Social media has gained quite a foothold in the employment sector, and if you’re not yet using this medium to search for new hires, you could be missing out on some of today’s top talent. One of the best places to find candidates for engineering positions is LinkedIn.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is geared more towards professionals and is designed for networking and more recently, has upped its offerings for both job seekers and employers to help bring them together.
If your company doesn’t already have a LinkedIn profile, that is the first step to complete. It should be fully fleshed out and contain the names of your principals, information about your company and your achievements, and lastly, the available positions within your organization.
Once you’ve got that set-up, the next step is to include a posting in LinkedIn’s job board. This posting can stand alone, or link to your profile page for more information. Consider broadening the locality of your job posting to increase interest among candidates.
Now that you’ve laid the groundwork, the next step is to begin using the service to network with other companies and job seekers. You can also become involved in the message boards that are available through this service.
Get your name out there and candidates will want to learn more about your company and the positions you are currently hiring for. While this process does require a little extra effort, it will not only help create interest in your job openings, but it will help increase interest overall in your company and broaden your current social networking efforts.
One thing to remember with LinkedIn is that etiquette truly does matter. If you take part in the discussions on the boards there, try to provide useful and helpful information and become a part of the community. Those who are simply there for the benefits are generally looked down upon. It’s better to become as active as you can and reap the benefits that come from that.