What to consider when messaging a recruiter on LinkedIn

What to consider when messaging a recruiter on LinkedIn

 George Barnes, CEO and Co-founder

The job market is a competitive space, with hundreds of thousands of candidates vying for hiring managers’ and recruiters’ attention. LinkedIn is now the number one space for finding a job and is also the primary platform that recruiters use to scope out and scoop up the best talent.

 However, recruiters can receive hundreds of messages every week, so it’s crucial to find a way to stand out from the crowd and get your profile on their radar.

 Both the way in which you communicate with a recruiter on LinkedIn and how you present your LinkedIn profile are crucial. So here are our top tips on what to consider when messaging a recruiter.

 Make things easy for me

For all LinkedIn communications it’s beneficial to attach a copy of your CV at every opportunity. Whether you are getting in touch about a specific role or not, it’s crucial to make it as easy as possible for that recruiter to see your experience and suitability. Time is gold dust to a recruiter so anything that you can do to cut down the number of steps involved will doubtlessly win you brownie points.

Don’t use writing software: recruiters are not stupid

Secondly, we see a number of candidates using software that sits on top of LinkedIn and sends out messages automatically. It goes without saying that this should be avoided at all costs. No matter how much time it may save you, it will not be worth it. Recruiters are not stupid and if they receive an untailored message, they’ll assume that they are just one of 150 people to receive it.

Propose a time

If a candidate can propose several times that they can speak that week in their initial message, that will be hugely beneficial. Recruiters are very phone-centric and are not going to qualify you over LinkedIn message, so if they have the ability to ring you the next day, they likely will.

Candidates could even use a scheduling tool like Calendly to share their availability for the week. Personally, if I received timeslots from a candidate via Calendly, I’d be far more inclined to schedule in a call to chat, simply because they had taken the initiative to make it so straightforward for me.

Use my name!

It never ceases to amaze me how many candidates send messages that simply say ‘Hi’ and then begin the message without including my first name. Whilst it might be extremely basic advice, those that haven’t even bothered to add in my name will not be starting the conversation on the best footing and, quite honestly, I may not read on!

Link back to relevant job ads if possible

It’s worth looking at the agency’s website and seeing if there are any jobs that you could link back to while you're messaging. This may not always be the case, but if you could say, for example: ‘I saw this job, I thought I might be quite a good fit for it, here's a copy of my CV and I can speak Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.’ You're probably going to get a response.

But…speculative messages are just as important

Messaging a recruiter even if you can’t see a vacancy relevant to your experience is really important. We currently have hundreds of vacancies but only a percentage of these will be on the website, simply due to the admin involved and how quickly they change. Its therefore crucial that candidates take a proactive approach and still send a message even without a job in mind.

If you’re looking to break into the networking space or are searching for your next job opportunity, try following the above steps with one of our team, or contact us via our website. We look forward to hearing from you.