Job Seekers: Visibility Is Not Vanity; It Is a Strategy

The question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” was posed by the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley to reflect on the concept of perception: is a sound only a sound if it’s heard by someone?

Think of Berkeley’s question as a job seeker: If employers don’t know of your existence, do you exist? When you take the view that billions of people don’t know you exist a recruiter or hiring manager, being aware of your existence is, to a degree, intimate knowledge.

Being known, now easier than ever thanks to social media and the Internet, attracts opportunity. Visibility isn’t about ego. It’s not about chasing likes, being flashy, or striving to go viral. It’s about proactively and publicly providing ongoing evidence of how you can be a value-add to an employer that’ll enhance their profitability.

When you consistently show up—sharing your ideas, perspective, progress, milestone achievements, and especially your wins—whether on LinkedIn and other social media platforms, by giving speeches, publishing blog posts or articles, appearing on podcasts, or volunteering your experience and skills for a cause you believe in—you open doors. Consistent visibility shows ambition and purpose, indicating to employers that you’re committed to your career.

Post an insight every day. Share articles with your thoughts. Post constructive comments on posts from people in your industry, profession, or companies you’d like to join. Make it a daily habit to reach out to 1 – 3 people, especially those you’ve neglected to keep in touch with, offering value such as offering to make an introduction, without asking for anything. Every interaction you initiate with someone, whether online or in person, builds your visibility.

Visibility happens in two ways:

1. 1-to-1 engagement with people who—this is key—are working in the industry or profession you want to be in, and
2. At scale in places where people working in your industry or profession gather, such as conferences, workshops, association meetings, and, of course, social media (e.g., LinkedIn groups).

Today, increasing your visibility starts with optimizing your LinkedIn profile, which many job seekers overlook. Profiles without a profile picture, a banner, or an ‘About’ summary that tells a compelling career story or quantifies the impact they had on their employers are common. By optimizing your LinkedIn profile—doing what many don’t—you improve your visibility and discoverability—whether you appear in searches by recruiters, hiring managers, and those within your industry and/or profession looking to connect with like-minded people—which gives you a competitive advantage.

To increase the visibility and discoverability of your LinkedIn profile:

• Make sure your headline captures your value. (“Marketing Manager | 2024 Delivered 200% Traffic Growth via SEO & Content | Data-Driven Digital Transformation” or “Sales Director | 2024 Revenue: $6.5M+ | Building Strong Client Relationships”)
• Use the keywords and language employers use to describe your ideal role.
• Quantify your impact on your employer’s profitability. (This is key! Employers aren’t hiring ‘nice to have’ employees.)
• Join groups, write posts that start conversations, comment on posts, and make connections.

A fully optimized LinkedIn profile serves two purposes by providing:

1. Human decision-makers with assurance, and
2. LinkedIn’s algorithm the information it needs to determine whether you’re a good match.

A common oversight among job seekers is failing to extend their visibility beyond LinkedIn. LinkedIn isn’t the only place recruiters, employers, and professionals hang out online. Publishing articles on blogging platforms such as Medium or Substack, sharing insights, and engaging in professional discussions on platforms with dedicated groups, such as Reddit, Quora, Slack, or Discord, help build a digital footprint that establishes your credibility and reinforces your expertise. You don’t have to become a prolific content creator. Your goal is to curate an online presence that gets you noticed and communicates that you’re an authority or subject matter expert (SME) in your industry or profession, which’ll lead recruiters and employers to discover you and understand your value.

Even today, as deep as we are in the “digital age,” your visibility needs to be the most potent outside the digital world. I never understood how someone could be a project manager, accountant, marketing director, supply chain analyst, or [whatever] for 15 years without having cultivated a professional network. With the surge in bad actors and AI-generated applications, it’s increasingly common for recruiters and employers to avoid posting job openings and instead rely on referrals from employees, colleagues, mentors, and professional peers, thereby considerably broadening the hidden job market.

As I’ve mentioned in previous columns, job opportunities are all around you; the caveat is that they’re attached to people. If those in your immediate circle—family, friends, neighbours, acquaintances—don’t know you’re looking for a job and the value you can offer an employer, then when they become aware of an opportunity, they won’t think to mention you or pass it along to you. Visibility is a currency that puts you in a category of your own (not in the crowd) and pulls back the curtain to expose the job opportunities all around you. Telling everyone you know and meet that you’re job searching can significantly speed up your search.

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Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned corporate veteran, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. Send Nick your job search questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.