How to Use LinkedIn Search More Effectively to Improve Your Job Search

These LinkedIn search tips will help you broaden the scope of your job search, and find targeted leads. Here's how to use them!

LinkedIn's internal search engine returns results not just for the job profile you search for, but it also segregates the results into nine categories like Groups, Services, Courses, etc. All of which you can explore separately to find more job leads. What's more? You can further filter the results into different categories using criteria like Connections, Locations, and so on.

Let's look at how you can use the LinkedIn Search Engine more effectively to broaden your job search. We'll use the “Closed Captioning” job as the example keyword string to demonstrate how to navigate LinkedIn's search options, and get targeted results.

1. LinkedIn Jobs Search

LinkedIn Jobs Search is the first category of results, as LinkedIn is primarily a professional networking portal with an emphasis on jobs search. Click on Jobs, and you'll see six new filters like Date—when the job was posted, Experience Level, Job Type, On-site/Remote, etc. You can use these filters to streamline the results further.

2. LinkedIn Companies Search

The Companies tab displays results pertaining to places that employ Closed Captioners in this instance. You can whittle down this list using the three filters for Location,Industry vertical, and Company Size.

This feature helps you explore companies hiring for your profile, besides looking up the different job titles each firm uses for similar profiles. It's also an excellent way to find out more about company culture, work environment, the hiring team, and who to approach if you plan on cold pitching.

3. LinkedIn People Search

People search has three filters you can apply to look for people working in a particular Location and Company. You can also check for the degree of Connections to your network if you're thinking of asking for recommendations on LinkedIn. It's a good way of finding more companies that hire Closed Captioners.

Explore the results to learn more about career paths in this field, different positions held by people at the same level as you or above you, and other companies they've worked for. Check their networks to find out more people in the industry to connect with and learn from.

4. LinkedIn Groups Search

Professional groups have members working in similar fields across the globe. They can shed light on the various industry verticals, locations, companies, and freelance gigs hiring for this skill set. Joining the top LinkedIn groups for job seekers will help you increase your engagement on LinkedIn and get noticed among recruiters.

The LinkedIn algorithm does a stellar job of listing Groups with very unusual names—like Subbabel, unrelated to the search field, so you don't miss out on helpful, professional networking opportunities in your vertical. Joining popular groups provides an additional perk of learning about networking events that you can attend to improve your reach.

5. LinkedIn Posts Search

Posts might not seem like the best way to look for a job or connections, but a bit of reading through will lead you to job adjacent information that you can use to find more companies, people, contacts, and profiles. Posts can be sorted using filters like Posted by, Date, Sorted by, Author Industry, etc.

Here's a look at three different posts on LinkedIn for Closed Captioning and how you can glean valuable information from each one of them.

The first result is a post that gives you two company names that hire Closed Captioners. It sheds light on the job prospects in this field and leads to a survey about the topic along with insights into the results.

The second postis less straightforward. Although it's talking about a workshop, reading through reveals that there's a Closed Captioner working with them. Follow the poster to find the company they work for, then use LinkedIn Search to find similar companies and if they offer such one-off positions for your skillset and experience.

The third post talks about a tool for Closed Captioning. It would be useful for you to learn more about it. Follow the post to find out others interested in the topic, explore their profiles, professional titles, networks, etc., to zero in on even more job leads in your field.

6. LinkedIn Courses Search

Courses on LinkedIn can be sorted by learning Level and Time to Complete. It offers some of the best learning courses for job seekers, completely free and hosted internally. Others require you to have a LinkedIn premium membership or a subscription for a specific course.

Look up the course instructor's profile, network, and companies they're associated with. These will give you more leads to create a list of companies you can add to your job search.

7. LinkedIn Events Search

If you work in an industry with a significant online presence, like software development, you'll see many relevant Events listings that you can parse through. Many industry verticals do not warrant professionally hosted events. In such cases, you'll get a list of vaguely relevant listings that you can choose to follow through or ignore.

On the off chance that you find events to attend, use them as professional networking opportunities.

8. LinkedIn Services Search

The Services tab lists all the LinkedIn members offering services similar to yours. In this instance, you can see a list of members working as Closed Captioners. Treat it as a list of your closest competitors. You can use three filters—Location, Service Categories, and Connections to sort it.

Look at the LinkedIn profiles of these competitors, the way they present themselves online, their word choices, and more to enhance your own online presence, to improve your engagement on LinkedIn. Optimize your resume with the best bits from these profiles to improve your ranking across job portals.

Use LinkedIn Search More Effectively

LinkedIn is a versatile job portal that lends itself to many ways of finding a job. You can explore each of the nine categories of LinkedIn search thoroughly to find more job leads, relevant connections, companies, work and volunteering opportunities, etc.

Once you've mastered these tools, you can concentrate on ways to optimize your profile to attract more clients.