My Story of How I Used LinkedIn to Find a Job & High Paying Freelance/Consultancy Clients (With ZERO Investment)
- Last Updated : 10th June 2021
- Reading Time: 11 mins.
In January 2019, I received more than 60 messages on LinkedIn from recruiters/CEOs/Managers of companies inviting me for an interview.
During the same time, around 37 clients approached to hire me as a freelancer/consultant.
That number is increasing every month and I have stopped keeping a count.
Why do recruiters and clients reach out to me even when I am not looking for a job change or a client?
How did this happen?
What exactly did I do for this?
I know you want the answers right now and without reading any further.
But, I can’t answer that question in one word or a single sentence.
Instead, I will share with you my journey on LinkedIn from the beginning.
I am confident, if you follow the steps, you can achieve similar results.
So, here’s my story.
I started using LinkedIn in 2014.
I had just passed out of college and had a lot of time to kill.
If you are thinking I was super active on LinkedIn from day one, and I got a job offer the next day I created an account, you are wrong.
I wasn’t active on LinkedIn for two years.
Just like millions of others, I had no idea LinkedIn is an amazing platform to
- Connect with CEO/HR/Managers of companies
- Grow your network with professionals in the industry
- Find a job
- Find a business lead
- Find freelance/consultancy projects
- Build your personal brand
In 2016, when I wanted to change my job and switch career form research to marketing, I wanted to talk to people from the industry.
I wanted to know
- How can I get a job in marketing without relevant experience
- Which skills are needed?
- How should I build my Resume?
- How to convince the interviewer?
- How to find a job?
I had endless questions and no answers.
I was stuck in a job I was no more interested and I desperately wanted to change.
I spent sleepless nights thinking, “Is there a way?”
One day while scrolling on LinkedIn, I read a post which said
“LinkedIn is probably the only platform where you can connect with the CEO, Manager, and HR of a company, and send a direct message.
If you construct your message intelligently, you will get a response.
If you want to grow in your career/business spend more time on LinkedIn than Facebook.”
The idea was simple and powerful. I thought about it for days and I felt hopeful.
The first thing I did was prepare a template message and sent it to 50 people in senior positions in the companies I wanted to get into.
3 to 5 people wrote back. They answered all my questions.
I was surprised.
That information changed my career.
I spent more time on LinkedIn, read articles, watched videos, followed influencers to understand how to find a job on LinkedIn.
I got interested, and I went a step beyond to build my personal brand on LinkedIn.
It took time (a couple of months). I built my network, worked on a profile and shared content without any hope.
I must say it’s tough in the beginning.
But, everything changed when a recruiter directly approached me for a job opportunity.
I went for the interview. I didn’t accept the offer for personal reasons.
However, in the process, I realized LinkedIn was powerful.
Today, I will share with you my journey of how I found a job on LinkedIn step-by-step.
It’s going to be lengthy, so get yourself a cup of coffee and curl up on your comfy sofa.
Feel free to bookmark for reading later. I do that a lot. I have separate folders of bookmarks.
Let’s begin.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Build a Stunning Profile
Yes. You need to build a profile that’s impressive, relevant and interesting.
Every section of your profile matters.
If you are not aware, your LinkedIn profile has the following sections.
- Cover Image
- Profile picture
- Headline
- Summary
- Work Experience
- Education
- License & Certifications
- Skills & Endorsements
- Recommendations
- Accomplishments
Add details to every section. Give your visitor a chance to spend time on your page.
Here’s a list of top 5 things people usually notice in your profile.
Cover image
It sets the tone of your profile. If you have spoken in a seminar you can add an image showcasing the event. Alternatively, you can add content to highlight your services, expertise and communicate to your target audience in a single sentence. Feel free to be creative and experiment with the cover image content and design.
And if you are an amateur designer just like me, tools like Canva make you look like a great designer. You will find multiple templates to play around and create an impressive design.
Headline
Utilize this space intelligently and mention exactly what you do. If you are a freelancer, be very clear about it. Add your expertise in related fields to make it look complete. That gives you a broader scope of connecting with people from related fields.
Summary
This is probably the most important part of your profile. You get solid 2000 characters to communicate your story, highlight your expertise and convince your target audience.
