Düsseldorf Yes, yes – you know. Xing and LinkedIn are essential if you are looking for a new job this year. Because how else – besides virtually – should applicants network effectively in the midst of a pandemic? But what does the perfect appearance in the career networks look like?
One thing is certain: a decent photo, the most important stages in your résumé and sporadic technical articles are only the beginning and by no means the end of the possibilities on LinkedIn and Xing. If you really want to stand out, you have to dig into the depths of the settings on the career portals.
The Handelsblatt shows you ten tricks on Xing and LinkedIn that you have probably never heard of before. Xing consultant Constanze Wolff and LinkedIn expert Stephan Koß provided their input for the research on this text.
The link that leads to your own profile is usually a combination of your own name and a few confused numbers. If you want more clarity, there is a small and above all short trick called Vanity-URL. This is a forwarding link that leads to your own profile.
This can be created on LinkedIn using the pencil next to the profile photo – scroll down to “Contact details”, then click “Edit”. The profile URL can be changed there. The xing.to service is available for Xing – here, too, long profile addresses can be abbreviated. This is useful for using your own Xing or LinkedIn profile compactly on business cards or in your email signature.
The profile URL can be changed under “Contact details” and “Edit”. Handy for signatures and business cards.
2. Visit profiles – without leaving any traces
Regards: Xing and LinkedIn
The two career networks show paying premium users who has visited their own profile. A service that HR managers and headhunters in particular appreciate.
However, there are occasions when someone may not want to leave a trace on a profile visit. For example, if you are currently looking for potential reinforcement for your team. Or if you want to find out more about your counterpart before the interview without attracting attention beforehand.
Xing and LinkedIn: The differences
There is a private mode for this on LinkedIn. This can be set by clicking in the navigation above on “You” / “Settings & data protection” / “Visibility” / “Visibility of profile and network” / “Profile views”.
On Xing, the whole thing only works in a roundabout way – as follows:
- First search for the desired person using the Xing search as usual.
- However, do not click on this person in the search results, otherwise you would leave traces. Instead, right-click the person’s name and copy the link address.
- Then log out of Xing and paste the copied link to the profile in the address bar of the browser. You are now incognito.
3. Add the correct pronunciation – for fewer faux pas
Regards: LinkedIn
Anyone who is not called Meier, Müller or Schulze knows that pronouncing your own name can sometimes get business contacts into trouble. In addition, it can quickly annoy those affected to explain again and again how their own name is now correctly pronounced.
LinkedIn therefore offers – but only in the app – the option of adding the pronunciation of the name as an audio file to its profile. You can find the function directly when you go to your profile in the app. Use the pencil symbol for editing to find the “+ Add Pronunciation” function.
In the profile settings (controllable with the pencil) you will find the item “Add pronunciation” on the smartphone.
(Photo: S. Koß)
4. Activate portfolio and creator mode – for more visibility
Regards: Xing and LinkedIn
Especially self-employed, freelancers, but also people from recruiting or marketing, it helps to highlight your own profile. Xing offers the portfolio for this – to be found in the cross-navigation between “Skills and Knowledge” and “Personal”.
LinkedIn has developed the Creator mode for this. It can be activated in desktop mode and in the app in the “Resources” profile area. Among other things, a newsletter can be set up there, which is created in the LinkedIn environment – and up to five topics can be selected for which one would like to be found. Koß: “This is how a loyal community of followers can be built with good content.”
In addition to a brief description, you can add up to 30 images or PDFs to Xing’s portfolio area, which underline your own expertise in a topic. CVs or references for recruiters can also be stored here.
In the cross-navigation relatively far down in the Xing profile, a portfolio with various attachments can be added in the desktop version.
5. Format texts – and stand out from the rest
Regards: Xing and LinkedIn
You have probably already noticed: some users on the career networks use different fonts to highlight words, quotes or numbers. The platforms do not offer this function at all.
The trick: With a so-called Unicode text converter, simply written text can be exported in different fonts via the desktop. Incidentally, this also works for the text in profile descriptions.
“With this tip, it is important to use it in a really well-dosed way,” warns expert Wolff. Otherwise, posts in the career network would “quickly look like a teenager’s WhatsApp messages”.
6. Have postings created automatically – via RSS
Regards: Xing
A relatively powerful function that makes it easier for blogging users to become active on the career networks is hidden on Xing in the lower part of their own profile. In the cross-navigation between “Skills and Knowledge” and “Personal” – right next to the portfolio – there is the “Other profiles on the net” tab. A so-called RSS feed can be integrated here. This automatically shares newly published blog articles with their own contacts.
A so-called RSS feed can be linked to the Xing profile under Other profiles in the network. This automatically plays newly published articles from a blog or a news site.
In many blogs, the link to the RSS feed follows a scheme like meinblog.de/feed. “However, depending on the blog software, it can also be a different link – I would therefore ask the operator of your own blog what the exact address is,” says Wolff. Or read in the FAQ.
7. Optimize your own timeline – with a hashtag inventory
Regards: LinkedIn
Similar to the microblogging service Twitter, hashtags can also be set on LinkedIn. The small garden fences in front of keywords mark a topic. If you click on it, you will see articles marked with the same keyword.
What few people know: “LinkedIn uses the constellation of hashtags that you follow to display article suggestions in the timeline,” explains Koß. If you visit and sort the page of your hashtags and remove unsuitable ones, you increase the quality of the posts that are displayed and suggested.
You can find the hashtag area on your LinkedIn homepage in the “Current” area under “Your hashtags”. To follow a new topic hashtag, enter it with the pound sign in the search bar (for example #virtualreality) and click on “Follow” at the top of the search results.
Using the search, users can follow keyed topics, so-called hashtags. The topics can be managed in the area on the left under “Your hashtags”.
8. Log off – if the job is not currently in focus
Regards: Xing and LinkedIn
A sabbatical, parental leave, a long illness: there are phases in life when there is something more important for a career than networking. Both Xing and LinkedIn have developed a kind of pause button for their members – albeit a little hidden.
On LinkedIn, you will find the “Temporarily deactivate account” function in the settings under “Memberships and payments”. On Xing, you can also go to “Deactivate profile” via the settings under “User account” / “Personal settings”. The advantages: After the break, the profile does not have to be set up again, premium users do not have to pay any contributions during this time, and valuable contacts and personal conversations are thus retained.
9. Increase awareness for a few days – with stories
Regards: Xing
Users actually know stories from social networks like Instagram. The function has recently also been available in the Xing app. Stories are contributions – photos, texts, graphics, videos – that are only displayed to your own contacts for seven days and then disappear again. In the app, they catch the eye much faster than regular postings. An advantage for attracting additional attention for a while.
Stories are currently only available on the Xing app. Xing will soon also want to transfer the functionality to the desktop version. However, it remains to be seen how well the format will be adopted. LinkedIn, for example, abolished the function a few months ago.
10. Know where you stand – with the salary comparison
Regards: LinkedIn
Which employee doesn’t want to know whether he or she earns well enough? The LinkedIn salary comparison provides an indication of this, available here. The data is based on information from LinkedIn members and is intended to provide an estimate of how much other people earn in a similar position, industry and region.
LinkedIn’s salary comparison can be accessed via the external link https://de.linkedin.com/salary.
The function does not exist on Xing, but the sister portal Kununu also shows salary ranges for individual companies and positions.
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