As many as nine out of 10 recruiters today use LinkedIn to identify good candidates. Clearly, you can leverage the power of your LinkedIn profile to find a suitable job in the insurance sector.
Profiles for budding insurance professionals should showcase the skills that insurance recruiters seek. These skills may include strong analytical abilities, aptitude for customer service, problem solving skills, good organizational ability, and adaptability to a technology-centric work environment.
Here are some of the important areas of focus for your LinkedIn profile to boost your job prospects in the insurance sector.
Headshot
It is vital to select a simple, headshot-type picture where the candidate is looking straight ahead. The profile should appear professional. New insurance professionals should particularly take care to include a corporate-style image.
Headline
For your Linked profile headline, it is important to be upfront. However, it is also essential to ensure that your headline stands out and grabs attention.
For instance, the headline could read as: “Young insurance professional with outstanding communication skills and strong analytical abilities looking for a competitive underwriting opportunity.”
Summary
The summary is akin to an “elevator pitch.” It is the candidate’s one minute opportunity to convey the most crucial information about themselves to the recruiter.
The candidate should include their insurance-related skills up front to help the recruiter understand their area of interest. Besides, they should also enlist their best qualities and professional achievements.
Experience
The candidate should include any experience that is relevant to the insurance industry near the top. In case they do not possess any experience that is relevant to the insurance sector yet, they should try to develop a connection between every experience that they have and how it could pertain to insurance work.
Search Engine Optimization and Keywords
Recruiters seeking potential employees search using keywords. The candidate should ensure that they include these keywords abundantly in their profile to make it show up in searches. Certain keywords that they can include are:
- Insurance
- Risk Management or Risk Analysis
- Business Analysis
- Analytical
- Relationship Builder
- Customer Service
- Finance
- Communication Skills
The candidate can review the Careers pages of employers that they are interested in working for and use some keywords and terms that they find here in their profile.
Recommendations
Garnering a positive recommendation from an ex-colleague or previous employer or customer will show the recruiter that the candidate’s profile is noteworthy and relevant.
Groups and Associations
A good starting point for a new candidate would be to join the alumni association of their school. Also, there are various insurance-centric groups that they could become a part of (run by insurance companies themselves or professional organizations).
Make Use of LinkedIn “InMail” Feature
New professionals should use the “InMail” feature on LinkedIn to connect to people working in the insurance industry more effectively and personally.
This feature presents a personal and compelling method to communicate with the people in the candidate’s network who can potentially connect them to recruiters from companies of interest.
Activate the ‘Open To New Opportunities’ Tab
The ‘Open to New Opportunities’ tab indicates to recruiters that the candidate is considering a change in their career. However, it can only be viewed by recruiters that do not belong to the candidate’s current company.
LinkedIn can be engaged for company research as well as networking. However, activating this tab is a convenient way for new professionals to create some interest among recruiters and begin their search.
Establish Authority and Knowledge
New professionals should view LinkedIn as a place where they can share their professional insights with their network. They can let their network and recruiters know that they are interested in and reflecting on the happenings in the area of insurance. New professionals can also share their suggestions on industry best practices.
