How to Find and Reach Out to Recruiters on LinkedIn

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With 950 million users, LinkedIn is the most powerful networking platform for professionals. It’s the digital crossroads where ambition meets opportunity.

Most job seekers create a LinkedIn profile and patiently wait for recruiters to come knocking. But this passive strategy might take too long, or not work at all.

In a competitive job market, sitting on the sidelines isn’t always the best approach. You’ll find more success if you find and reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn yourself.

By taking the initiative, you not only increase your visibility but you also demonstrate your drive and determination—qualities that recruiters often seek in potential candidates.

So why wait? Dive in and learn how to make LinkedIn work for you.

How to find recruiters on LinkedIn

There are three different ways you can find recruiters on LinkedIn:

1. Use the LinkedIn search bar

The LinkedIn search bar located at the top of your screen allows you to search for people, groups, jobs, companies, and posts.

 You can also use the filters to narrow down your search by location, industry, company name, and others. Click the “All filters” button to see more options:

A list of recruiters will then appear. You can check through their profiles and strategically choose which recruiters to connect with.

2. Use the job posting

You can also search for the specific job you are interested in. Type the job you want in the search bar and make sure that you choose “Jobs” in the filter section.

Narrow your search using the other filters. Once you see the results, click the company you are interested in.

Then check the “Meet the hiring team” section and send the hiring manager or recruiter a personal message.

3. Check the company profile

Search for the company profile on LinkedIn search. Click on the company profile then go to the “People” section. In this example, you can see that there are 287,951 LinkedIn members who work at Google.

On the search bar under the number of employees, you can refine your search by typing “recruiter” or “talent acquisition.” You can also further narrow the search by adding the specific department or product you are interested in. 

For example, you can type “recruiter product management.” From 200 thousand employees, we now have 314 employees. You can tweak your keywords to target your search. 

Below this section, you will then see a list of recruiters who match your search criteria. You can then shoot one or more recruiters a personalized message.

How to reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn

Now that you already determined the specific recruiters you want to reach out to, you need to know how to effectively connect with them without appearing too aggressive.

Here’s how.

1. Send the recruiter a connection request

 On the recruiter’s profile, click on “More” then click “Connect.”

2. Send the recruiter a personalized message

After you click connect, you will be given an option to customize your invitation.

Click “Add a note” and write your personalized message on the text box then click send.

Tips on writing your message to a recruiter

Here are some key points to remember when writing your LinkedIn message to the recruiter.

How LinkedIn recruitment works

Although talent sourcing methods differ, almost every hiring manager or recruiter uses one of LinkedIn’s two talent acquisition solutions: LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite.

Through LinkedIn, recruiters, headhunters, and hiring managers can find the right fit for open positions by using advanced search filters such as:

They can also get granular with their search by using the Spotlight section, where they can choose to see only those candidates who: 

Read our full guide here: Job Seeker’s Guide to LinkedIn Recruiter Search

While recruiter’s sourcing techniques vary, you can improve your LinkedIn Recruiter search ranking by optimizing key sections of your LinkedIn profile.

Jobscan’s LinkedIn Optimization tool helps automate this process by analyzing your profile against relevant job descriptions and industry data. Try it now.

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94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet job candidates. Optimize your LinkedIn profile and show that you’re a recruiter’s perfect candidate.

Click here to start optimizing your LinkedIn profile

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How do you get recruiters to find you on LinkedIn?

To increase your chances of getting to the top of a recruiter’s list, you need to do two critical things:

When you scan your LinkedIn profile into Jobscan, in just a few minutes, you will get a score of how optimized your profile is to the jobs you are interested in. You will get a list of keywords you need to include and expert tips on how to improve every section of your profile.

All you need to do is:

1. Connect your LinkedIn account.
2. Upload a pdf of your LinkedIn profile.
3. Add at least three job descriptions you are interested in.

Then the tool will scan your profile against the job descriptions and generate a comprehensive report.

You can check this video for a step-by-step guide:

How do you optimize your profile to get recruited on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn Recruiter and Recruiter Lite algorithms factor in your profile sections and user activity when generating search results. Because of this, you need to make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized with keywords that recruiters might look for. 

