Everything You Want To Know About the LinkedIn Recruiter Service

Have you created a LinkedIn profile and thought beyond ensuring that you have described your qualifications and experiences in the best possible manner? Some of us may have and even patted our own backs for having taken care to have put up a slick, professional picture. But not many of us are aware that companies and recruiters can see all your information even without you knowing you’re being checked out. How?

LinkedIn Recruiter, the company’s flagship product and the core of the professional social network’s Talent Solutions. This is the real reason why you should care about creating your profile with care, updating it regularly and sprucing up your network.

What is the LinkedIn Recruiter?

Recruiter permits companies and recruiters to access complete profile information, without LinkedIn users knowing they are being looked up. It is possible for recruiters to search for people with specific skill sets, flag them and add a dossier to their profile — all without that person’s knowledge. While there is a “Who’s Viewed Your Profile,” those using LinkedIn Recruiter can make themselves anonymous (just like LinkedIn premium account members).

Does It Cost Anything?

Yes, while any LinkedIn user can see jobs and view company pages companies, Recruiter is only visible to companies paying to use LinkedIn as a candidate sourcing and hiring tool.

The average cost per recruiter account is around $8,000, it could go way up from there depending how many HR people are using it. Even if one were to consider volume discounts, the companies who have thousands of recruiters are paying a hefty sum for access to LinkedIn tools.

What are Its Features?

Recruiter offers several unique features that are incredibly hard for companies to replicate or find anywhere else. These include:

1. A database of more than 200 million users and growing
2. Tools to engage passive employees
3. Career branding through alignment with corporate objectives.
4. A refreshed Recruiter home page more in line with corporate needs. The redesigned page has a new search tool, update stream, and section called “People You May Want to Hire.”The update stream feeds recruiters the latest news of people they are following and potential candidates.
5. InMail to contact registered users
6. The new beta feature allows a recruiter to see people within the company who can give feedback on a potential candidate, before the recruiter even gets in touch with that person.

The point where LinkedIn scores with Recruiter is that while it would take companies several years to build a candidate pool even a fraction its 200 million users and growing, it would be next to impossible to keep it updated.

Who’s Hiring with Recruiter?

That’s something any LinkedIn user might ask simply because he or she might not want to work with anything less than the biggest corporate.

It would be worth noting that more than 16,000 clients or companies like Google, Facebook, Unilever, BP, and L’Oreal pay to use LinkedIn Recruiter. These are just a few big names among thousands of other large, medium and small business and recruitment firms.

How Much Will Anyone Hire on Recruiter?

A lot, for instance, Rapid7, a security software company now uses LinkedIn Recruiter for all its recruiting purposes. The company’s recruiters spend four to five hours on LinkedIn every day and have used LinkedIn to recruit more than half of its workforce in the last year and a half.

What if you’re on LinkedIn and not looking for a Job?

You don’t even have to be looking. LinkedIn’s Recruiter can impact your career even if you’re not looking. The ability to source passive candidates, who might be the most qualified for the job, is a very valuable feature for LinkedIn Recruiter users.

Besides that LinkedIn’s messaging service, InMail, gives recruiters the ability to contact candidates who interest them. Even if they don’t choose to send an InMail, recruiters can still watch and receive updates on potential candidates.

They can add the people to hiring “projects” and see who else in the company is tracking that person. There’s even a new beta feature that allows a recruiter to see people within her company who can provide feedback on a potential candidate, all before the recruiter even gets in touch with that person.

What if you’re Not on LinkedIn?

You should register on LinkedIn because that’s where recruiters from top companies are headhunting.

If you’re Already on LinkedIn…

1. You must create a detailed profile with your job history and a picture so people can put a face on the person behind the profile.
2. Ideally your profile must have the same contents as your resume.
3. Use LinkedIn features like Skills can also make you more searchable.
4. Build your network with the people you know.