Wondering Why Recruiters Don’t Call?

Three reasons your LinkedIn profile isn’t generating recruiter calls

While recruiters have different methods of sourcing candidates the one thing most of them will do is take a look at your LinkedIn profile. A lot of employers will be checking you out on LinkedIn too. What they find or do not find there can mean the difference between you getting the opportunity to interview for a job and them clicking on the next profile.

This is why having a robust LinkedIn profile is essential.  You need a profile that will not only sell recruiters on your skills and experience but make it easy for them to find and contact you as well. With that in mind here are three reasons that your LinkedIn profile isn’t generating any recruiter calls.

There’s No Photo

Camera shy? Get over it. Many jobseekers have told me that they don’t put a photo on their LinkedIn profile because they are afraid of discrimination. They fear that someone will think they are too old or too young or too fat or too thin or too ethnic or too whatever. The truth is that you can’t hide from employers forever. A hiring manager is going to want to see you – even if that means a Skype interview – before they extend a job offer.

When a recruiter clicks on a LinkedIn profile without a photo they wonder why. They may think you have something to hide. After all although LinkedIn is primarily used for business it’s still considered a social site. People want to see your picture because it helps them to get a sense of who you are.

No, you don’t need to set up a professional photo shoot. But a photo that isn’t obviously a cut-down group shot is a good idea. If you work in a conservative industry you might want to take a picture in business attire. Otherwise a clear photo of you dressed in business casual, preferably smiling, will do.

Not long ago I came across a LinkedIn profile where the woman had a photo of her in a wedding gown. I wondered about the judgment of someone would post a wedding photo on a business networking site so I decided to move on.

There’s No Contact Information

If you want recruiters, hiring managers or anyone else to contact you put your contact information on your LinkedIn profile. Some people put it in their Advice for Contacting section. Others put it in the most read section, the summary.

Worried about SPAM? Set up a separate email address just to post on LinkedIn. If you’d like to include a phone number too but worry about sharing your cell number with the public (and you’re in the U.S.) you can get a number from Google Voice. Besides being easy to do it’s free.

One of the great things about using Google Voice is that you can set it up to forward calls to your phone when you want to be available and switch it to voicemail when you don’t.  As a bonus when someone leaves a message Google sends you an email so you’re never completely out of touch.

With the recent change in LinkedIn’s InMail policy putting your contact information on your profile is even more important. Back in September LinkedIn announced that as of January 2015 members will only be credited back for InMails which receive a response, instead of being credited back for those that do not. So if a recruiter has to use an InMail they are more likely to think twice about contacting you.

Recently, I was scanning a potential candidate’s profile looking for contact information. Under the Advice for Contacting section the guy had written “I’d love to talk to you contact me about anything” the downside was that there was no contact information. Duh!

There’s No Way To Find You

Professionals who write LinkedIn profiles for a living know that in order for someone to come up in a recruiter’s search the profile has to be keyword rich. Recruiters sometimes search by job title but they often search by keywords related to the job, things like SEO, analytics, media planning, product management, integrated marketing, etc. If your profile does not have the keywords they’re searching for you may come in at number 641 out of 765 in the search results. If you even come up at all.

If a recruiter does happen to stumble upon your resume it’s unlikely they’ll be compelled to contact you if your profile begins with a sketchy summary followed by job titles and dates of employment. Most likely if they are sourcing candidates they are looking for a very particular set of skills not just someone with a certain job title. When they don’t see what they’re looking for they move on.

Having a weak profile can also hurt you when someone searches specifically for you. A potential candidate I contacted told me that he wasn’t looking and suggested I contact his friend. When I clicked on the link he provided to her LinkedIn profile there was nothing beyond a few words in the summary and a job title. There was nothing that made me want to contact her.

Today many employers are researching candidates online. If you’re not using your LinkedIn profile to sell yourself as a candidate and make it easy for recruiters to contact you you’re doing yourself a real disservice. Always remember that your profile is a marketing piece ̶ use it to your best advantage.

Want to have your LinkedIn profile reviewed by a pro visit career-intelligence.com’s  Resume Writing & Career Services

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