If you’re job hunting, what is an appropriately assertive response when someone of professional interest views your LinkedIn profile?

The viewer could be an executive at a company you want to work for, a hiring manager, recruiter, or a prospective co-worker. It could even be a former boss or colleague, a professional in a LinkedIn group or association you belong to, or someone who graduated from your university. All of these types of views are potential connections or “leads” to your next job.

See Who Viewed Your Profile

If you have a free LinkedIn account, you can get to these “leads” by clicking “view profile” under “Me” in the upper right corner. That will take you to your home page, where “Your Dashboard” appears. On this page, you will see the total number of profile views in the past 90 days, the number of times you have appeared in searches, and up to five people who have viewed your profile. If you have a premium account, you will see an unlimited number of people who visited your profile and other information like trends in viewership and industry representation.

How Should You Respond?

If you have any point of connection with your viewer, it’s perfectly acceptable to respond, but not immediately. You can also send a generic connection request and passively wait to see if there is a follow-up from your viewer. Let’s take a look at two scenarios:

Scenario 1: A professional from a good company checks our your profile

Someone is intrigued by your profile, but you have no idea why. If they have common connections, you can do a little sleuthing to see how they know you. LinkedIn allows you to send a free message to people with whom you share connections. If you don’t have common connections, you can send a message using the LinkedIn “InMail” feature, which is available for a free month trial, and includes other worthwhile benefits to job hunters.

Whether you have common connections or not, wait at least 24 hours before sending a message. You don’t want to look like you’re desperately contacting everyone who has viewed your profile. In the meantime, look at the company’s job board on LinkedIn to see if they have posted a position for someone with your skills.

If the contact has common connections, you might want to reintroduce yourself with a reminder as to how you know one another, and then ask to chat about a common topic of interest. You may reference their viewing of your profile or not, if you would rather appear more casual. If the person does not have common contacts with you, you can begin your note with something like this:

“I noticed that you had recently come across my profile. As I reviewed yours, I discovered that we both share [common areas of interest]. I would love the opportunity to talk with you about…”

These approaches are just assertive enough to start a dialogue, but not overly aggressive, if the person may have a hiring interest. Making a direct reference to an existing job opening, or even the possibility of working for the company may seem too pesky for an introductory message on LinkedIn, so err on the side of caution.

Scenario 2: A hiring or HR manager from a company you just applied to views your profile

Congratulations, this is a positive sign that you are being considered as a potential candidate for the position. In this case, resist the temptation to respond. If you haven’t heard anything in a week, you can respond, with the same message as for the next scenario…

Scenario 3: An employee from a company you just applied to views your profile

This is likely related to your application, especially if the person is in the department to which you applied, but you don’t know for sure. This scenario presents an opportunity to be more assertive, especially considering that companies offer referral bonuses to employees who bring in successful new hires. Consider sending a message like this:

Hi Miriam,

Glad to connect with you on LinkedIn. I see you have been working with [company] in the [department] on [type of work or project]. I also see that we are both members of [association or LinkedIn group]. I recently submitted my application for the open[position] there and am interested in learning more about the working environment. I would love the opportunity to chat or email with you briefly just to ask a few questions if you don’t mind.

Thank you,

Alan

As a general rule, blind communications on LinkedIn are best received when your note establishes common interests, previous events that you both may have attended, your impressions of an article the person wrote, or even something that you may have to offer professionally. Avoid sending a generic message, or a second message when you haven’t received a response from the first. Finally, when you do send a message, don’t stalk the person, because they may be able to see how many times you viewed their profile, depending on their account level.

Every job hunter should stay current with LinkedIn’s features and protocols. To learn more about how to put LinkedIn to work for you in your career, check out our recent posts:

Get Hired by Raising Your Rank on LinkedIn

LinkedIn: Double the Power of Your Profile in Two Days

Top 3 Ways to Network on LinkedIn

How to Find the Best LinkedIn User Groups for Networking in Your Profession

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