can separately add skills, in addition to sprinkling the most relevant keywords throughout your profile. Don’t use broad terms like communication skills or teamwork.

Consider any program or technology that you have familiarity with – ask yourself what talents you have to set you apart?

Your connections on LinkedIn may then verify your skills by endorsing you for the many talents you’ve specified, and they will display on your public profile to highlight your talent.

READ MORE: Looking for a new job? Find our free resume templates here

  • Use LinkedIn’s job-search feature

It may seem obvious, but don’t forget that LinkedIn has a plethora of job listings.

To track new postings before they’re advertised, use the search tool and subscribe to job notifications, or keep an eye on status updates.

Check out the LinkedIn student portal for internships and graduate employment as well.

Follow firms you’d like to work with to be the first to hear about job vacancies, graduate programs, and growth plans.

  • Share your success stories as LinkedIn posts

It may not come easy to you to boost your achievements, but LinkedIn is all about promoting yourself.

If you acquire something, whether it’s an award, a successful project, or great grades on a certain assignment, make a status about it and share it with the rest of the world.

You don’t have to only talk about the great stuff; you may also discuss the obstacles and setbacks you’ve faced along the road.

So sharing articles is always a part of building a LinkedIn presence.

You can also write about difficulties pertaining to your sector or matters connected to recruiting in general — topics such as unpaid internships or interview comments tend to spark a lot of discussions.

Remember to reciprocate by sharing and liking other people’s posts!

  • Improve your LinkedIn privacy settings

To begin, while editing your profile, you’ll see a button – ‘Notify your network’; if you pick this, every follower can see on their newsfeed the updates you’ve made, so reserve it for the major events.

LinkedIn’s privacy settings differ greatly from those of other social platforms, so you must exercise caution to ensure that you are only displaying people what you want them to see.

You have the choice of making items public or exclusively available to your friends – it’s a fair idea to make certain things public so that employers searching on LinkedIn or Google may see them.

It may seem like a nightmare, but if you visit someone’s profile, they will be alerted.

Similarly, if anybody visits your profile you will be notified.

In your settings, you can disable this to surf anonymously.

But you won’t be able to catch who’s peeking at your profile. To modify this, look for the button -‘Select what others see when you see their profile’.

There are also privacy options that allow you to look for new employment without informing your present company — smart! Examine them out and observe which ones operate greatest for you.

  • Getting involved in LinkedIn groups

Join groups that are related to your sector and contribute to them.

Learn how your industry operates from the inside out, get recognized for having an opinion or specialty, or discover individuals who can inform you much about their professional path to see if it suits you.

After you’ve joined a few major groups, you may approach other group members to promote your services but avoid being perceived as a spammer by sending appropriate emails to the right people, asking questions, or proposing to assist in their projects.

  • Share articles and write your own on LinkedIn

Most people frequently post fascinating posts on LinkedIn that they may have found elsewhere or wrote themselves. Follow people you find appropriate and absorb everything!

In interviews, having a thorough understanding of recent advancements in your field will pay dividends. You may also stay up with the latest news by following the blogs of firms that interest you.

If you have your opinion that won’t fit in a brief status update, contemplate writing a blog post instead. Simply click on ‘Write an article’ on the site and begin writing.

Sharing your own thoughts and industry knowledge on a topic can significantly influence employers and help get your reputation out there. You may also include videos and photos for greater impact.

READ MORE: How to Prepare for an Interview

  • Use LinkedIn to prepare for interviews

When preparing for an interview, LinkedIn will be your primary source of information.

Look up the person who will be interviewing you on LinkedIn and peek at their professional history, interests, and any current projects they’re engaging in.

Make the most of it by tailoring your responses to impress them!

You’ll also gain valuable insight into the firm by reading their article, and you’ll be able to retain the latest trends in the industry that you may bring up during the interview.

The site is absolutely free to use, but for extra benefits like being a highlighted applicant for employment, take the free trial of LinkedIn Premium.

It’s one of the favorite free trials, but keep in mind that you’ll be charged after the period.

So unsubscribe if you don’t want to continue the service.

Using Online Job Portals to Find Work

Although LinkedIn is a wonderful tool for job searching, there are other alternatives.

Finding employment online is simple because there are several job portals where job applicants may register to locate their ideal work.

The first step is to prepare a resume.

A resume is a document that summarizes a person’s objectives, educational background, and relevant job experience. An employer is mainly interested in these aspects.

Job portals feature basic online forms that job candidates must complete. After filling up, the following step is to log in and use the search engine.

Job portals provide outstanding search engines that enable people to locate employment based on criteria such as profile, field, and experience.

After doing a successful job search, a list of available positions appears, and the applicant has the opportunity to contact the employer directly with a resume and cover letter. Once the employer gets your files, it is up to the HR staff to review them and contact the candidate back with an offer or an interview invitation.

READ MORE: Home Working Jobs that Pay Well

Steps to Take When Using Job Portals

Let’s have a look at the steps to take while looking for new jobs online.

Step 1: Prerequisites

All you need to create a job site profile is an email address and a cell phone number. These are the fundamental criteria, while phone numbers are optional in some circumstances. However, including this will provide several benefits.

Step 2: Choice of job Portals

Companies choose job boards based on the number of candidates’ social profiles they have and the cost of their service. Companies may select any of the major career portals based on these factors. As a result, you must select at least two or three of your country’s main recruitment portals.

You must perform two things after locating employment portals.

The first step is to create your profile by registering for an account.

The second step is to look for and apply for employment. The third is hard work, which you will have to put in until you find your dream job.

Step 3: Things to keep in mind while creating a profile

  • Always include your resume in Word format on your career portal account.

When the recruiter reviewing the portal shortlists your profile, they will download your associated resume and submit it to the person in charge of creating this job for technical evaluation.

As a result, it is critical to provide a resume in Word format.

  • The content of your attached resume and your online job profile must be identical.

Because screening is based on matching your job profile with your job description, failing to meet some significant content or having contrasting content in your attached profile could hinder your probability of getting sort listed, which is typically done by the person who created the job.

  • Never leave your current salary vacant 

If the hiring manager searches using a pay range, you will pass up an opportunity.

It means you won’t come up in searches for a salary range and will be overlooked.

READ MORE: Is freelancing for you? High-paying freelance jobs to consider

  • Avoid unrelated skills to your primary area of expertise or of varied functioning in both your attached and online job profile.

It is detrimental to your job search and may reduce your chances of being short-listed.

For example, if you are an accounts manager, your knowledge of C++ and HTML is not essential, even if you are quite familiar with them.

Step 4: Job hunting and application

If your profile has a high demand, you will begin receiving calls from recruiters within two to three months after registering or becoming active, i.e. logging in to your account.

In this instance, you may not need to look for and apply for jobs. In general, seek and apply for appropriate jobs on the job sites you have registered for once a week.

Using LinkedIn and Job Portals to Find Jobs

Using social media to your advantage can get you better chances of winning the horse race. Though we use social media channels on a daily basis, their role in career building is often overlooked. Be the best among the rest of the crowd, and start your game now!

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