I'm Louise Fletcher. As President of 
I'm Chandlee Bryan. As a career coach and resume writer with experience from Manhattan to Main Street, I help job seekers connect with opportunity by sharing news, trends and best practices. I'm the Managing Editor of Career Hub and run 
Recruiting Trends predicts that, in three years, every professional in the US will have a profile on LinkedIn. That’s about two new users every second! According to this article http://www.recruitingtrends.com/why-linkedin-is-changing-everything, recruiters will have to change or adapt their talent management strategies. How recruiters talent search LinkedIn and other social networking sites has evolved over the last few years, but sourcing candidates will need to be more aggressive to capture just the right candidates. What does that mean to you as an executive job seeker?
Recruiters posting job opportunities to career websites will be the second step in a talent search and may phase out entirely. Chances of finding well-qualified candidates is so much higher using LinkedIn that the first step will be marketing job openings there. According to Recruiting Trends, “Depending on the level and the strategic importance of the position, job marketing strategies can range from direct contact resulting from close connections you have in common, to leveraging an executive search firm to get the call back, to targeted display ads appearing on a tablet newspaper. Leading brand names will always have an advantage here, but creative approaches and timing will enable organizations to reach anyone at any time.”
The Skills/Expertise section is very important for everyone on LinkedIn, and especially to the executive in career transition. Recruiters use this tool to refine their choice of candidates. If your skills don’t match their criteria, you could be the best candidate for the position, but you will not have a chance. This doesn’t mean you need to fill this section with every skill you’ve ever mastered. What is effective is to make sure the skills you excel in and want to use going forward in your career are highlighted. Be sure to fill in your level of expertise and don’t rely on LinkedIn to figure that out for you. Only you know what strengths you possess.
The ultimate goal of recruiters is to find a candidate that is a good fit for the organization and company culture. After all, the company wants to avoid high turnover in employees as it is disruptive and costs money to keep replacing people. This means that hiring managers and recruiters will have to hone their talent at marketing job opportunities to potential candidates and sharpen their skills at selecting just the right candidate for the best fit.
LinkedIn will create a larger pool than it already does, of candidates for recruiters to search in the near future. As an executive considering a career change or in the midst of transition, make sure your LinkedIn profile is sharp and showcases the talent and skills that will attract the attention of recruiters and hiring managers. If you need help making your LinkedIn profile pop, consider having your LinkedIn profile professionally written.
