How to Get a High-Paying Job, Part 2: Optimize LinkedIn
In part 1 you learned what to research to hone in on to get the high-paying job that’s right for you. In Part 2 I’ll tell you about the prep part of it, or how you first optimize LinkedIn and put that research into action.
With your research in hand you now know what kind of company you want to work for, in what capacity, and in exchange for certain perks that will make this an excellent job for you. To better your chances of securing the job, you should do more than just apply for what postings you find. Now it’s time to make yourself an attractive candidate for recruiters delighted to make your acquaintance.
I touched on this in Part 1 but it bears repeating here: if this role you want is strict about requiring more schooling, you have little choice but to go to school. However, due to the extortive nature of higher education, I’d make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN there’s no other way to get there. High-pay positions that do NOT need a strict accredited educational path include marketing, user experience (UX) design, product management, anything with “business” in the title, coding/programming, web development, and data analytics.
Some kind of education is of course needed for success, but this education can definitely come from online resources instead of expensive colleges. Wade into the Internet platforms and start reading up on how to be successful in your career path; the more you read, the more you’ll learn.
Frame Your Work Like the Nice Picture It Is
Learn how to spin your past/current experience into a plus for the company you want to be with. I’ve worked in vastly different industries, going from real estate to luxury goods to healthtech (all different from each other). But because I chose specialty before industry, spinning my marketing stack to my advantage, I was a desirable candidate. Don’t ever lie, just frame it in a flattering light.
For example, at one position I was in charge of posting to Instagram. Instead of writing “in charge of Instagram engagement” on my resume, I found out what my impact was and could truthfully write “Doubled the average engagement on our Instagram posts after taking charge, increasing our follower count by 150% in less than 10 months”. The measurements also show your prospective employers that they’ll be able to quantify your work after bringing you aboard. This is needed on their end to report how much you’re contributing, making you that much less likely to be ousted or laid off if worst comes to worst.
Another example of framing falls into what you list your job title as. There is nothing more arbitrary than a job title, and for lower-pay jobs it often doesn’t encompass your total task load. It’s not dishonest if you put down a title more in-line with what you did. For example, my first job out of college had my official title as “Receptionist and Marketing Assistant”. Yuck. We had barely any marketing presence so I did A LOT MORE than assist. On LinkedIn I put a job title that speaks more clearly both to the work I actually did, which acted as a clear stepping stone to better things.
Remaking the Resume
When rewriting your resume to better frame your experience, look at other people’s LinkedIn profiles to see how other people frame theirs. Better yet, look at the job posts for the job you want. See what line items you can speak to and how they connect to your past roles. Once you have that, you’ll have line items to put in your resume.
Speaking of line items, make sure you use bullet points to demonstrate each different task you did. Instead of writing it out like this:
Manage Company’s key marketing channels via automation and CRM software, develop and implement strategic marketing plans to increase brand awareness nationally by 20%, and manage the day-to-day operations of my marketing team to drive further company revenue.
Write it out like this:
-Manage Company’s key marketing channels via automation and CRM software
-Develop and implement strategic marketing plans to increase brand awareness nationally by 20%
-Manage the day-to-day operations of my marketing team to drive further company revenue
Bullet points get your experience across much better; a recruiter’s eyes just bounce off paragraphs, which we do not want. We need to make this easy to read at a glance, as most hiring managers don’t take the time to read through your resume.
As for the resume design, do what your gut says feels right. Don’t make it crazy or weird, but if you’re looking at a bunch of design templates just pick whichever one you like the most. That way, whoever decides to hire you will be most closely aligned with your gut feelings, always a good thing.
Your LinkedIn Profile, Step by Step
Once your resume looks good to you – and by “good,” I also mean “free of any spelling or grammar errors” – your immediate next step is to put that shit up on LinkedIn. This is the step that defines pre-recruiter-messages and post-recruiter-messages. Some little things to check up on here include ensuring your location and contact info are still accurate (or even included).
There are so many people I’ve graduated with that are better than me in every respect that matters, yet I STILL have a better job than they do. This is despite a lousier work ethic, despite less focus, and despite having zero connections. Why? Because I have a sparkling LinkedIn profile while theirs still says they’re a college student working as a cashier. Recruiters won’t even see that profile because they’re too busy looking at mine, optimized for their keyword searches. You’ll know what to optimize by looking at job postings and other engaging profiles. Both will contain the words and skills recruiters were looking for.
This keyword know-how is also very useful for filling out the “About” section of your profile, aka the summary. There are several articles that recommend a long summary to optimize LinkedIn, and you might be tempted to do just that. In a word: don’t. Keep it to two paragraphs max at 100 words total. Recruiters like getting the gist as soon as possible so make it easy on them. In these 100 words write about your career trajectory, maybe an interest or two, maybe a joke if you don’t have a stick up your ass.
How many connections do you have on LinkedIn? If it’s less than 500, get more of them. LinkedIn gives you a lot of options under the “My Network” tab up top. Go there at least a few times a week to beef up your connections section; if someone’s worked at the same place you did, or went to the same school, or is in a role you someday want, request to connect. 500+ is that magic number, which will take time so keep at it. If a hiring manager can see you’ve got a connection with someone else they know or who works at their company, this can help you stand out in the candidate pool.
