In today’s competitive job market, having a strong professional online presence is more important than ever. LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 675 million users worldwide, provides job seekers with valuable tools to showcase their skills, connect with potential employers, and find new career opportunities. For those looking to maximize their LinkedIn presence and get noticed by recruiters, upgrading to LinkedIn Premium can provide significant advantages.
What is LinkedIn Premium?
LinkedIn Premium is LinkedIn’s paid subscription service that provides users with additional features beyond the basic free account. There are three tiers of LinkedIn Premium:
- Premium Career – focused on job searching and professional branding
- Premium Business – focused on sales and recruiting
- Premium Hiring – focused on recruiting and talent acquisition
For job seekers, Premium Career is the ideal upgrade, as it unlocks LinkedIn’s full suite of career-boosting tools. Some of the key benefits of LinkedIn Premium for job hunting include:
Enhanced profile and visibility
With a Premium account, you can display the “Open to work” tagline prominently on your profile, signaling to recruiters that you’re actively job searching. Premium also lets you see more profile views and viewers to understand who’s looking at your profile.
Expanded search and messaging
Search filters allow Premium users to finely tune their job search based on date posted, company, location, experience level, and more. You can save these searches and get email notifications when new matching jobs are posted. Messaging is also enhanced, with the ability to reach out to anyone, even if you’re not connected.
Insights on jobs and companies
When viewing job postings, Premium provides inside information like typical interview process, pay range, and employee demographics. Company pages showcase employee statistics, common career paths, related jobs, and recent activity. This intel can help inform your job search and application strategy.
Specialized courses and coaching
LinkedIn Learning comes bundled with Premium, providing over 16,000 expert-led courses to help build in-demand job skills. You also get access to LinkedIn Coaches for personalized guidance on boosting your brand and reaching career goals.
How can Premium help you land a job?
Here are some of the key ways LinkedIn Premium can help job seekers stand out, get noticed, and successfully land new roles:
Build a stronger professional brand
Premium’s profile enhancement tools allow you to control exactly how recruiters see your profile. You can customize sections, pin featured content to the top, showcase media, skills, and accomplishments, and display certifications and test scores.
Increase profile views and engagement
By seeing who’s looking at your profile, you can proactively reach out and connect with relevant people at target companies. Advanced search filters also help you find and follow influential professionals in your industry.
Apply to jobs more efficiently
Saving job searches and getting notifications when matching roles are posted eliminates time spent looking. With saved search alerts, relevant new openings come directly to your inbox.
Leverage inside information on companies
Employee demographics, career paths, related jobs, and recent activity insights help you learn about company culture to determine if it’s a good fit. This context strengthens interview prep and application approach.
Gain relevant skills
LinkedIn Learning’s vast library of expert courses allows you to brush up on key skills listed in the job description. Showcasing these strengthened skills on your profile exhibits initiative.
Get expert coaching
LinkedIn Coaches provide tips and best practices tailored to your job search. A coach can help polish your profile, resume, interview technique, and online presence to maximize employability.
What do the statistics show?
LinkedIn Premium clearly provides advantages and tools to help job seekers get noticed and hired. But what do the statistics and surveys say in terms of measurable impact? Here are some key LinkedIn Premium metrics:
| Statistic | Finding |
|---|---|
| 30% more profile views | Premium members get 30% more profile views than free members on average. |
| 40% more messages | Premium accounts see 40% more incoming messages, which can lead to networking opportunities. |
| 5x more applicants | Jobs posted by Premium Business accounts get up to 5x more applicants. |
| 20% higher InMail response rate | Response rate to InMail messages is 20% higher for Premium members. |
| 2x more likely to be hired | Active job seekers on Premium are over 2x as likely to get hired from LinkedIn. |
In a 2021 survey commissioned by LinkedIn, 91% of Premium subscribers agreed that Premium is worth the cost when job searching. And 80% said Premium helped them land an interview or get hired faster.
Is LinkedIn Premium worth the cost?
The premium versions of LinkedIn range in price from $29.99 per month for Premium Career (billed annually) up to $99.95 per month for Premium Hiring. Given the expense, is the investment worthwhile for job seekers?
The key benefits that make Premium worth the cost for serious job hunters include:
- Increased exposure – Your profile gets shown to recruiters looking for candidates like you
- Inside information – Company and job insights help you stand out
- Messaging – Unlimited InMail makes networking and contacting recruiters easy
- Skills training – 16,000+ courses help you build your talents
- Expert guidance – Coaches provide personalized career strategy
Considering the average job search lasts 2-3 months and the average cost to hire one employee is $4,000, a LinkedIn Premium subscription can easily pay for itself by helping you land the right job weeks or months faster.
Of course, the value also depends on how extensively you utilize Premium’s features. To maximize your job search results, it’s important to take advantage of all the tools – optimized profile, expanded network and outreach, targeted jobs and companies research, skills courses, and coaching.
Tips for getting the most from Premium:
- Showcase relevant skills, media, projects, and volunteer work
- Display “Open to Work” and other profile tags
- Proactively connect with recruiters and hiring managers
- Follow companies you want to work for
- Take courses relevant to jobs you’re targeting
- Get resume and interview coaching
Conclusion
While Premium isn’t essential, it can provide active job seekers with valuable advantages that accelerate networking, exposure, skills development, and ultimately getting hired. The statistics clearly show boosted hiring outcomes. For those committed to their search, the monthly or annual cost of Premium likely pays for itself multiple times over by helping land the right job faster.
With enhanced profile visibility, expanded search and outreach, actionable insights, skills training, and expert guidance, LinkedIn Premium levels up your ability to showcase your experience, connect with the right people, and stand out from other applicants. If used strategically, Premium can be a worthwhile investment to boost your career goals.