Here are the most important sections with actual tips from recruiters.

1. LinkedIn Headline

The profile headline is weighted heavily in LinkedIn’s search algorithms as well as recruiter behavior. 

A recruiter is likely to begin their search with specific job titles, and candidates with a matching job title in their headline will appear higher in results.

Read our full guide: 18 Impactful LinkedIn Headline Examples from Real People

Check out this video for specific examples of winning LinkedIn headlines: 

With Jobscan’s optimization tool, you can check whether your LinkedIn headline matches the job titles in the job description and whether it is the right length.

Here’s what it looks like:

2. Job Titles

The next most prominent piece of information shown in search results is your current and past job titles.

“I would argue that [the job title] is your most important field, and would strongly recommend that you use the [available] characters to its full potential.”

– Levi Lewis, search engine expert who researched LinkedIn’s search functions during his own job search

For example:

Instead of just putting “Project Manager,” you can say “Project Manager, eCommerce Customer Experience for Checkout, Cart, and Post-order.”

Here’s an image of what LinkedIn Recruiter’s top results look like for a “Data Scientist” keyword search in Seattle, WA. Top candidates have the job title or keyword in their headline, current job title, and at least one past job title.

The specific wording of your job titles is also important! Tweak your job title to incorporate common terminology used in your industry or match the exact job title of the position you are interested in when possible.

“With title, there’s not necessarily a standardization. You can be a front-end engineer, but maybe at your company, they call you front-end developers, software developers, or web developers. There’s a lot of different titles for any given skillset.”

– Jonathan White, senior recruiter with both agency and in-house experience

Jobscan’s LinkedIn optimization tool checks specifically for job title match and whether your work experience section is optimized for the jobs you are applying for.

3. Keywords

Keywords are the building blocks of your LinkedIn profile. If you want to attract hiring managers, ensure you make use of the right keywords.

Recruiters search for keywords by using LinkedIn Recruiter’s built-in skills filtering tool or by plugging all relevant terms into the search bar.

“I go into a keyword search and put in different buzzwords that I pull from the specific job description,” says White. “If I was looking for a front-end developer, I would put in Javascript, CSS, HTML, HTML5…”

Keywords make the biggest impact on LinkedIn search ranking when they appear in a profile headline or job title, but they can also be placed in job descriptions and the LinkedIn profile summary. 

Skills and keywords listed in your “Skills & Endorsements” section are searchable but not weighted as highly as keywords in other sections.

To make sure you have all the right keywords in your profile, scan it with Jobscan. Then jump to the skills section of the report and see which skills are:

• Common based on your profile and industry
• Required for the jobs you are interested in

Then incorporate these into your LinkedIn profile to increase your chances of being seen by recruiters.

4. About Section or LinkedIn Summary

Your LinkedIn summary or About section is a great place to incorporate relevant keywords. These keywords could be industry-related or experience-based. However, a mixture of both would be helpful, depending on your experience. 

To boost your LinkedIn profile’s visibility, use keywords in your profile summary that a hiring manager could type into a search box.

Read our full guide: How to Write a Powerful LinkedIn Summary: Examples and Tips

You scan your profile into Jobscan and get a detailed breakdown of how to improve your LinkedIn summary based on length, skills, tone, and more.

Here’s an example of what the report looks like:

5. Location

Recruiters aren’t only looking for the right skills. They’re looking for candidates who are likely to accept the job offer. Because of this, some recruiters are more likely to target local candidates at the beginning of their search.

“When I searched for candidates in LinkedIn Recruiter, I’d typically begin with the location. I’d keep it under a 20-mile radius. Sometimes I would even [search within] five miles.”

– Jonathan White

You can’t qualify for localized searches without adding your location to your LinkedIn profile. 

Pro Tip: Specify which cities you’re willing to relocate to in your “Career interests” settings.

To update your location preferences and other settings, click “Jobs” in LinkedIn’s top navigation bar. Then, click “Career interests” under the search bar.

6. LinkedIn Profile URL

Having a custom profile URL is beneficial to ranking in LinkedIn search results. When a hiring manager using LinkedIn Recruiter or Recruiter Lite searches for keywords you have used, a custom URL can help your profile rank higher.

