How to search for candidates on LinkedIn

A little bit about strategy

Linkedin is a professional social network and the main platform for finding IT specialists. There are about 300,000 Linkedin profiles from Ukrainian IT. Here candidates describe their current experience and project stacks.

IT recruiters sometimes do without Linkedin search. The platform has a high response rate and enough candidates with different technologies.

How to search for candidates on Linkedin

• Use boolean searches and the platform's internal filters,
• Make a job post,
• use inmails (emails available to Linkedin Recruiter users).

LinkedIn offers the opportunity to buy premium access (which is especially relevant for recruiters), but even taking into account the fact that the limit of adding new connectives there is increased compared to the basic functionality, there is a risk of catching an account blocking. Experience has shown that this unfortunately does happen, and the best way to avoid it is not to get too carried away with adding Friendlist, even if you use the paid version.

Many developers simply forget to check the "open to work" box, but may be actively looking for a new job. Even if a candidate is "cold" and is not actively considering offers, you can still try to start a dialogue - it's quite possible that the job will interest him or her.

Use inmail cautiously

As LinkedIn notes in its Recruiter Mail Policy, you should not use InMail for mass mailings, invitations to events or marketing campaigns. Recruiters don't usually run marketing campaigns, but it's best to be careful not to abuse the mass mailing clause. The best option is to wait for the candidate to confirm the addition and start the conversation. Even if you're writing to a lot of candidates and have a template, think about how to adjust it so that you can tailor it to each recipient and it doesn't feel like it's just a mass mailing.

LinkedIn recently introduced two new search operators: skills and headline.

Search by skills

Usually we are interested in the skills of a potential candidate, so LinkedIn presents the possibility of such a search. To do this, you need to type in the search bar: Skills:skill For a more accurate search, you can also put in quotes.

To find an employee by skill, just type skills: and the required skill in the search bar, for example, skills:SQL

Search by headline on LinkedIn

This resource offers a headline search for potential candidates. It's worth typing the headline:position in the search bar. You can also search for people open to new opportunities with headline:looking for new opportunities or headline:open to suggestions.

Group Search

There are other ways to approach the search for candidates. There are a huge number of groups on LinkedIn, including groups for those who are currently searching. We, for example, entered the query "job" and the first result might well be of interest to us - active candidates are probably exploring all the ways to find a job, and groups are also a way to communicate, so it's a convenient channel to search.

There are plenty of recruiting and job posting groups on LinkedIn in many IT industries, from GameDev to Software Development: post your jobs there. If you want to get a great specialist in your team - contact a reliable it temp agency.

If you find out that someone you are interested in, or just someone you came across while looking for a candidate, is also a member of one of the groups with vacancies - it may well be a sign that he/she is thinking about changing jobs. And here it is exactly necessary to use the main function of social networks - to start communicating with the person.