You could be making a huge mistake if you think your skills, qualifications and extensive work experience is going to carry you easily to an interview. There is also one more aspect which will dramatically boost your chances – and it’s a LinkedIn profile.
But what makes this online profile so special?
A LinkedIn profile is essentially a digital version of your CV. It can contain your work history, current skill set, qualifications, and much more. Best of all, you can link to other like minded business professionals and create an online professional network to share ideas and keep up to date.
“Hiring Managers and Recruiters are on LinkedIn – it has been quoted that over 90% of recruiters use it to find candidates.”
An employer will want to see your profile
Having a LinkedIn profile is quite standard these days, and there aren’t many candidates that apply for a role without one. This doesn’t mean to say every job seeker states their LinkedIn details on their CV or keeps it up to date. Nonetheless, an employer will search for it if they can.
The HR manager will often be faced with a difficult decision when short listing for interviews. With so many highly qualified candidates to choose from it could come down to who has the most comprehensive LinkedIn profile.
“Those who have complete and attractive LinkedIn profiles affirm their understanding of the online business. Such profiles also serve as differentiators against more-mature people who, typically, are less savvy about new technology.”
Your LinkedIn profile will boost your chances by up to 71%
ResumeGo conducted a study that assessed around 24,500 fake job applications through various different recruitment websites. The study was split into three main parts:
- No LinkedIn profile
- A very bare profile
- A comprehensive profile
The results proved very positive in favour of having a comprehensive LinkedIn profile. It also showed that in some cases it was better to have no profile at all when comparing the success against a bare profile with very little detail.
“The results of the study were staggering – it clearly demonstrated that a comprehensive LinkedIn profile substantially boosted the chance of getting a callback for an interview. Further still, candidates had a slightly reduced chance if they provided a bare bones profile in comparison to no profile at all.”
Martin Carline, CV Template Master
What this clearly demonstrates is that an up to date and well presented LinkedIn profile will boost the candidate’s chances of getting an interview by a substantial amount. Whereas presenting a bare profile to an employer will decrease the candidate’s chances.
It is likely the case that a profile with very little information is projecting a lack of care and dedication to a career. Why attach a link to an online profile that adds little to no value to an application? So it is better to create a comprehensive LinkedIn profile – or no profile at all.
Here’s some great tips on making your LinkedIn profile stand out:
