I’ve received a few inquiries over the past month regarding how to find active job seekers on LinkedIn.
This isn’t something I do, nor have I ever tried to do it, so I didn’t have any read-made search suggestions for these folks.
I don’t recruit people because they are looking to make a move – I recruit people based on their skills, experience and critical intangibles. I could care less if they are looking or if the thought of leaving their current employer is the furthest thing from their mind.
In my opinion and experience, everyone is a candidate and anyone can be recruited if you have a great match between their skills, experience and interests and the opportunity you’re looking to fill.
Having said all that, if you want to search LinkedIn to identify people who are highly likely to be actively seeking employment, you have a few options.
In today’s competitive hiring landscape, finding quality candidates can be a challenging task for employers. With millions of people actively looking for jobs, how do you attract and source the right applicants for your openings?
This guide will explore proven methods and top strategies to help you effectively find and connect with relevant candidates looking for jobs, Let’s get started!
Leverage Online Job Boards
One of the most popular ways job seekers look for openings is through online job boards like Indeed, Monster, and ZipRecruiter To access this large pool of active candidates, make sure to post your jobs on relevant boards
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Research the top platforms job seekers in your industry or location use and focus efforts there.
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Optimize your job posts with relevant keywords and clear requirements to attract suitable candidates.
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Offer competitive pay and benefits in listings to stand out.
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Use platform features like screening questions to filter candidates.
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Browse profiles and proactively reach out to potential applicants on the site.
Online job boards give you visibility and access to a wide range of qualified candidates open to new roles.
Search Social Media
Social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are now commonly used in the job search process. Leverage these networks to connect with suitable candidates.
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On LinkedIn, search for profiles with “Open to work” badges and relevant skills. Message potential fits.
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Join industry and career-oriented Groups to find participants who may be interested in your roles.
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Post job openings in relevant Facebook Groups and pages followers are looking for opportunities.
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On Twitter, search hashtags like #jobsearch, #hiring, #jobs to find people tweeting about looking for work.
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Advertise roles on social platforms to reach passive candidates not actively job hunting.
Social recruiting is a cost-effective way to tap into your networks and outside communities for candidates.
Partner With Schools and Programs
Building partnerships with educational institutions provides access to new graduates or alumni entering the job market.
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Connect with career centers of colleges and universities to source graduating students.
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Attend campus career fairs and company info sessions to engage student job seekers.
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Offer internships and co-ops to pipeline early talent into full-time roles.
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Post openings on school job portals and alumni databases.
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Partner with vocational programs, bootcamps, and training institutes.
Early talent programs are an effective way to find trained, motivated new entrants to the workforce.
Attend Industry Events
Industry conferences, seminars, networking events attract active and passive job seekers interested in opportunities.
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Exhibit or sponsor relevant events and interact with attendees.
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Distribute promotional items like flyers or business cards.
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Present or run a session at the event to showcase domain expertise.
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Follow up with promising candidates you meet to start a relationship.
Events let you engage directly with professionals and talent in your industry.
Leverage Referrals
Referrals from current employees, networks, or clients can produce high-quality candidates as they come recommended.
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Offer employee referral bonuses to incentivize staff to suggest candidates from their network.
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Ask suppliers, partners, or vendors if they know anyone looking for similar roles.
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Request referrals from professional associations, trade groups, or alumni you are part of.
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Make it easy for referrers by having a career site, email address ready.
Referred applicants often make the best hires as they are pre-vetted and motivated.
Search Niche Job Sites
To target specific demographics, leverage niche and diversity job boards.
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Women-focused sites like PowerToFly for gender diversity.
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Boards like Jopwell and WorkplaceDiversity for racial diversity.
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Websites like DisabledPerson for candidates with disabilities.
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Sites like FlexJobs and Remote.co for remote or flexible gigs.
Niche platforms attract qualified, often overlooked candidates aligned to your inclusion efforts.
Advertise Locally
To source candidates from your local community, use traditional outreach methods.
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Place job ads in regional newspapers and listings magazines.
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Post openings on community boards at local shops, colleges, or religious centers.
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Promote jobs on community radio stations or neighborhood publications.
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Engage with local job seeker support and networking groups.
Local advertising taps into the nearby talent pool and allows you to discover hidden gems.
Search Resume Databases
Many job boards and recruiting sites offer searchable resume databases you can leverage to find and contact candidates.
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Use advanced search to find resumes matching your criteria.
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Reach out to qualified individuals for current or future openings.
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Save resumes to a talent pool or CRM for future search.
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Offer job alert or newsletter subscriptions to source interested candidates.
Resume banks let you proactively identify and nurture prospective applicants.
Attend Job Fairs
Job fairs are events that bring together a multitude of actively looking candidates under one roof.
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Send recruiters to meet candidates at large community, university, or industry job fairs.
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Leverage virtual fairs to broaden reach. Video screening is often provided.
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Collect resumes and have a systematic process to follow up with promising candidates.
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Capture candidate data even if you don’t have immediate roles.
Job fairs provide a cost-efficient way to source, screen, and engage with several applicants together.
Develop Talent Pipelines
To build a consistent pipeline of new applicants, nurture long-term communities.
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Foster student talent through internships, co-ops, mentorships.
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Support affiliated groups and non-profits aligned to inclusion and opportunity.
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Offer training, upskilling, and apprenticeships to develop talent pools.
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Create formal talent networks like a candidate community or open talent market.
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Maintain strong campus relations through recruiting partnerships.
Pipelines provide access to qualified, interested candidates over time, reducing hiring effort.
Promote Your Employer Brand
Focus on building an authentic employer brand that attracts the right candidates to you.
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Highlight your culture, values, and purpose on your careers site.
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Encourage employees to share their positive experiences on sites like Glassdoor.
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Engage social followers with behind-the-scenes content and employee spotlights.
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Pursue media coverage, awards, and rankings that showcase your workplace.
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Tie your brand to initiatives important to your target demographics.
A strong brand establishes trust and interest in your company attracting more applicants.
There is ample opportunity to find quality job seekers if you use the right mix of online, offline, traditional and creative sourcing strategies. Begin by understanding where your target applicants gather and focus efforts there.
With a data-driven, multi-channel outreach approach, you can build a robust pipeline of candidates. Combined with an appealing employer brand and value proposition, you can have top talent knocking on your door!
How to Find Active Job Seekers on LinkedIn
As with nearly all human capital information retrieval efforts, experimentation and pattern recognition are key.
When it comes to finding people who are likely to be active job seekers, the first thing you can do is think about what types of words and phrases these people might use on their LinkedIn profiles to signify that they are looking for a new opportunity.
I don’t want to risk losing anyone with this comparison, but I think it’s critical that you realize that any solid sourcing methodology employs the scientific method for acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. The foundation of the scientific method is to propose a hypothesis and to design experimental efforts to test the hypothesis via predictions which can be derived from them.
Let’s hypothesize that people on LinkedIn who are looking for new employment would actually state such on their profile, and let’s predict that they might write such things as “currently seeking,” or “seeking new.”
We can test this hypothesis by running the search to see if we get any results, and if we do, how many results are returned.
When I ran the search, I got 36,222 results for all of LinkedIn (all locations).
That struck me as low, but at least we have verified that some people do in fact mention that they are actively seeking new employment on their LinkedIn profile.
Now we need to continue to hypothesize as to other phrases people might use to denote that they are looking for employment.
Before we do, however, let’s take notice of some information returned from that first search.
Looking over at the “Current Company” facet, we hit a little jackpot of information in the form of people actually entering in active job seeker phrases in their current employer field.
One thing you can glean from this section is 2 new job seeking phrases to search for – “actively seeking” and “seeking employment.”
Another thing to notice is the companies that are in the top 10 list.
Getting back to the “actively seeking” OR “seeking new” search results, you will see that this first very basic and limited search works…
…but it also pulls false positives in the form of people who mention “seeking new” in ways not referring to employment opportunities.
When it comes to information retrieval, false positives are inevitable – the goal is to minimize them whenever possible.
LinkedIn Offers Great Job Seeker Intel!
I can’t move on before sharing one of my favorite features of LinkedIn – the ability to see the top 10 results by current company, location, industry, etc.
I find this information fascinating – and when you run your own searches by your country or metro area, you’ll get even more applicable insight.
Here are the top 10 results by location, current company, and industry for the 12 active job seeker term search:
When searching globally, it’s not surprising to see some of the largest employers in the top 10, but there are some very large employers that are not listed and a few companies in the top 10 that I didn’t expect to see there.
Here’s the global top 10 industry breakdown:
7 Job Search Strategies To Find A Job FAST!
FAQ
Where do people post looking for work?
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Rank
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Job Board
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Indeed
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Google for Jobs
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3.
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Handshake
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Wellfound
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How do I search for a job on indeed?
If you prefer, you can also search for candidates by using unlimited search and refine results with basic filters like availability and job title, or use advanced filters (for Professional subscribers only) like willingness to relocate, job type, or job seekers recently active on Indeed.
Why is finding people looking for jobs important?
As a hiring professional, learning how to find people looking for jobs can be an important skill. Finding those actively seeking work can improve the size of your candidate pool when filling a position. This may allow you to identify a higher quality candidate, improving the overall productivity levels within your company.
Are job search sites still a good way to find a job?
However, job search sites are still one of the best ways to find a job because you can use them to identify which companies are hiring. Some even allow you to set custom job search alerts and receive notifications about new postings, so you don’t miss your dream job if it comes up. Then, you can apply directly to these companies (step 2 above).
How to find a good job?
Whenever you can, you should attend specific networking events in your industry. Events such as conferences, expositions and continuing education forums are ideal places to meet others who can help in your job search.
