How To Find A Remote Job

Ep #65: Set Up LinkedIn To Find A Remote Job

00:00 / 13:20

LinkedIn is such a powerful networking and job searching tool that you can use to position yourself as an expert in your field, as well as an ideal remote candidate for the 1,000s of companies actively scouring the global talent pool for you!

Not only is it a way to be discovered by remote companies and headhunters, but most remote companies request your LinkedIn profile, and they head right over there once they receive your cover letter and CV. They look at your network and it’s size, how you’ve positioned yourself, your activity, and more!

And since you can add so much detail about yourself on LinkedIn, it’s the perfect place to show yourself off. In this episode we talk about how to set up your LinkedIn Profile to empower your applications. We cover:

A sneaky trick I use to increase my search appearances to 835 per week
Why your ‘activity’ matters (even if you think no one is reading!)
Your experience, skills & endorsements and how they complement your CV

Get the Podcast Study Pack 3 and receive a worksheet, guide or checklist workbook for every episode, so you can make your remote career & transition a reality ASAP.

Whether you have a LinkedIn profile or not, it’s a really good idea to create one or spruce it up, because once you’re set up you have a great ‘landing page’ for remote companies once they receive your application, and a way to be discovered by companies actively searching for new talent. The LinkedIn search function is powerful.

Let’s get started by going through the most important parts of your profile one by one.

1.Your Profile Name

You have two input fields for your first name and last name, but I used these a little differently! I use the first input field for my first name, last name and a comma, and the second input field I have ‘Remote Marketing Strategist’, so my name shows in my profile and in all my comments as: ‘Stephanie Holland, Remote Marketing Strategist’. The first week I made this change I started getting 835 search appearances, which is where your profile is discovered based on someone else’s search. Pretty cool, right?!

2. Your Profile Headline

This is your who, what, why.

This is why knowing your own passion, purpose, vision, mission and values is really important, so you can find the right role for you, and attract attention from the right kinds of people and companies.

I’ve been experimenting with various formats of this, which is two-fold for me, because not only am I a remote marketing strategist, but also a remote career mentor, and I use LinkedIn to attract companies and mentees. So I have TWO headlines that I use depending on whether I’m actively looking for a remote role or not.

For example, I’m going to share mine with you but obviously don’t copy them, that would be seriously uncool and just irrelevant to you. Use them to inspire you to create your own highly relevant headline that perfectly captures who you help, what you offer and why.

When I’m looking for a remote role my who, what why is:

Strategist & Comms Planner Helping Game-Changing Brands Magnify Their Message, Profit & Impact | 100% Remote

When I’m promoting my remote career sessions, why who what why is:

I Help Marketers Find & Succeed In A Remote Job To Build Career & Life Simultaneously | 1:1 Remote Career Consults | Thriving Empire Podcast

Use keywords, dividers, and structure it how you like! You can also use emojis if you like. You don’t have to put ‘remote’ in your headline, but you can. Remember, companies are looking for the right talent and most will be willing to onboard you as a remote newbie.

Here’s a funny quirk: if you change your headline with the iPhone app, you get more characters to work with. I have an Android phone, so I don’t have that luxury. I actually like being forced to use less words, because it keeps me concise. But you can also borrow a friend’s iPhone if you need more word space.

3. Your About Info

Ok, this is where you can add a little more detail. I always start with a line about who I am, what I do and why. In my case it’s working with companies either healing the heart of humanity or leaving the world a little different than we found it in some way.

Then I have a line about why I love working remotely, the impact it has on me personally and for business in general. If you don’t have remote experience, don’t worry. This is where you get to show an interest in remote work, your reasons why, and emphasise why this is your priority right now (as in, it’s the future of work, ushering in happier people and greater creativity & innovation obviously!). If you think having this info in your profile will affect your current role, leave it out here. You can instead emphasise it in your cover letter.

And then finally I end with a 3-sentence paragraph on what kind of marketing I do, the kind of solutions I create, and what skills, traits and attribute I can bring to a team.

I also add a line about my remote career mentoring, but in your case that’s irrelevant!

In this section you’ll want to think about peppering in some of the traits (ep #54), characteristics (ep #61) and skills (ep #60) we’ve talked about in those episodes.

You can check out my LinkedIn profile but heading over to https://stephanieholland.co/linkedin.

4. Your Articles & Activity

I think it’s worth weighing in on some conversations about your field of expertise, because in this section your comments, posts and articles can be seen, and recruiters and companies do look here.

Imagine if they read your smart comments & ideas that you’ve contributed to current issues, themes in your industry from your professional point of view?

So here’s what you can do:

Daily: Write a thought of the day about your area of expertise. Perhaps it’s a link anda thoughtful comment about an article you’ve read and why it’s important, interesting or even… incorrect! You can actually postup to 4 times a day. But once is the bare minimum.
Daily: Search for topical conversations happening in your area of expertise via a hashtag in the search box. Weigh in, join the conversation. Be happy, positive, supportive and share your opinion with confidence and compassion.
Weekly: Write an article that demonstrates your ideas, experiences, expertise. Get creative.

5. Your Experience

Now this is where you get to showcase your wealth of experience. In the last episode I recommended creating a one-page CV that showcases your 3 most relevant roles, with a link to LinkedIn to view the rest. So here is where you can list EVERY single role.

For each role, write what you did, but also specify the outputs & results you created. Remote companies focus on output over hours, so you really need to showcase what you produced and what kind of results it created, for every single role. And strike a balance between being detailed but brief!

There’s now a new function that allows you to specific ‘remote’ as the job location. But again, you’ll only use it if you have remote experience. All good!

The next 2 sections are Education, and Licenses and Certification, just make sure they are up to date and full of fabulous detail.

6. Your Skills & Endorsements

This is where you can really fly with your skills! Add everything you can think of as this helps your discoverability for companies and recruiters actively searching for talent.

I’ve been super slack with asking for endorsements. In 2005 I had 1-2 endorsements for each role, and then I had a social media tantrum and shut down my profile. I created a new profile a year later and never got around to asking for endorsements or recommendations. But both are powerful. Ask a previous colleague or manager to write one for you.

MakeYour LinkedIn Profile Remote-Job Friendly Today

There are elements of the profile I haven’t gone into, like photo, and header image, but you’re a grown up, use your best judgement. Be creative, show off your personality, skills and experience in the best way you know how!

So get cracking on your LinkedIn profile today. Crack open worksheet #13 which guides you through creating your Headline and About sections, and gives you a checklist for the most important details to remember.

If you don’t have the worksheet yet don’t worry, head over here to get your copy there.