11 effective tips for getting a job through LinkedIn

Getting a job nowadays has become difficult, especially when you know that 75% of resumes are rejected before they reach the recruiter and only five people out of hundreds are scheduled for a personal interview with them, according to the statistics of the Topresume website.

Job search steps (your comprehensive guide to getting a job)

Therefore, it is important to learn the steps of a job search, which we will summarize in our article today in three basic steps, under each of which falls a set of very important points and sub-steps that will enable you to get a dream job.

We promise that this article will be very useful for you in your career path in general, and in getting your next desired job in particular.

The first step: planning the job search process

Is it really important to plan a job search Let me tell you that I have a friend who works at one of the famous recruitment platforms in the Arab world?

He told me that when a vacancy is offered, up to a thousand people apply for it, and the recruiter has to determine in just 30 seconds whether he will come for a personal interview or not.

Therefore, your resume should be able to give a distinctive impression of you within a few seconds, and your resume will only be so when you are in the hands of the right person, that is, you are applying to the company that matches your skills and abilities.

Now how to look for this company where you want to get a job And how to prepare for it in the first place The answer is in the following steps:

A) self-analysis

The first question you should ask on the way to the job search steps is; who are you Not your name! What are your strengths and weaknesses What are your inclinations and abilities What is your passion Answering these questions is very important to get to know yourself, to understand what distinguishes you from others, and what will make the recruiter choose you among the rest!

To get to know yourself, you can use specially designed career assessments such as:

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator
• The Big Five Personality Test is a five-factor model.

For me, I used the 16Personalities personality analysis test to identify my personality, strengths, and weaknesses, including that I am a person who improves the performance of tasks, and is interested in performing them as best as possible.

In addition, I cannot work in a team environment, and this is unacceptable in many companies that are looking for collaborative employees working in a team.

This strengthened my confidence in my abilities, and during my conversation with the recruiter during the personal interview, I always bet on my ability to perform the work as best as possible, and that's what any employer wants, and pays him to accept me into his company.

B) labor market analysis

You should analyze the labor market to identify your position among job applicants, as well as your position in Labor companies.

Labor market analysis will help you in:

• Identify the target labor market (companies you are targeting to work with).
• Analyze the basic business needs, and what makes you stand out among employees.
• Find out how competitive this type of job is.
• Improve your abilities in proportion to the job.

These are some of the possible benefits, but the benefits are much broader, depending on why you want to analyze the labor market

Then select the career path based on which you will analyze the labor market, and the geographical scope (often the same as your own geographical scope), then identify potential companies and study each company separately.

On the sidelines: knowing the features of the company from the inside, as well as knowing more about the personality of the manager is important.

For example; a while ago I saw a YouTube clip of a person explaining that his manager was interested in yoga, so he also started watching clips and reading articles about yoga, and even had a discussion about yoga between him and his manager during the personal interview, which gave a distinctive impression of him when the manager pushed him to accept him for the job.

C) find out where you will find your job

There are a lot of smart paths and ideas that enable you to find out where you will find your job and the most important of them are:

1. Online networking

By building a strong presence on professional networking networks such as LinkedIn, by being interactive in the professional gatherings you are interested in, actively participating with them, and being visible on the pages of companies related to your career field.

Of course, you need to improve your use of LinkedIn to help you get a job. You can use the LinkedIn account creation article and adjust it professionally (explanation with pictures), to build a professional profile.

Note: we will touch on the idea of networking again later in the article.

2. Using your Network

Building professional relationships is important to you at the career level, the level of learning from the experiences of others, and you can develop your network of relationships by volunteering, and attending professional events in your workplace.

Because the use of a network of relationships is the most important guaranteed opportunity to get a job because the recruiter prefers to do an interview with a person who has been nominated to him than to do an interview with someone he does not know.

Make sure that everyone you know can provide you with professional assistance, whether by nominating you to recruiters, or company managers, in addition to providing some information about available opportunities if they have sufficient knowledge.

3. Hiring recruitment agencies

Resorting to employment offices is not the best option for many people, due to the bad reputation of fake employment offices that exploit individuals ' data, especially with their spread in the Gulf countries, and a country like Saudi Arabia.

Also, employment offices often offer temporary or seasonal jobs, so you will not get a steady job or even good job security. But some well-known recruitment offices are really trusted both on the internet and on the ground.

4. Attending career exhibitions

Job fairs may be the perfect place for you, especially if you are experienced in your field because it is popular with most people that job fairs are for new graduates.

Even if you don't find a job that suits you at the job fair, you can come up with more benefits such as:

• Get to know the top hiring managers in companies.
• Identify companies and organizations in the same field as your business.
• Exchange the email addresses of the hiring managers you meet.
• Send a thank you letter to the hiring managers to remind them of you.

