I receive a lot of queries from those who want to work with LinkedIn.

This is because they see that I have been a LinkedIn Evangelist.

They believe that I can help them by referring. 

Truth is I can.

And, I am happy to help anyone who reaches out.

But not everyone who reaches out is ready to make the cut.

This is because,

You Don’t Have The Required Experience.

I often receive referral requests from people who ask me to refer them for jobs where the minimum required experience is 3 years, and they don’t even have an experience of 18 months.

It’s pretty competitive at LinkedIn like any other large company. The recruiter, the first one to filter profiles, receives more than a thousand applications for an in-demand role like a product manager.

The first filtering criteria is to see if the applicant has the minimum required experience.

The job postings clearly mention that “..only candidates who meet the Basic Qualifications will be considered.”

So, make sure that you don’t apply to a role where you don’t meet basic qualifications. 

You Don’t Take Time To Understand The Role And Prepare Ahead Of Time.

Your job isn’t done even when you pass the ‘basic qualification’ filter.

Because in most jobs, the hiring manager will offer preferred qualifications for additional filtering.

A recruiter will use these preferred qualifications to filter at the next level.

Check out these basics and preferred qualifications, for an Associate Product Manager role at LinkedIn Sunnyvale, CA office.

You can see that preferred qualifications for this role are entrepreneurial, leadership experience or internship experience in product management, software engineering or development role.

You can’t do or build these overnight. If you are keen for a role like this, you should start looking at the roles a year in advance to notice the gaps and what you need to work on.

Only those who do it, make the cut.

For those willing to put work, it is doable. Creating an app is simple. If you are really interested in a PM role, take some time to create it. The same goes for founding/leading a group. You can start a University chapter for an organization that allows you to showcase your leadership abilities.

All these will help with your chances of being shortlisted. And, this will help in PM roles, across companies.

You Don’t Go The Extra Mile.

When looking for a job, most applicants get on a job application treadmill and apply to 2-3 jobs per day. They don’t pay attention to customizing their application or their cover letter. They don’t even spend time to update their LinkedIn profile.

If you pay attention to these, it’ll give you an edge because only a small number of applications do. And, if you are among those, you help your own case.

For senior roles, the competition is even tougher. So think of what can give you an edge. Start by building a body of work. But don’t end there. Work to make genuine connections with people at companies where you are looking to work.

You Get Distracted And Unmotivated.

Don’t get distracted and lose hope because your experience does not match the first time. Keep looking, fix the mistakes you made the first time and win.

I hope you use these ideas and combine them with ideas that I shared in my post on getting a dream job and find work that motivates you every day to give your best and helps you grow beyond your dreams.