The final area that we will cover is the Jobs portal. This can be accessed via the top menu bar or via this link – https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/
On one level, the Linkedin Jobs portal is just another ‘job site’. However, by being integrated within the core Linkedin platform, it opens up so much more for you and should be seen as a great addition to your ‘research’ tools.
You can utilise the platform as part of the traditional job hunting process – the search capabilities allow you to be very defined in your search so that you get the right type of jobs showing up.
However, I think that it is much more powerful to search out these job opportunities before they ever need to be advertised and the Jobs portal provides you with a great tool to allow you to do this.
By searching on specific companies, you can see the type of roles that they have recently been recruiting for. This will provide an insight into their future plans. This combined with other research from their website, recent press releases etc. all provide you with a view of where they are heading. Once you have identified those organisations that you feel are about to undergo some form of significant ‘change’, you can make a proactive approach.
For instance, if an organisation has recently recruited a senior person into a functional role, it is highly likely that that person will have an agenda for change. Equally, if they have just recruited a senior programme/ change person, they are likely to require additional resources within their team.
Irrespective of whether it is a direct job opportunity or an historic role that attracts your attention, prior to clicking on the “Apply ” button, take a look at how you are connected to people within the company;
If you can identify someone within the organisation that you are connected to already, you can maybe enlist their help to assist you to understand more about the role, the person that is ultimately recruiting it and how the role fits within the overall structure of the organisation. These insights will help you determine whether you are a good fit and if so, will help you structure your application in such a way that you can stand out from the other applicants.
One final element of the Job Portal to highlight is the data available on the organisation – when you click on the specific job, if you have a ‘Premium Account’ with Linkedin, you’ll get additional insights into the other applicants, a review inside of the organisation and an analysis of their existing employee base.
All of these elements are often ignored within Linkedin, but if you are serious about expanding your career within change and transformation, you should become accustomed to each and really understand how they can help you in your future career.