Raising your profile to employers

You might be open to changing your employer if the right offer came your way. Maybe you are actively thinking about starting a new chapter in your career, or perhaps you have been forced to start looking for a new job having being made redundant. Whatever your situation, your XING profile can make a big difference to your chances of getting hired.

In the first of this multi-part series, we’ll be showing you how you can maximize the potential of your personal profile on XING as a real personal asset that will stand out to recruiters. Ideally, you’ve already laid the groundwork by building up a great, diverse network that includes business partners, colleagues, friends and family.

So what should I change about my profile if I’m looking for a job?

Many of our members who are currently unemployed or seeking a new job leave the name of their former employer in their profile. This is a good move in the short term, although you should of course change this if asked to by your former company. We’d advise against writing your name in the “current company” field. Besides looking slightly odd as it appears twice, it doesn’t tell employers anything about your skills or line of work. Why not write something like “Freelancer” or put an (Ex-) in front of the name of your former company? That way, you can be found by recruiters in searches.

Adding a new entry to your Wants like “a new challenge” is a good idea too, as this will also increase your chances of being found through XING Search.

If you are seeking a job while in employment, there is often the obvious predicament here of preventing your employer from finding out. You can avoid drawing attention to yourself by setting your privacy options to make sure that your contacts don’t see updates to your Haves and Wants in the “What’s new in my network” feed on their start page.

Stay as active as you can and keep your eyes peeled

Making a clear effort when creating and maintaining your profile goes a very long way indeed. So make sure you’ve uploaded a professional-looking photo of yourself, entered the correct keywords, updated your CV and created an ‘About me’ page. All the effort is much more likely to pay off.

You can’t go wrong if you’re as proactive as possible: Contact prospective employers, get in touch with your contacts and contacts of your contacts. Check out our previous post on Powersearch too. Searching for Haves/Wants matches or members who are active in similar groups can be a good starting point for initiating contact with new members. It could be the start of something career-changing!

Use the possibilites of the "Matches" section of the Powersearch.

Be sure as well to check out the profiles of HR managers and senior staff from within your field of work. They usually post good keywords in their Wants section, which could prove useful in providing inspiration when you fill in your Haves.

Next week we’ll be looking at groups and XING Jobs. Got more questions about profiles and hiring? Leave a comment and we’ll try to get back to you asap.