5 Top Kenyan Job Search Tips For Online Applications

By Agnes Aineah

Job seekers are taking advantage of new media to make their job search fast and also to keep at par with companies that are using technology to source for employees. Such media platforms include Face book, twitter, LinkedIn and many others. A good LinkedIn profile is bound to turn around your tedious job search so that employers come looking for you.

According to Michael Gacha, Recruitment Assistant at Corporate Staffing Services, it is a common thing for recruiters to use job applicants’ LinkedIn profiles in the course of headhunting for a particular position.

“After I advertise for a particular vacancy I get responses of people expressing their interest to take up the offer couple with many applications. I ensure that I visit each particular job seeker’s LinkedIn profile to check their suitability for the job,” Mr Gacha says.
Mr Gacha says that it is only an impressive LinkedIn profile from an applicant that attracts him to go ahead and extend a job interview invitation.

Here are a few things you need to polish on your LinkedIn profile to make it attractive to employers so that they invite you for a job interview.

Areas To Polish On Your LinkedIn Profile To Get A Job Faster

Unlike other electronic and new media platforms, LinkedIn provides you with an avenue to echo out your relevance in the career field as loud as you can. It goes beyond the CV that limits you to two pages and a cover letter that should be short as well.

Mr Gacha reveals the most important aspects that never escape his scrutiny while headhunting to fill a particular position.

1. Your profile picture
This is the first thing on your LinkedIn profile that you need to polish to show that you are a serious job seeker. It is the first thing that the person viewing your profile sees.

As Florence Mukunya, Career Advisor at Corporate Staffing Services points out, this is not an opportunity for you to use photos that you would otherwise need on social platforms.
“Pick your best official photo, preferable passport size because it is an official platform. Maintain professionalism as much as possible. It is not the time for you to upload selfies,” She says.

2. Your work experience
This is an entry where you fill the places of work you have ever been, the titles you have held and specific roles in your position.

Make your work roles as detailed as possible. Let potential recruiters know your job description by merely looking at your profile. It is the best chance to echo your suitability, so use it. Job seekers err when they only mention their position and just leave it at that so that the person viewing your LinkedIn profile does not know the specific roles you carried out.

For instance, if you were a communications officer at ABC company, go ahead to describe the day to day duties you were charged with while at the company that could include preparing newsletters and press releases, updating the website, representing the company in external functions, taking notes, and so on. Don’t just leave it at Communications Officer.

3. Key words
Wherever there is textual information on your LinkedIn profile, make it as keyword rich as possible. Keywords include terms that are relevant to your career path. Employers are more likely to filter LinkedIn users into the lot they require for a certain vacancy by use of specific search words. Know what your field entails and the relevant jargon that you can use on your profile.

IT jargon for instance is specific to the various professions within the field prompting them to talk about programming, software development, debugging, network architect, cyber security analysis, cyber attacks and so on.

4. Type of people in your circles
LinkedIn is a little more than social sites that people connect with just anyone. For LiknedIn, it should be people mainly relevant to your career goals.

Have people and companies in circles that are bound to add significant to your job search. It is such people that can connect you to a new job or give you relevant career advice.

Even though the number of people in your LinkedIn profile connections make a significant impression to your potential employer, these people are supposed to be those that matter to your job search. Mr Gacha says that he does not pay much attention to the number of connection a job seeker has in their connections.

“It is easy to get people in your connection that you have no idea who they are. Far much easier is to have them endorsing you for skills that you do not have at all. Only skills that match your career path are the ones that I look for when I am narrowing down on specific job’s candidates,” he says.

This could be the time you devoted a little more energy on your LinkedIn profile to get the employers looking for you. Compared to other media platforms, LinkedIn is what recruiters are using more to seek for suitable candidates as companies rush for space on the cutting edge of technology.