If you’re looking for a new job, the place to be is LinkedIn. Job seekers around the world can utilize this professional network to make connections, get job alerts, share their resume, and use their optimized LinkedIn profiles to get noticed.
In the past few years, LinkedIn has unveiled a number of new features that you may not even know about. Here are the top 18 LinkedIn features for job seekers.
3 key takeaways from the post
- LinkedIn is a major professional network that helps job seekers in a variety of ways
- There are many free LinkedIn features and some premium, paid options as well
- You can set up your profile based on your preferences and get the most out of the site
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a widely recognized and trusted social networking platform designed specifically for professionals like you. It serves as a virtual hub where individuals can connect, network, and showcase their skills and experiences. Think of it as an online community tailored to career development and professional growth.
On LinkedIn, you can create a detailed profile, build connections with colleagues, industry experts, and potential employers, and stay updated on the latest trends in your field. It's a valuable tool for expanding your professional network, discovering job opportunities, and even sharing your knowledge through articles and posts.
Use the advanced search function to find specific job opportunities that may be a good fit. Don’t want to go searching? You can sign up for job alerts instead. There are many underutilized LinkedIn features that can help you get an in with the right people.
So, whether you're seeking new career prospects or aiming to strengthen your professional presence, LinkedIn offers an engaging and supportive platform to help you thrive in your professional journey.
Why is LinkedIn such an important tool for job seekers?
LinkedIn is the go-to resource for job seekers or those wanting to keep their professional community fresh and up-to-date. LinkedIn is an important tool for job seekers because it allows you:
- To connect with previous employers and colleagues
- Add your resume to your LinkedIn profile
- Get endorsed for your skills
- Network with hiring managers
- Learn from other professionals in their field and others
- Find relevant job postings
- Create a personal brand
- Get noticed by recruiters
- Reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn
- Research the company page of an organization
- Obtain recommendations
- Read breaking news in your industry
With its wide array of features and benefits, LinkedIn has become an indispensable professional network that opens up countless opportunities to advance your career in various ways.
LinkedIn features to help with your job search
There are many new LinkedIn features available that can help you in your job search. Some are completely free, while some come with a premium plan and cost some money. We’ve broken down free features vs premium features so you can decide which ones are the best use of your time.
Free LinkedIn features
1. Interested in working with us via company page
Find a company you absolutely love and would love to work for?
- Head to the company page on LinkedIn.
- Go to the “About” section, and halfway down, you might see a message that notes if you’re interested in working with a company, you can share your LinkedIn profile with a recruiter—best of all, privately.
- Simply hit “I’m interested.”
- Learn about it here. Just be aware that this new feature may not be on all company LinkedIn pages.
2. Job search filters
One of the best ways to use your LinkedIn account is to search for jobs (obvs). But don’t sleep on the job search filters that can help you wade through the muck and get you closer to the job opportunities you want.
You can go to the LinkedIn search bar and type in a role you’re looking for by job title. On the upper right side, go to “All filters.” This is where you can:
- Change settings to most recent vs. most relevant
- Change settings to jobs posted in the last 24 hours or within the past week
If you scroll down, you can even check a box to only see options with under 10 applicants (view how with the video below). So if you feel your applications aren’t getting seen, this is one way to apply to posting that haven’t been bombarded yet.
Plus, you can check boxes based on the salary you’re looking for too. Once you’ve selected all the job filters you want to screen for, hit “Show results,” and voila. Streamlined postings ready for review.
3. My items (save posts!)
LinkedIn is designed for networking. In essence, it’s a professional social media platform. Engagement like commenting, sharing, and liking posts can increase your online presence and expand your network. But sometimes, you may want to go back to a post at a later time, especially if it has the info you need.
For example, a post from a hiring manager saying they’re looking for people in a certain field, and they provided a way to reach out to them.
Or maybe you found a post with a killer job tip that can revolutionize the way you job search. You don’t have to scroll right past, but instead, you can save it. In each LinkedIn post, there are three dots located on the upper right. Click on those dots and hit “Save.”
When you want to access the posts later on, go to “My items,” located on the left side of your profile.
4. Tell people you’re “Open to Work”
Let your network know you’re job searching with LinkedIn’s #OpenToWork feature. You can notify your network publicly that you’re “Open to Work” or let recruiters know privately that you are.