For example:

A default URL looks like this:

www.linkedin.com/in/john-doe-08b73111b/

You can create a custom profile URL by changing the default URL to:

www.linkedin.com/in/john-doe-san-francisco/ 

Or

www.linkedin.com/in/john-doe-project-manager/

Creating a custom URL also looks better when included on a resume and helps your LinkedIn profile carry more weight in external search results. If a recruiter or hiring manager googles your name and position, a custom URL helps improve your profile’s rank.

3 Tips to increase your visibility to recruiters

Here are three more tips to boost your chances of appearing in LinkedIn recruiter searches.

1. Join LinkedIn recruiter groups

One way of finding recruiters and connecting with them is by joining LinkedIn groups especially recruiter groups.

All you have to do is search for “Recruiter + [Location] or [Industry]” then filter by “Groups.” Then join the group you are interested in. Try to engage with and add value to the members of the group.

2. Set up LinkedIn job alerts

Setting up job alerts is one way of leveraging LinkedIn to maximize your job search. With this, you will receive a notification whenever a job is posted for your target job or company.

Here’s how you do it.

Search for the specific job and location you are interested in on LinkedIn’s search bar. Make sure to filter it under Jobs and narrow your search by using the filters.

Let’s say you are interested to apply for a Software Engineer position at Google and you prefer to work remotely. You can specify these under the Company and On-site/Remote filters. You can also click on the “All filters” button to be more specific on what it is that you prefer.

LinkedIn will then show you a list of all the jobs at Google that match your preferences. Then all you need to do is click on the toggle button that says “Set alert.”

You can also set up a job alert by company so that you get notified whenever there’s a new job posting.

On the company’s LinkedIn page, click on Jobs.

Then click on “Create job alert.”

How to manage your job alerts on LinkedIn

To manage your LinkedIn job alerts, you can simply click on Jobs on the header. 

Then click on Job Alerts.

Then click on the pencil icon.

You can then specify your alert frequency and the means of getting your notifications, and whether you want to be notified of similar jobs.

3. Use the #OpentoWork feature

This is another LinkedIn feature that you can use to let others know that you are open to new job opportunities. 

Here’s what you do:

1. Below your profile photo, there’s a section that says show recruiter you’re open for work. Click get started and answer all the prompts. You can then specify the kind of work you are open to.

Now the crucial part is the visibility option. You can choose whether you want all LinkedIn users to know you are open to work or if you want to limit it only for recruiters.

We recommend that if you’re currently hired and looking to move to another job, limit your visibility to recruiters only.

What else is keeping recruiters from finding you?

Here are a few more things that keep recruiters from finding your LinkedIn profile, plus tips from experts.

Key Takeaways

Here are important points to remember:

Check out Jobscan LinkedIn optimization to receive tips tailored to your profile and job search.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is LinkedIn Recruiter?

LinkedIn recruiter is a talent acquisition solution that assists enterprise recruiters in locating and engaging prospects for their sourcing needs. 

What is Recruiter Lite?

LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is also a talent acquisition solution, but it assists individuals working in small-to-medium firms with low-volume employment needs.

What does LinkedIn Recruiter do?

LinkedIn Recruiter allows recruiters and HR professionals to source job candidates more effectively by using advanced searches and filters.

Is LinkedIn recruiting worth it?

Yes. LinkedIn is the #1 professional networking site, with over 57 million companies and 850 million users on the platform. If a recruiter wants to easily scout candidates, LinkedIn is the best place to start sourcing.

How do you rank highly in a LinkedIn Recruiter search?

To rank highly in a LinkedIn search, you need to optimize for:

1. LinkedIn’s search algorithms, which consider a variety of LinkedIn profile sections and user activity to rank results
2. Recruiters who have their own preferences, tendencies, and tricks to compile lists of top candidates.

How do you reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn?

Connecting with a recruiter can help you in your job search. You can reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn by simply typing “Recruiter” or “Headhunter” in the LinkedIn search bar. Click the “People” tab to further narrow your search. You may also specify which industry by adding the word in the search bar.

How much does LinkedIn Recruiter cost?

LinkedIn Recruiter costs roughly around $8,999 per year. A monthly plan would cost $825.

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