5. Presence on digital recruitment platforms

There are many Arab and international recruitment platforms, such as:

• Location Indeed.com
• One of Google's Google for Jobs products
• WUZZUF website
• Hire.Net
• LinkedIn
• Location of the House.<url> is one of the most specialized websites in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• GulfTalent website
• Jobs website.Com
• My profession is the most famous website in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

There are other sources to get a job, including daily newspapers, publications, and employment pages of companies and institutions.

D) steps to attract the attention of employees

There are three steps to get the attention of recruiters, namely:

• Networking
• Random connection
• Visiting without an appointment and e-mail

We will touch on the networking step in this part, but random calling, visits without an appointment, and an e-mail will be addressed in the second step of the job search steps, which is related to marketing yourself to others in the labor market.

Networking is building relationships with people in the same specialty, sharing the same interests and scientific disciplines, and also being influential, and successful in their business, which helps you in your field, and takes your hand to develop yourself, as stated in the famous proverb “tell me who your friend is, I tell you who you are”.

Because, of course, your friends or a group of acquaintances will take you by the hand, toward a fruitful future, in addition, networking is important because people prefer to work with those they know and trust, and they have a valuable impression of them.

Networking is based on four principles:

The principle of abundance: whoever follows the theory of networking is well aware that many opportunities will come to him.

Reciprocity: that is, if you give someone a piece of information, and provide him with help, it will come back to you, not necessarily from the same person, but it will be doubly returned.

Giving without expectations: unsuccessful people in their lives are always inclined to the question “What Will I get in return for this giving?"” But successful people always seek to help others for no reason, just to make their lives better, and this brings us to the fourth principle.

The law of indirect influence: this is what you will get when giving without expectations. For example, my boss at work has been helping me and my colleagues immensely, and always tells us that our success is his success.

This helped us get prestigious jobs, and our manager indirectly helped companies turn to him because they need a manager in his competence and cooperation with employees.

On the sidelines: most-if not all - of the job opportunities that came to me personally was through networking, as well as professional relationships, because I am dedicated to helping my colleagues, and they also know that I add value to any company or job through my abilities and flexibility at work.

Step two: how to market yourself to others

The second step in the job search steps is to market yourself to others, or more specific companies and organizations, as well as recruiters.

Marketing yourself in the job market is by six basic points, namely:

1. Random connection
2. Unscheduled visits and e-mail
3. Information sessions
4. Presentation speech
5. Using a personal marketing tool: resume
6. Online presence

Here is an explanation of each of these points that fall under the second step in the job search steps:

1. Random connection

The sales representative makes a random call by phone to offer a product or service of value to the customer, as well as you do when you randomly contact company managers, but you are presenting yourself, your experiences, and your added value to the organization.

In this context, let me tell you that my first job interview was via mobile, and the manager's question was: what will you add to us My answer was that I would not add anything, but I needed you to add me! So far I have not received a response from this manager.

Why random communication succeeds in getting a job؟

• Because you are building a relationship with an influential person who can make you a job offer.
• The impression of a telephone conversation is much stronger than seeing just a resume sheet, and therefore your chance that the manager will remember you will be greater.
• Expand your network of acquaintances.

How is actually random communication in the job search

• Prepare a list of companies that you are interested in working with within your scope of work and experience. 
• Get the names of influential people in those companies, and who have the authority to hire you, such as the HR manager or the administrator of the department you want to join.
• Talk with a decision maker or influential person in the company, try to schedule an interview with him, or request an information session. 

Random communication may be difficult for some individuals because of the possibility of awkward rejection, but I recommend you for an experience to take the chance, maybe you will succeed and get the dream job!

2. Visits without an appointment, e-mail

Visits without an appointment to talk to the person concerned. Someone you have searched for as you would in a random call, visit this person to reinforce your request or to request more information.

Even if you can't find job opportunities for you at that stage, you can still get valuable information and a key point of contact for recommendation and follow-up later.

Taking into account that visits without an appointment are not uncommon, even less common than random communication, as they may be objectionable in some institutions and cultures.

In many cases, the receptionist will ask you to leave your resume and prevent you from meeting and talking to anyone in person.

Visits without an appointment as a strategy; it can work more with smaller organizations with a simpler hierarchical structure and a more open culture, and you will find that new organizations and smaller offices are more welcoming in this way.

Finally, you have to use email and online messaging. It is a gentler way than a random call or a visit without an appointment because a refusal or non-response to an email will be less harsh than a face-to-face refusal.

3. Information sessions

What exactly is an information session It is an opportunity to meet with the recruiter and talk to him directly to collect information. The session may be about anything you want.

Some examples of what can be discussed:

• The company's directions, plans, and projects.
• The goal should be to impress the recruiter with you and your experiences.
• Show that you are suitable for their vacancy.
• Present a business idea, and find opportunities through it.
• Add an influential person to your list of acquaintances.

