Leveraging LinkedIn for Job Hunting Abroad

Why use LinkedIn for jobs abroad?

• Connect with HR professionals
• To highlight your strengths
• Make job hunters notice your applications
• Let HR pros know you are searching for jobs
• Find out your prospective employers

Leveraging LinkedIn for Job Hunting Abroad

How to get started

LinkedIn makes hunting for a job abroad easier. Though there are many social media platforms, the only truly professional platform in that space is most definitely LinkedIn.

After all, this is one platform that employers and recruitment professionals make use of seriously to hunt for talent. Without a proper LinkedIn profile, you cannot land a job abroad.

If you want to leverage LinkedIn to the fullest extent, you could use certain tips to obtain a job in any part of the world.

Since LinkedIn is a networking platform, try connecting with as many people as possible to reach your goal of getting more than one overseas job offer.

Try connecting with prospective employers and manpower professionals in the industry you want to pursue your career in and also in the country where you want to head to.

For this, use the search tools properly on LinkedIn. At the same time, do not send excessive connection requests daily as it may make your connections on LinkedIn misunderstand you, or you could be mistaken for a bot.

Tips while connecting

To be on the safe side, send around 10 to 25 connection requests per day. Once you become a familiar figure to certain people on the platform, they will, in turn, start sending requests to you, and your LinkedIn profile will become more popular in your field.

Engage more with your connections through posts, discussion groups, and forums so that you can get to know people from backgrounds similar to your own who may be working in the country where you are looking for a job.

Do this not to increase the number of connections but to add value to your connections. Seek to connect with people who have wide-ranging networks, as they would be respected and admired in their areas.

Have a say in all the relevant discussions, as it may help you become more noticed in the group. In case you have noteworthy skills and experience, your increased involvement on the platform will help you find the job most suited for you.

Make a note of multinational companies that you intend to work for, and follow their posts religiously on LinkedIn as many firms, these days, post new opportunities or create another LinkedIn account only for the sake of recruitment.

In case you come across your former classmates, send requests to them and take the opportunity to bond with them. Many HR professionals take the help of immigrants while they are trying to recruit skilled foreign professionals.

Engage with recruiters professionally, as they will be trying to assess you by the way you communicate with them.

Grab recruiters’ attention

On LinkedIn as well, try to tailor your resume. Look at job descriptions they have for roles you are in or would be interested in and modify your resume accordingly.

Notice the specific words and phrases they are using and incorporate them into your resume. In case you still find it tough to prepare a perfect resume, go through the profiles of your contacts and see how they have highlighted their skills and work experiences on their profiles.

Use the ‘Open To’ section favorably

There is a section below your profile picture on LinkedIn that demonstrates to head hunters particular job titles that you would like to hear about.

These will help you if you are intending to apply for a position that is superior to your existing role or even if you would like to switch your job to another field.

Share your open-to-work status by opting for either ‘share with all LinkedIn members’ or ‘share with recruiters only.’

When you opt for ‘Share with recruiters only,’ it will show up only on the pages of recruiters whose companies have paid to access ‘LinkedIn Recruiter.’

When you opt for ‘Share with all LinkedIn members,’ recruiters may be under the impression that you are not sincerely on the lookout for a job and thus would affect your chances of being called adversely.

Ensure that you accept requests only from reliable staffing firms.

Be proactive

When you are on LinkedIn, it is to make yourself more visible, searchable, and marketable. Remember that whenever you comment, share, or click a like, it appears in your network feed, indicating that people in your network will notice it. It will, in turn, lead to you getting more opportunities.

Make a name on your network on LinkedIn as a thought leader by sharing interesting articles with people belonging to your field and making thoughtful comments on links that other people in your network share. Post your works on the publishing section of LinkedIn to share it, which will lead it to gaining more views and attracting more connections.

Hunt for jobs

Use the job search option on LinkedIn to keep track of job openings in any part of the world. If you find one that is suited for you, apply for it online. Make sure it fits your career objectives and suits your background well.