No self-respecting job seeker would nix the idea of being front and center on LinkedIn. You’ve probably heard me go on and on about the aspects of your profile on which you should focus as you optimize it for recruiters and decision makers. But there’s something you may not have considered, and that’s how employers are finding your profile.
Many recruiters are viewing your LinkedIn profile not on the front end—as you experience it—but on the backend, leveraging the paid version of LinkedIn Recruiter (and the lower-cost version, LinkedIn Recruiter Lite). While there are certainly differences between Recruiter and Recruiter Lite (you can read more about those in this article), here we’ll focus on the two primary ways recruiters view your profile. After all, you’re a job seeker trying to be seen on LinkedIn, the #1 place recruiters source candidates. The specificities of the different levels of platform aren’t quite as pertinent as how they find you.
LinkedIn vs. LinkedIn Recruiter
Each side of LinkedIn allows for some great search options, and you can absolutely be found on either side. It’s the differences in how you’re found and what your profile looks like that will mostly interest you—and enable you to divvy up your attention appropriately.
My suggestion: Optimize your profile for both sides of the search. Do everything you would do on the front end and consider how your profile is seen on the backend. That way, you can increase your chances of being found by the right people.
To simplify this, here’s the breakdown:
This is where you see conversations and a newsfeed. You can comment, share, and like, akin to how any other social media platform works. When looking at your profile, others will see your URL, background image, about, featured section, experience (and any added media), education, associations, recommendations, and whatever else you’ve added to make your profile shine.
LinkedIn Recruiter
This side is all about data and keywords. Recruiters and hiring managers can search for candidates by keywords and various filters because their aim here is only to find your profile. They cannot see your carefully formatted frontend version; they only see the text. On Recruiter, AI is readily available and makes searching that much easier when one has various requirements for which they’re looking.
A recruiter can easily click on a LinkedIn profile to open it in Recruiter; likewise, once they pull up a profile in Recruiter, they can see it on LinkedIn with a simple click.
Think of the two sites this way: LinkedIn is your digital handshake, while LinkedIn Recruiter is your resume database entry.
What Recruiters See in LinkedIn Recruiter
When a recruiter searches in LinkedIn Recruiter, they see:
- headline
- location
- contact information (if you’ve included it)
- current and past jobs and whatever you’ve shared about them
- skills (in your about, experience, education, and skills section)
- about section
- experience
- any additional information (honors, affiliations, etc.)
- recommendations
They don’t see your banner photo, media or links in your featured section, or even your URL, unless they click on it to open your profile in LinkedIn.
That means the “extras” that make your public profile look beautiful are invisible in the Recruiter view. What matters most here are keywords—and they can be anywhere on your profile, from your headline to about, experience, and skills.
Although your visuals, featured components, and posting content help build credibility and position you as a thought leader, they have no bearing on if you show up on the Recruiter side of LinkedIn.
Focus on Keywords to Be Found
Having keywords on your LinkedIn profile is important no matter how people are looking for you. But when searching on the frontend, the keywords in your headline and position titles are what pull first; however, on the backend, they can be (and should be) anywhere and everywhere on your profile.
Remember that one of the primary things LinkedIn is, is a search engine. Search engines are powered by keywords. And since AI has entered the conversation, recruiters can use LinkedIn Recruiter to search for someone who is:
located in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, or Utah; has a bachelor’s degree; specializes in financial services, strategic planning, and data analysis; has the title of CFO or controller; and is open to work
LinkedIn Recruiter’s algorithm then matches those search terms to the text in profiles and serves them up for recruiters to peruse.
Obviously, this means that, if the phrases that describe your skills, expertise, and target role aren’t baked into your headline, experience, or skills, you might not show up. Of course, you’ll want your keywords to be relevant and applicable to your industry. That’s key to success.
Open to Work vs. #OpenToWork
Here’s another area that many job seekers don’t understand. When you mark yourself as open to work, you can either make that public, which adds the #opentowork green banner around your profile headshot, or you can make it private so that only recruiters can see it on the backend.
Recruiters can search specifically for people who have marked themselves as “open to work” in LinkedIn Recruiter. Therefore, even if you don’t display the green banner publicly, checking that box privately still makes you discoverable to the right people. This is ideal for candidates who are gainfully employed but looking for a new role on the sly.
If you’re not currently working, adding the green banner helps increase your visibility on the frontend (yes, it does still show up in Recruiter), letting everyone know that you’re looking for a new role.
How Recruiters Search via LinkedIn Recruiter
When a recruiter opens LinkedIn Recruiter, they can create a search using various filters and Boolean strings. They might start with:
“project manager” within 50 miles of Phoenix- with 10+ years of experience
- who have a PMP certification
- who are open to work
That search could return 1,000–2,000 profiles, which means they may narrow it down by current title, company size, or industry. After some whittling down, they might get to 50–100 profiles. First, they’ll see these in their returned searches as a list, which they can then dive into.
While you can’t predict what parameters recruiters will use to search for you, having clear job titles, relevant keywords, a professional photo, and even a verified profile can help.
The Visibility Equation: Backend + Frontend = Opportunity
To really attract recruiters, I suggest leveraging both sides of the LinkedIn equation:
- Backend visibility gets you found.
- Frontend visibility gets you remembered.
You can optimize keywords, skills, and settings all day long—and you should—but pairing that approach with thoughtful visibility, such as posting, engaging, and commenting, creates a full picture of who you are professionally.
It’s the difference between being a name in a search result and being the person they want to contact first.
What you need to remember is that LinkedIn isn’t just a digital business card or even just a marketing site; it’s a search engine.
When you understand how recruiters actually use the platform, you can stop guessing what works and start building a profile that plays well on both sides of the screen. What gets found isn’t pretty, it’s findable. Pretty is just a bonus.
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