The main goal of information sessions is not necessary to look for a job opportunity, it is enough to get information that will help you in your field and distinguish you from others, as well as build a good relationship with the manager or the owner of the information session.

4. Your presentation letter

A very short speech from thirty seconds to one minute, enough opportunity to ignite a spark of interest in you, to tell the person in front of you. Who are you? What are your most important achievements What do you want from him?

For example: (I am Malek Ahmed, a student, I am good at translating from German to Arabic, I translated about 250 texts, and I worked in a company...,...,.

I am good at writing articles compatible with search engines, as well as digital marketing, I would have liked to talk with you about this job and its requirements).

This is a fictitious, but attractive speech, which is enough to draw the attention of the interlocutor to you.

5. Using a personal marketing tool: resume

Some people tell you that writing a resume is unimportant and that now it is no longer certificates that control getting a job, but experiences. This is true, but in freelancing online, and not when applying to a company or organization to work with them.

A resume is the most important way to market yourself to a recruiter or HR manager, and it will only take him five seconds to determine whether you will transfer to a personal interview or not, so there is some basic information about a resume. 

Types of the resume:

1. A paper resume is to be sent via conventional mail, or delivered face-to-face.
2. Electronic resumes are the most common with the availability of programs and sites for creating resumes and converting them to pdf.
3. Illustrated resume, a new genre that has appeared recently, in which you design a video in which you tell about yourself, and show your achievements, abilities, and experience.

A resume is often short, to be clear and easy, and clarify your eligibility to get the job, but some employers prefer a long resume, which has some detail, detail, and mention of experiences.

Like long specialties and skills, you can create a short resume to show to the recruiter initially, and upon the first admission send them a detailed resume, strengthening your position among the applicants for the vacancy.

Additional sources for a solid resume:

• How to make a successful CV that attracts employers and wins the job
• In the eyes of hiring managers these parts of your resume give priority to hiring
• How to write a resume (professionally approach your dream job)

6. Your online presence

A social recruitment study conducted by JobVite outside the Middle East found that 91% of managers and recruiters always look at the candidate's profile online.

As well as an opinion poll conducted by Pitt. It was found that 84% of hiring managers find the internet to be an extremely important tool as a source of information about candidates.

Talking about how to market yourself on digital communication platforms goes on at length, and the article cannot help it, for this, I will lay out for you a little later source that will help you.

But on the sidelines of talking about personal marketing, there is something important that I should draw your attention to, which is to create videos to promote yourself.

For example, I follow Snapchat a graphic designer who shares the details of his day (his daily routine), as well as how he designs and some of his works with his followers-through vlogs - who necessarily include business owners, company managers, and recruiters.

So there is no problem if you share some short videos on Snapchat and YouTube, explaining how your business is going, and sharing some tips and experiences with followers.

Additional resources to find out how to market yourself:

• 10 recommendations that will enable you to use LinkedIn like a pro
• 11 effective tips for getting a job through LinkedIn

Step Three: prepare for the personal interview

The third and final step in our today's article on job search steps is to prepare for a personal interview.

Preparing for job interviews is surrounded by a lot of details, and we have singled out several detailed articles for her in Gainers, and I will put some links to these articles for you a little later.

But let me give you three quick tips that will help you a lot about job interviews:

1. Get to know well the company where you will be interviewing: it is much easier to convince an employer if you know exactly what kind of company you will be working for, what is its system, its priorities, and its goals.

Search for the company by their accounts on digital communication platforms, as well as their official website, and try to collect as much information as possible.

2. Get to know the interviewer: the biggest unknown in a personal interview project is who will be interviewing you.

If you understand the company well and its hierarchy, you will probably know who will interview you personally, but in any case, you can reach someone from within the company to give you more specific information.

3. Body language: when it comes to body language, you need to be aware of its most important signals, some of them unconsciously emit negative signals, such as boredom or lack of interest.

You should not underestimate the influence of your conversation partner, so it makes sense to check your body language in preparation for the interview-both in the mirror and on video.

Here are the articles I promised to give you about job interviews and success with them:

• How to prepare for a job interview professionally and thoughtfully
• How to successfully pass the job interview (your comprehensive guide to sniping a job)
• How can you present yourself at the interview (tips and practical points)
• How to answer the most popular job interview questions with SMART technology
• How to make a successful interview (your guide to winning your dream job)
• How to make a professional presentation (impress employers!)

Through this sequence, we have mentioned to you the three basic job search steps, namely planning the search process, marketing yourself, and preparing for a personal interview. Each step has several basic points that fall below them.

In addition to some important sources for you in personal marketing, and passing the personal interview, you have in your hands a comprehensive guide to the steps of finding a suitable job.

We hope that the article was useful to you, and we are waiting for your comments and questions, and we will be very happy to answer them quickly.