My tweet received pretty much questions from different developers. It takes a lot of time to give the answers for everyone. That's why I decided to make a post here with some of the general tips.
Let's dive right into the tips step by step.
If you are searching for a job, be sure your LinkedIn profile is updated and the most important sections are filled.
Recruiters use Boolean search to find developers in LinkedIn. That's why it's very important to fill all the gaps with proper information. Here are several tips:
- Use your description section below the name to show you are searching for a job. The most common phrases are "open for new opportunities" or "looking for a job".
- Go to Settings and Privacy -> Job seeking preferences -> Let Recruiters know you're open to opportunities. This option is OFF by default. Turn it ON and you will also upgrade your visibility for recruiters.
- Fill your About section. Add some information about you and what is more important - add your stack and technologies you are using or used before.
- Update your Skills section and add technologies you are using.
- Add all the main Courses and Online Courses you have passed (Only main and valuable). This will add some points to your experience and knowledge of the field.
- Add Certificates if you have any related to IT branch. It may not be important on the tech interview, but will be useful to pass the HR/Recruiter interview.
- Fill Languages section. Sometimes it's very important for the employer and this one little section can totally change the Recruiter's vision.
All of this tips will highly increase your visibility when recruiters will use Boolean search in LinkedIn to find a developer.
A lot of people trying to find their first job on twitter. Yes, it's possible, but usually not works for junior developers.
But there are several things you can do to increase your hiring chances if the Recruiter will find you:
- Change your bio description and add information about searching for a job (like in LinkedIn).
- Try to be active. If the recruiter will find your profile, it's important to show that you are still in game. So please, don't forget about your twitter profile and at least made some tweets periodically.
GitHub
Nowadays recruiters have additional tools to make search easier. There are several tools for searching through GitHub profiles. Don't hesitate to add the same 'open for new opportunities' info to your bio, your current level and stack.
Also, try to be active in your own repository. It's not very important for hiring but a good sign in general.
A few additional advice
- Open your profiles and DM's on every social media you are using. It's very common situation when you just can't send a message in twitter to a person that may be interested in job.
- Add contact info to your social media profiles.
- Add photo to your profile.
- Never start looking for a job without prepared Resume and Portfolio.
And one really helpful advice - find a friend-recruiter. Usually recruiters have several thousands connects in LinkedIn and they can boost your profile among other recruiters and employers. Your hiring chances will increase significantly.
I hope this information will be useful for you. These are just general and the basic tips. However, a lot of people forget about them.
If you want to know something deeper - write me.
If you want some Resume advice - write me.
If you want any help with hiring advice - write me.
Will do my best.
Top comments (20)
Some additional tips:
Recruiters
Yes they contact you for something that have nothing to do with what you want to do. Call them anyway. Let them present their offer and finally say that unfortunately it's not a good match. Then ask open questions like whether they have other offers, what kind of salary you can ask for, ...
LinkedIn
**junior** web developerin your job title, replace it right now withweb developer. It's not your job to say that you are not good enough.I know, it would be really weird to do this in the real life, but LinkedIn is not real life, just a marketing tool.
GitHub
Contribute to GitHub yes, but target them.
Great advice!
Also, if there are less than 200 connects, you can add not only devs, but recruiters too.
Then you can create a post that you are looking for a job and a lot of recruiters from your connects will see it. Maybe one of them will have an opening related to the person's experience.
Great advice, Stas!
I only disagree on writing "looking for a job" or such. It makes the applicant look desperate, which is a great way to get very poor offers, and quite redundant as the check on "looking for opportunities" option is more than enough for them to notice.
I agree. In addition it also masks their added value. When scanning a page with only candidates cards (Photo + Name + title), if you can't clearly see what the candidate's expertise is (but only "open to new opportunities), you are encouraged to move on to the next one.
(I also believe that the keywords in the title are better indexed. To be confirmed).
As I know, Boolean search is just scanning all the page for keywords.
Good to know, thanks :)
Thank you!
To be honest, I didn't heard such opinion from other recruiters. It's interesting.
I'm no recruiter, but I've seen many advising against it
If you will ask 100 recruiters their opinion, you will have 100 different answers.
Actually, I can agree with that, but usually I don't pay attention to this factor. If someone is looking for a job and he is good for the opening, I will consider this person.
Good article. Do you think algorithm platforms like hackerrank, project euler, and leetcode are important as well for recruiters? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Yes, they are also important. But:
They may be not very important for HR (many of them didn't know what is that) but will be a plus on tech interview.
As I know, in big companies amount of passed tasks on Hackerrank and LeetCode are a very big plus (I mean, not 2-3 passed tasks, but 100-200 etc).
So yeah, you can also add this information. Especially, in social media.
Good to note. Thank you for explaining! Good luck :)
Hackerrank etc... are terrible, they measure nothing that really matters.
Companies use them anyway :(
This platforms are not for measuring anything.
Nobody will never make a decision based only on this platforms. They are serving as a plus to your CV.
And they show that you are working on your skills and can not only write typical code, but also solve challenging tasks.
I actually deleted my LinkedIn account because it was getting too much interaction from recruiters, but wasn't actually helping me secure any jobs. It can be a very hard balance to be able to use LinkedIn effectively to grow a network while also only getting relevant job offers to you.
Nice advice
Thanks a lot, Ben!
Not the best, but pretty okay.
Recruiters and HR's are always open for new connections. Devs are mostly too.
In LinkedIn I accept all invitations without thinking twice about it.
Same for me)
It's much easier to find the job if you have more connections.