The “Experiences” section is going to be you copy/pasting all pertinent information from your resume. This is a great time to double-check you have no spelling or grammar errors, which can crop up after you CTRL + V things.
The “Education” section doesn’t need any further description other than what extracurriculars you were a part of. Writing those down will tip off recruiters you’ve gone the extra mile before, and it might provide a great “in” with the right person. You never know, some hiring manager might connect hard with you because you were both involved in Greek life, sports, or animatronic puppetry. Get it all down. The only other extra thing I’d add is if you managed to graduate with Latin honors – cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude. It’s cool you’re so smart, and the extra Latin makes you fancy.
Besides writing an optimize LinkedIn “Job Experiences” section, I also have a slew of applicable skills in the “Skills and Endorsements” section. I wouldn’t worry about getting endorsements at this time, just getting the skills there in the first place. That’s what recruiters can search for, and what boosts your likelihood of hearing from them. Make sure the most relevant skills to your job search are the top 3 shown, which you can choose in the editing process.
If you type a skill into the box and nothing comes up, don’t put that skill down. Nobody’s using them in their candidate searches if not in the LinkedIn system . If you’re unsure what to put, go through a quick brainstorm exercise. When businesses add job postings to LinkedIn, they have the option to pick ten skills they’re specifically looking for from this section. What would this list look like, do you think? What would this list look like if it was expanded to 20 skills? Once you have that, add those skills and remove the ones that don’t relate.
Along with the other common things, make sure you have a professional-looking headshot (preferably with a smile) and a tidy byline. I’d suggest stating your current role in your byline, followed by the role you’re gunning for. “Blogger at We Want Guac | Efficient Product Management” would be a good start if I wanted to break into product management.
The All-Powerful MAGIC BUTTON
But all of this optimizing LinkedIn will count for little if you don’t use the LinkedIn MAGIC BUTTON. Well, it used to be a button*. It’s what places a big fat beacon on your profile and says “RIGHT HERE!!! THIS PERSON WANTS TO WORK WITH YOU!!!!!” If you’re on your LinkedIn profile page you might see it just under your headline info:
If you don’t see it, you can also find it by going to the “Jobs” tab, which is in the same top section as the search bar. Then you click on “Career interests” on the left hand side. Once you get to the right place, you’ll see this:
Here is where you’ll write down the high-pay job titles you’re going for. LinkedIn populates this automatically with your current title, so it’s up to you to add more. Thanks to your research in Part 1, you should know what to put down here. If there are variant job titles you’re interested make sure to put those down to. In my case I’d put down things like Product Marketing Manager, Marketing Operations Manager, and Digital Marketing Manager as well.
If you don’t want to risk your company finding out about your search, choose “Only recruiters” from the dropdown menu. If everything else looks correct (if you want full-time and not part-time, if you’d like to work remote, etc) you can go ahead and click the blue “Save” button.
Congratulations, now recruiters are more primed than ever to see your profile!! If there’s any one thing you do here to optimize LinkedIn, this is it.
And You’re Ready for Recruiters!
The easiest way up to your high-paying job is via a recruiter working to place you there. They make their money via a commission from your future employer, so you basically get a free career advocate**. Not everyone knows how to find a recruiter, so if you optimize LinkedIn they’ll come to you instead.
But why wait? If you know what recruiters you want to work with, go ahead and request to connect with them. After you optimize LinkedIn for recruiters to come to you, send them a message with your connection request. “Hi, I’m impressed with [Company]’s work and in the market for a new [title] role. I’d love to learn more about [Company] and what positions you’re currently recruiting for.”
But, you know, in your own words. You won’t sound authentic otherwise.
Finding the recruiter that will match you to your ideal role will take time; to stay motivated you should set up a timeline to manage your expectations. I like using the SMART method because it gives you the best direction. Now, because life can be chaotic, this timeline can’t predict a recruiter placing you much faster than anticipated; it also can’t predict some major event changing your trajectory entirely, like winning the lotto or an imminent zombie outbreak. What it provides is a direction, which in life is the best tool you can use.
A parting note: Know that this prep part is going to take time to execute correctly. Resume writing is no walk in the park, and neither is the time spent waiting for recruiters to reach out. With that said, it could also happen a lot faster than what you might expect. If you know how to sell yourself, it won’t matter if the time you’ve spent working isn’t that long. Just look at my friend Purple – she’s closing on half a million dollars and so many companies want her despite several a job hopping. If you get an opportunity to bypass some steps on your timeline, go for it! That way you can get to Part 3 that much faster, and enjoy that high-paying job you deserve.
*Well, more of a slider, really. Sometime before January 2020 LinkedIn stepped its game up with the magic button. Now there’s more options for detailing the jobs you want.
**If any recruiter offers to help you in exchange for money, that is called a scam. No legitimate recruiter will ever need you to pitch in to place yourself in a great position. This also extends to people who require you buy product to go out and sell and be a “boss babe” or “the next millionaire,” as those are even worse scams called multi-level marketing (MLM) or pyramid schemes. I’m happy to send MLM horror stories your way if you don’t believe me.