Make sure you write is like a story and grab attention from the first sentence.
This topic is so vast, I can hardly convey my thoughts in this blog. I wrote a separate article on how to write an impressive LinkedIn summary, you can have a look.
Remember, you need not repeat things already mentioned in other parts of your profile. Use every word to tell your story beautifully.
It might take a couple of days to write a good story.
Take professional help if needed. Add links of your website, image, YouTube channel or Resume at the end to build authenticity.
Job Description of previous roles
I have often seen people take this lightly and ignore it. Trust me, when a potential client or recruiter visits your profile, they are going to read everything you have. So, why waste any opportunity to impress?
The overall score of your LinkedIn profile depends heavily on how effectively you have utilized every section of your profile.
Recommendations
When you are trying to convince a client how good you are, nothing works better than a genuine testimonial from a client. Same applies to job seekers.
Send a customized message to your previous boss, colleagues, and clients to write you a recommendation. And the best way to get a recommendation is – first you recommend them. Then ask them to write you back.
Here’s how you can approach your boss to write you a recommendation.
Hi Sir,
The 3 years I spent at …….. laid the foundation of my career.
It taught me to be patient, do structured research and grow intellectually. I feel thankful to be mentored by you at the beginning.
I have moved on to content writing, content marketing, and social media marketing, but research is always the core of anything I write.
It would be great if you give me a recommendation.
Regards,
Surojit
Here are some examples of cover photos.
Step 2: Grow your network
Once you are done with optimizing your profile, focus on growing your connections.
Use the search filter to find out people who can be helpful in the future.
Type a designation on the search bar, select people, select second connections, select a location and press enter.
You will find a list of profiles.
You can play around the filter option and find out similar profiles in multiple ways (Profile from the same industry, same college, etc.)
Now, research on profiles that can be useful to you.
Connect with people
- With massive followers
- Who are highly active on LinkedIn
- With a good profile. A good profile says they take LinkedIn seriously.
- From your industry, in every kind of job role, you can think of. Your network needs to be big & relevant
- Who are influencers in your industry
Now, you might say why I should take the pain of doing so much and send connection requests, interested people should approach me.
I will tell you why you should make your network bigger.
- Your newsfeed will improve
- In future when you share content, your target audience will observe you and come to know about you before you approach them.
- You will come to know about more opportunities when somebody likes a post of a 3rd connection.
- When you need help, you have a higher probability of finding relevant people in your network
- To receive more likes and comments in your posts, you definitely need a bigger network.
So, happy networking.
We will move to the next part.
Step 3: Follow LinkedIn celebrities, Influencers, and Hashtags
A smart way to make LinkedIn more interesting, informative and be updated is by following.
Follow famous personalities on LinkedIn including who is considered LinkedIn power profiles. You will come to know about amazing things when they share articles, posts & stories.
Follow influencers in your industry. Influencers are somebody who has a huge number of following and share valuable content regularly.
I won’t add any figure to the number of followers one should have to become an influencer. I think anyone who adds value to the community, helps people selflessly and spreads goodness is an influencer.
Follows hashtags relevant to you so get similar news in your newsfeed. You can find hashtags on the search bar by typing a hashtag symbol followed by the word.
For example “#motivation”
Step 4: Become active – Like, comment & share regularly
Just like me, the way I was in the first two years, I know there are millions of people who aren’t active on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn statistics show only 50% of users are active profiles.
They log in, read and they logout.
Then they get frustrated and ask questions like
- Why isn’t my connections growing?
- Why am I not receiving job offers?
- Why people don’t reply to my messages?
- Why I don’t get more likes and comments on my posts?
Well, LinkedIn doesn’t give you score for logging in.
The algorithm identifies you only when you are active on LinkedIn consistently. You are valued only when you give value to the community.
My suggestion is whenever you log in, make sure you like on posts you find interesting, comment on posts where you want to participate and share things you would want your network to know about.
When you become active on LinkedIn probably you target audience will observe you and approach you for a discussion.
Step 5: Direct Approach
There is nothing wrong in approaching someone directly on LinkedIn.
It’s a community of working professionals and it’s built exactly for that.
