To link in or not to link in is a question on the minds of many executives entering the job market. Here is a simple and definitive answer. Do it! Do it not because it might be nice, or it might be helpful in building a professional brand if you create a profile page. Do it because without a LinkedIn presence you will slowly become invisible.
Given that 93 percent of corporate recruiters use the platform to aid their search for talent and that there is no real other competitive platform that affords the same level of exposure, if you are not on LinkedIn — in a meaningful way — then you are rapidly becoming invisible to recruiters. The role this platform plays in candidate identification and screening will only play a more and more powerful role in the job search market.
Within five years, the vast majority of corporate recruiters for the Fortune 1000 will be using LinkedIn to search for talent and then decide, based on content and the way it is written — the words that are used — whether the company even wants to screen the executive. They will be able to develop a DISC© profile using content that will aid in their determination as to an executive’s “fit” with a particular company, resume unseen.
For theLinkedIN career management personalities who are campaigning for a return to the “human” in Human Relations this new technological development will be seen as a big setback, but the executive suite demand for error-free hiring will trump the kinder, gentler days of recruitment these advocates long for.
In a nutshell, if you do not post, and if you have limited information available for the recruiters or their bots, you are screwed. On the other hand, if you have a robust profile with content you created, you may be affording those bots that patrol LinkedIn pages all day and all night, more reasons to eliminate you because they have decided you are not fit for their company based on how and what your write. Let me explain.
There is emerging technology that will enable employers to survey your LinkedIn profile to determine if you are someone they want to screen. They do this by looking at your content, not necessarily just your resume or work history, and then, using that information, create a DISC (behavior and personality) profile. They will make preliminary hiring decisions to eliminate those who do not fit” from the dozens or hundreds of candidates they select to screen. While this best generation of screening technology is not widely used today it is only a matter of time, sooner than later, when programs like these will be making the important talent acquisition decisions.
You must master this and other emerging technologies. You must understand how recruiting bots work today and how they will work in the future as artificial intelligence in talent acquisition grows more sophisticated. That employers will use what and how you write on sites like LinkedIn to qualify you for screening even before they see your resume is a certainty.
Career management coaches with a deep understanding of the these technological changes will soon become an indispensable resource to guide executives in how to maximize their brand and improve their appeal to potential employers.
If you are not on LInkedIn you will be invisible. If you are active but do not understand how artificial intelligence is changing how that site is used, you might as well be invisible.