Simply go to your LinkedIn profile and hit the “Open to Work” button. From there, you can select job titles, location types (if you prefer flexible or remote), and employment type (full-time, part-time, contract, etc.).
If you’d like to stay stealth, you can choose “Recruiters only” so that only relevant recruiters know that you’re looking. You can also go the public route and select “All LinkedIn members,” which frames your profile picture with a green banner that says #OpenToWork.
5. Customize your LinkedIn URL
LinkedIn has a staggering number of members—more than 930 million to be exact. To help your profile stand out a bit more, you can customize your URL so that it's more personal. If you look at your LinkedIn URL now, it likely comes with a bunch of numbers added to the URL slug.
But you can personalize your URL by going to your LinkedIn profile. In the upper right corner, go to “Edit public profile & URL.” From there, you can delete the numbers and make it just your name, or perhaps your brand, or use keywords relevant to your profile.
6. Easy Apply
See a job posting that you fancy? Some listings give you the option to “Easy Apply.” Using this LinkedIn feature, you can click on a job posting’s “Easy Apply” button.
This imports some of your data into the application to create a seamless and “easy” application process. In a few clicks, you can apply for a job using this option.
Before you hit send, make sure your resume is optimized to match what the job description is looking for. Using Teal’s AI Resume Builder, we’ll analyze your resume compared to the job description and give you a Match Score. Get a score of 80% or higher, and you’re good to go.
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7. Write articles
Want to establish yourself as a thought leader? Consider writing articles directly to the LinkedIn platform. When you’re logged into the site and on your feed, you can see on the lower right, “Write article.” Publish your own content to build a personal brand and keep your followers and audience engaged.
You can also create a post announcing your job search and keep people informed of what you’re looking for.
8. Edit your messages
You’ve sent an important message to a recruiter or hiring manager. And you realize there’s a dreaded typo. Uh-oh. If you realize this right away, you’re in luck. It’s possible to edit or delete your messages if you’ve sent them in the past hour.
However, understand that there’ll be a note that says the message has been edited or deleted.
If you need to do this, click on the three dots on the right side of the message and choose “Delete” or “Edit.”
9. Go on private mode
In your LinkedIn “Analytics & tools,” you can see who has checked out your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t want others to see that you’re checking out their profile, go on private mode.
On the upper right, under “Me”:
- Go to “Settings & Privacy”
- Then click on “Visibility”
- Select “Profile viewing options”
- Choose “Private mode”
10. Recommendations
Another fantastic LinkedIn Feature is giving and receiving “recommendations'' which are essentially testimonials. Note that this section won’t be on your profile unless you’ve given a recommendation first. Here’s how to request a recommendation on LinkedIn.
You can ask a trusted contact, previous employer, or LinkedIn member for a recommendation personally or do it through LinkedIn. To do it on the site, go to your profile and go down to the “Recommendations” section. Select “Ask to be recommended” and input the person’s name. You’ll include your job title and relationship to that person and customize a message and hit “Send.”
Located within Teal's Job Application Tracker are communication templates to reference or copy and paste when drafting a recommendation request message. Remember to tweak and personalize the message.
11. Limit who sees your connections
Do you want to avoid everyone seeing your LinkedIn connections? You can change who’s able to see your current connections through your profile.
- Go to “Me”
- Then “Settings & Privacy”
- Click on “Visibility”
- Click on “Connections”
- Next to “Connection visibility”, toggle “Off”
So if you want to protect your LinkedIn connections and limit their visibility, you can do just that.
12. Dark mode
Want to change your viewing experience on LinkedIn? You can opt for “dark mode,” which has a dark background with white text (instead of a white background with black text). To get this setting:
- Go to “Me”
- Then “Settings & Privacy”
- Under “Account preferences,” go to the “Display” section
- Click arrow on “Dark mode”
- Select “Dark mode
13. LinkedIn Groups
As a type of social networking site, you can use LinkedIn to connect to relevant groups related to your career. Put a keyword into the search bar. Then go to the “Groups” tab and click “Join.” You can join groups based on your interest, your alma mater, or any other professional group of your liking.
