3 ways to attract hiring managers on LinkedIn

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You've just spent hours slaving away at your keyboard. Your fingers ache, your eyes start to blur.

Have you been working on the next great literary masterpiece?

Or your PhD dissertation?

Nope. You've spent all that time making sure your LinkedIn profile is finally complete.

Let's be real: Few things inspire stress in job seekers quite like LinkedIn. That's because you know that if you get it right, you can build your brand, land jobs and grow your network.

And the good news for you is that I have an insider perspective on this all works. I'm a former employee of LinkedIn and I've looked through thousands of profiles to hire my own employees.

Step 1: Get found

Keep in mind that hiring managers using LinkedIn aren't omniscient: Just because you have a profile, it doesn't mean that they're going to see it. And if they don't see it, your profile isn't going to do you any good, no matter how awesome it is.

So, the first step is to get found — which means you have to think like a hiring manager. Now, as tempting as it may be, don't overthink this one. Hiring managers are busy and they don't have time to try a million search tricks. Instead, if they're looking to find someone for "X" role, they're likely to enter "X" into that search box. For example, a hiring manager searching for a marketer is going to search for "marketer." Whereas someone looking for the perfect product manager is going to search "product manager."

How do you make sure you get found in that search? Simple, make sure that exact phrase is everywhere that LinkedIn's search algorithm looks. In particular, you want to have it in your Headline and Summary (since those sections are character-limited and less-easily gamed), but also your Experience and Skills sections.

In addition, make sure to have as many connections as possible on the site as, all else being equal, LinkedIn's algorithm prefers to show results who are more closely connected to the searcher (e.g., 2nd degree vs. 22nd degree). You can boost this number by importing your address book and specifically adding as many people as you know in your desired hiring manager's industry. Just make sure you're sending personalized connection messages and not mass-adding people.

Another way to build out your contact list? Keep in mind that there really is no major downside to accepting all requests. Sure, you might see a few strangers in your feed, but you're not sharing your personal stuff with them and if they wanted to access your network, they'd have to go through you anyway. I routinely leverage unknown connections on LinkedIn to help my students get in touch with the people they need (people who use LinkedIn aggressively tend to be pretty generous). To say nothing of the benefit when it comes to recruiters' searches.

Step 2: Win the first impression

Okay, let's say you've finagled your way into the top search results. But how do you actually get the hiring manager to click your profile? After all, a search like "product manager" returns over two million results.

Well, the trick is to win the first impression. Given the sheer number of results out there and the hiring manager's harried schedule, you've got to assume that she's only going to spend a nanosecond looking at your result. And so, in that brief flash of time, you need to immediately wow her with your stellar presence.

You can do this in two ways:

Have a charismatic profile photo

People like to surround themselves with happy people. So skip brooding model poses and fake smiles, and go for genuine charm (the expression you'd make if you just saw your best friend walk into a room). While you can optimize for clothing, scenery, and so on — nothing wins as instantaneously as someone who conveys: "You'd like me." Period.