Master Class: LinkedIn Power: Cranking Up Your Visibility

The free LinkedIn Premium subscription you can get as a veteran or military spouse opens up so many off label tools for jobseeking military. Here are the instructions you need to start using these tools.

Linkedin In Premium

To make the most of the off-label methods work, you must have LinkedIn Premium.

Sign up for 1-year LinkedIn Premium for Veterans and Spouses.

If you already used your free subscription, try this trick: post on your LinkedIn profile three times per week for two weeks. Usually this prompts LinkedIn to offer you another free month of Premium.

Privacy Mode

To search profiles and companies without outing yourself, turn on LinkedIn privacy settings. 

1. Click the me button.
2. Click premium features.
3. Scroll down to private and click it on. You will have three choices.
   1. Just name and headline
   2. Semiprivate—just your job title and industry
   3. Totally private 

Go for Open Profile

Next, while we are on this page, you are going to sign up for an open profile so past work contacts and hiring managers can reach out to you while you are on the job hunt. Recruiters who love your job skills can connect with you without losing their Inmail. You can always turn it off if you get too many job offers. 

1. Click me.
2. Click premium.
3. Scroll down to open profile.
4. Click on.

Get Your Green Halo Open to Work

Finally, if you are within 3 months of terminal leave, go ahead and click on the Open to Work halo.

1. Profile.
2. Open to button.
3. Find new job.
4. Tell us what kind of work you are open to.
5. NOTE: DESIRED JOB TITLE IS REQUIRED.
6. Onsite or remote required.
7. Location required.
8. Start date.
9. Visibility—recruiters only or all LinkedIn members.

Find out Companies and Industries Who are Interested in You

One of the best ways to figure out how you fit into the civilian work world is to take a look at who is already interested in you:

1. Me-Premium.
2. Scroll down to see who viewed your profile.
3. Click more premium analytics.
4. Click the Companies button.
5. Click Industries
6. Show all.

What if You are not Getting Seen?

If you aren’t getting interest from the industries and companies to which you are applying, there is something wrong with your profile. Fix that by pulling keywords out of the job listing. I will teach you exactly how to do that in our checklist resume master classes this month.

Search by Job:

If you have an idea of what job you want but you are not sure, do a job hunt using that term.

1. From your home page 
2. Put a job title into the search engine that is very general, like PROJECT MANAGER, DEFENSE CONTRACTOR, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, PROFESSIONAL COACH, QUALITY ASSURANCE, OPERATIONS MANAGER, INTELLIGENCE ANALYST, OPERATIONS ANALYST, COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER.
3. Click jobs.
4. Click all filters.
5. Scroll down to industry. What do you see?
6. Scroll down to job function—the area of the company that employs this job title.
7. Scroll down to job title. On your phone, computer, or notebook, collect the job titles that look relevant to your job search. 

Search by Industry

1. From your home page: 
2. Put in an industry title like defense, space, logistics, or transportation.
3. Click all filters.
4. Scroll down to companies—this is who is hiring.
5. Scroll down to industry—these are related industries.
6. Scroll down to job TITLE. What do you see? These are possibilities in your chosen field.

Do an Ice-Cold Reality Check

1. From your home page:
2. Put your current job title (or your most significant job title.) into the search engine.
3. Click the People button.
4. Click the first connections—these are people you know, so you can better understand their career trajectory.
5. Collect job titles.
6. If anyone who had your current job landed the kind of job you want with a company, that is great news. Past behavior is a great predictor of future behavior. This is a warm area for you. You may have hit on your “desired role.” 
7. If not, why not? Maybe they had another job first. What was it?

Search by Goal Company

1. Type the GOAL Company name into the search engine. You could also use one of the companies we included on our TOP VETERAN EMPLOYER LIST.
2. Click on the name of the company.
3. Click “people”
4. See where they live, where they studied, what they do IT< Engineering Operations, program and project management, biz dev, education, what they are skilled at leadership, military, what they studied (their major).
5. Note their profiles—what are they wearing in their picture? What is their background? What does their headline look like? 
6. Click “insights” –month of new hires, recent executive hires.
7. Click the 1^st connections box.
8. Growth, hiring trends (what month),
9. Job openings by function
10. Go back to the top and click on jobs to find job titles. 

Resources

• LinkedIn Worksheet