14. Notifications
Whether you want them or want to avoid them, you can change your notification settings on LinkedIn. You can:
- Go to “Me”
- Hit “Settings & Privacy”
- On the left lower side, click on “Notifications”
- You can turn on or off notifications about posts, connecting with others, pages, the news, groups, and more
15. LinkedIn Polls
LinkedIn has become more social and less formal despite it being known as a professional site. Given this new LinkedIn feature, you can create polls and engage with your followers and get their feedback. Now when you’re in your feed and go to “Start a post,” you can click on three dots at the bottom and select “Create a poll.”
Input a question, the poll options, and a time duration for the poll. Hit “Done,” and it’ll be published for your audience to engage with so you can be more social and understand their thoughts and opinions.
Premium features
There are quite a few free LinkedIn features available to its users. There are so many ways you can maximize your job search at no cost. But if you’re wondering whether or not LinkedIn Premium is worth it, let’s dive into the paid features that’ll help your career and level up your skills.
16. Company insights
As part of LinkedIn’s free features, you can go to a company’s LinkedIn page and go to the “About” section for relevant information.
You can see:
- Company size
- Industry
- Headquarters
- A general overview
But if you want more data, LinkedIn Premium can provide more insights. With this option, you can click “Insights” on a company's LinkedIn homepage and get new hire trends, job openings, company growth, alumni, and more. This can give you an inside scoop about a company and much more nuanced data that’s useful to job seekers.
17. InMail
It’s all about the people you know and the people you want to know on LinkedIn. Typically, sending a message to someone you’re not connected to on LinkedIn isn’t available with the free version. If you want to bypass this, you can get a LinkedIn Premium subscription and get InMail.
InMail allows LinkedIn users to send messages to people they’re not currently connected to. This can come in handy if you want to contact someone about a relevant job opportunity or add a new connection and introduce yourself.
Be mindful that you may have a limited number of messages based on your subscription type. Plus, the other party must consent to receive InMail messages.
18. LinkedIn Learning
In this ever-changing economy and job market, updating your skills is a smart move. LinkedIn has a whole host of online learning modules you can use to learn various things related to your career.
LinkedIn Learning offers a free trial, but in general, it's a paid LinkedIn feature. You can learn everything from SEO, Excel, Marketing, Web Design, Copywriting, and more.
Pro Tip: If you want to be resourceful, you can also access this feature with your library card, as well.
Optimize your LinkedIn profile with Teal
LinkedIn is a platform. But you need the right information on there to get noticed, and that’s why it’s key to make sure your profile is up to par.
The good news is it doesn’t have to be hard, as you can easily optimize your LinkedIn profile with Teal.
Teal offers unique recommendations on how to best update your LinkedIn profile and does the heavy lifting for you. Here’s how to get the most out of Teal and LinkedIn.
Step 1: Download the free Teal Google Chrome Extension
Start by creating a free account with Teal and gain access to the incredible suite of tools. Then, simply install the free Chrome extension and unlock the full range of amazing features at your fingertips.
This includes a Job Application Tracker, AI Resume Builder, LinkedIn Profile Review tool, and more. Make sure you input your LinkedIn profile link under the “Work History” tab under “Contact Information".
Step 2: Go to your LinkedIn profile
Once the Teal extension is activated and you’ve created an account, head to your LinkedIn profile. On the lower left side, you’ll see the Teal logo icon. Click on it to get an in-depth LinkedIn Profile Review.
From there, you’ll see personalized recommendations about how to best update your profile. For example, you may get a suggestion about how to improve your “About” section and how to elevate your achievements in the “Experience” section.
Step 3: Make changes
After reviewing Teal’s suggestions, make changes to your LinkedIn profile. You can add more compelling verbs and adjectives, offer additional examples, update your profile photo and headline, etc.
Then once the updates are made, you can go back to your profile and see the LinkedIn Profile Review again. You can press “Check Again” to get an update and see where you stand now. Keep tweaking it until you feel your profile is as strong as possible.
While you’re on LinkedIn looking for jobs with Teal activated, you can seamlessly add jobs to your Job Application Tracker. It’s like a CMS that helps you stay on top of the stages of your job search while managing multiple applications, interviews, etc.
Using Teal Plus, you can get AI assistance built-in with the tool to help you with resumes, cover letters, and professional summaries, which can also help you with your LinkedIn game.
Embrace the power of these LinkedIn features today to pave the way for long-term career success.
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