For an active job seeker who will like to attract attention from headhunters, HR professionals or hiring managers, the following are six tips that you can do to improve your LinkedIn profile:

1. Update your job search status

In LinkedIn, there is a one line field input under your name that you can add a short comment. For active job seekers, you can update a comment such as “now seeking job opportunities” in this field, or include this comment in the body write up within your LinkedIn profile.

This will allow headhunters to know your latest job status. Bear in mind that LinkedIn is a social networking media which is not used by every professional as a job portal. Hence for professionals who are keen to tap on LinkedIn to attract job opportunities, it is important that you update your job search status specifically in your LinkedIn profile.

2. Update your employment stint for your last job

If you have already left your job, it is advisable to update accordingly in LinkedIn regarding your last employment stint (rather than to leave it as status quo and show that you are working presently in the role). This update will better draw the attention of headhunters or hiring managers, who will be more open to reaching out to you if they feel that there is a higher probability that you may be looking out.

3. Update your contact details such as email address in your profile

For active job seekers who will like to be contacted for potential job opportunities, it is a good practice to include your contact details such as your email address so that it is faster and easier for others to contact you regarding potential openings. This contact detail can be removed later in future if required, especially after you have found a job and are no longer looking. Some professionals go one step further to list down their hand phone numbers if they are comfortable about being contacted by phone.

4. Ensure that you include important key buzz words that better describe your skills/ competencies

This is important as headhunters perform word searches in LinkedIn to draw out the potential candidates that they will like to target and headhunt. Hence you should include key buzz words that describe your skills/competencies for each job stint, so that your profile can be better identified via the word searches performed by headhunters.

For instance if you are a tax manager, you may like to specifically state words such as “tax advisory” or “tax compliance” or “tax accounting” as your relevant skills /competencies in your job write up for each employment stint. In addition if you have “Asia Pacific” or “US GAAP” or a specific industry experience, do include these words in your write up as well.

5. Accept LinkedIn invites from established headhunters

If you will like to be kept posted on job opportunities, it is good to accept LinkedIn invites from headhunters after you established that the person is a reliable and established source.

When you get an Linkedin inmail from headhunters on current job opportunities, it is a good practice to reply and reject them professionally if you are now not looking out (rather than to ignore the email totally) so that the headhunter will remember you in a good light and approach you for future job opportunities.

6. Insert a photo in your LinkedIn profile

There may be several professionals with the same name or similar name to yours. Hence it is good to insert a professional looking photo in your LinkedIn profile so that headhunters can better identify you and ensure that they are reaching out to the right professional that they are trying to target. Plus, a profile with a photo is usually more visually eye catching than one without!