But, the problem is the recruiter/potential client you approach is probably receiving thousands of messages from similar profiles like you.
He/she might want to get back to you, however, your message gets lost in the crowd.
The real question is how do you get the attention of your target audience either in a direct message or in a post you write.
Here are my proven rules for getting someone’s attention.
- Do thorough research before sending someone a direct message
- Send a personalized message every time
- Never talk about what you want in your first message
- Add subtle praise
- Don’t appear desperate
- Sound confident
- Send follow up messages
Here’s an example. Feel free to edit it and use it again.
“Hi Priyanka,
I was going through your profile.
Loved the way you have written your summary and presented yourself. Every part of your profile synchronizes beautifully.
You are doing an amazing job by helping people achieve their goals.
If you need any help, I would be happy to contribute.
Let me know.
Cheers!!”
I need not mention what my services in the message because she will probably visit my profile or see my headline and understand (Another way to intrigue your customer)
Step 6: Start writing meaningful content
If your final goal is to be found by recruiters/potential clients instead of you chasing them, the most powerful weapon you have is content.
But, what on earth should you write about on a public platform where CEOs of companies are in your network?
- Write insightful, helpful and thoughtful posts/articles related to your industry which can benefit your connections.
- Write something that can start a discussion.
- Write about your professional life
- Write about your personal journey of life.
- Write about stories of failure, struggle, and inspiration.
- Write about things you observe in daily life
Whatever you write, it’s important to connect with something people can relate to, learn from and feel inspired.
I receive multiple messages every day saying they want to write and share on LinkedIn but they are worried their boss, colleagues and friends will see it and they might not like it.
My only answer to them is
“Just start. Nobody cares, except you.”
Obviously, I will recommend you not to share the problems you have with your life partner on a public platform.
Research and spend time to understand the kind of content that resonates with the audience.
See the posts on your newsfeed that receive hundreds of comments, then analyze how did that happen. Analyze previous posts of people who write viral posts.
You will find a pattern and probably write better than them.
Because you have a story, and your story is unique. You just need to share it with the world and see the magic happening.
Step 7: Help people
Gratitude reciprocates.
Science has proved it.
I am sure, you have gathered skills over the years.
It can be overcoming the fear of public speaking or mastering data science/public policy or digital marketing.
Trust me there are millions of people who would love to know a few things from you.
I am not saying devote all your time to helping people.
Help the number of people you can and probably they will few more just like you.
That way you add value to the community and build your brand.
Once you selflessly start giving, you will start receiving from the community without expecting.
That’s the beauty of social media platforms like LinkedIn.
And I am saying that from my experience.
There’s no harm in being a good person. Right?
Step 8: Build Your Personal Brand
That leads us to the final step – building your personal brand.
Creating your personal brand, have devoted fan following and increase the number of connections is the ultimate way you will be found by a recruiter/CEO/ Manager in the hunt for the right candidates or a client looking for a service provider.
But, that sounds like a mammoth task and it going to take a decade to build a brand. And you want a job, business lead tomorrow.
So, how can you build a brand overnight?
The answer is you cannot.
Building a brand takes time and a deep understanding of your customer. And that doesn’t happen overnight.
Don’t worry, it’s not going to take a decade.
With sincere efforts and the right strategy, a couple of months is enough to give you a good platform to pitch yourself to your target audience.
So, how exactly will you build your Personal Brand on LinkedIn?
Here’s my step-by-step guide or a summary of the blog you just read
- Create a Stunning LinkedIn Profile – Update your Cover Image, Headline, and Summary. Get recommendations to build credibility.
- Grow your network – Connect with more people in your industry – people who can be your potential client
- Become Active – Like, comment and share other on other people’s content – follow influencers
- Help Others – Share what you have learned over the years with your network and you will start gaining followers.
- Start writing meaningful content – Posts, articles, videos to engage with your connections
So, embark on your journey and write to me in case you need help with anything on LinkedIn.
I would Love to hear from you.
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Written By Surojit Mahato
Surojit is a writer, marketer, and a storyteller. A renowned digital marketing professional, trainer and a speaker at industry events and colleges. Co-Founder of GrowthDish and author of 27+ business case studies published and sold globally.