When I first heard about LinkedIn many years ago, I thought that in all honesty that it was just another social media platform for former workmates to find me online. I never thought it would go beyond seeing how old colleagues and bosses currently look like and what they are up to. And I never, ever entertained the idea that I would be using LinkedIn to find a job, especially a home-based one.
That is until I quit my regular-paying gig to do freelance writing and other tasks from home.
Fresh out of ideas and resources, I decided to turn to LinkedIn for help. It was intimidating at first because my feed seemed to be all about professionals who know the jargon and innovation in their respective fields. And they all seemed to be...dressed for the part. Now, I am in no way scruffy or even edgy, appearance-wise. But scrolling through the impeccably suited and groomed people with titles and resumes that play up their chosen careers, I felt that there was nothing in the site to help me launch my own home-based career.
Boy, was I ever wrong. To further illustrate my wrong-ness, I will share with you today at least five ways I discovered how LinkedIn can be a good job resource for people like you and me.
1) Search for home based jobs
How to use LinkedIn to get a job? Use the search feature right beside the logo! Simple as that.
The first time I tried it, I typed in the words “home based job” along with my location. I immediately got dozens of results from reputable companies. However, since I specialize in content creation (and not in sales, as most of the results revealed), I thought of narrowing down the field by typing “home-based writer job” with my location, and - bingo! I got even more specific results, which I then sifted through to see if any of them were a good fit with my schedule, experience, and financial requirements.
2) Add relevant connections
Now, this is where I think LinkedIn really works as both a job search site and social media platform combined. Adding connections means broadening your chances to get a good home-based job. However, it’s important to add those who are relevant in your search, such as people you’ve worked with before in the same field. These people can also endorse your skills or specializations, which will then show up in your profile as a way of promoting your expertise and experiences.
That’s not to say you should only add people you’ve met or known in the past. LinkedIn can recommend people who have similar work experience as you, and who may be looking for someone to hire or refer to someone else. You need to be discerning, though, which leads us to...
3) Wise up about potential fraud and scam postings
Work from home opportunities abound in real life and online. But this also means scams and fake jobs are a-plenty, as well.
It’s a good thing that most (if not all) LinkedIn job listings bear the company’s name so it’s just a small matter of looking up their history, client and employee testimonies, and other important details via Google search. At any rate, I’m thankful that LinkedIn is at least a far cry from Craigslist, which doesn’t seem to regard company names as pertinent info.
4) Make keywords work for you
As I previously mentioned, searching for a home-based job using certain keywords in the search bar is a pretty doable task which will likely yield results in no time. However, making keywords work for you will pave the way for even better search results. For instance, if you’ve exhausted the “home-based” searches, why not try “WAH”, “work from home”, “remote”, “virtual”, and other variations of being home-based, along with your area of specialization and current location?
5) Take part in discussions
Here, you really need to get involved in LinkedIn beyond scrolling through your feed and typing in choice words in the search bars. LinkedIn has active groups and trending topics you can participate in. In my case, I joined a writing group, a grammar geeks group to help expand my vocabulary and improve my spelling, and others that align with my interests and hobbies. These groups give me a heads-up about possible job opportunities, as well as business trends and other information I won’t normally get from mainstream sources. And the discussions have a fun community-like vibe to them that I always look forward to.
The verdict
People posting jobs on LinkedIn have made it possible for home-based folks like us to find the best work that fits for our schedule, lifestyle, and past work experience. Of course, the methods I posted here may just be the tip of the iceberg regarding how much LinkedIn can work for you in your search for work-at-home opportunities. However, I do recommend that you try it out and see other possibilities for yourself.
LinkedIn Screenshots
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Your turn
Do you currently have a LinkedIn account? How often do you use it, and in what ways? If you have ever utilized LinkedIn as a job search platform and have been successful, please share with us your experiences, feedback, as well as tips below.
Link: https://www.linkedin.com/
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/linkedin/id288429040?mt=8
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.linkedin.android&hl=en