Can Linkedin Company Pages Help You Find Unadvertised Positions?

Many job seekers can find Linkedin company pages to be a useful tool in their search. This often overlooked Linkedin feature allows the savvy candidate to gain an edge with companies they target. Remember, 80% of the available jobs are unadvertised…it’s a widely known industry statistic. Yet, most job seekers target the 20% of the jobs easily seen on job boards.

What can Linkedin Company Pages do for me?

Linkedin Company Pages provide information and views that’s helpful when targeting smaller companies as well as mammoth ones. For larger companies, Company Pages shows divisions and subsidiaries. For example, one of the companies that’s been consistently near the top of reCareered’s Who’s Hiring articles is IBM. IBM is many companies under a single brand…many non-techies think of IBM as a mainframe manufacturer (they sold off their PC division years ago).

Let’s use IBM as an example that can be applied to many different companies and industries. A look at IBM’s Linkedin Company Page gives a more in depth perspective:

If you’re in Finance or Sales, for instance, you’ll find many places and locations within IBM that need financial and sales talent…beyond just the mainframe folks.

You may remember that IBM purchased PriceWaterhouseCooper’s consulting division, and now competes with companies like Accenture & BearingPoint. Consultants know that IBM is one of the largest firms in ERP implementation, Supply Chain, and Government contracting. Looking at IBM’s listing of divisions and subsidiaries, you’ll also find enterprise software companies who create financial and operational software for large companies. These divisions need financial and operational talent.

You can see typical companies where IBM employees worked before IBM. This can be helpful, especially if you came from those companies or have a close contacts within those companies (IBM hires most often from PWC & HP). You can also see where IBM alums are likely go next (Microsoft & Oracle)…do you have any contacts at these companies who can introduce you to IBM’ers? Could you research Microsoft’s & Oracle’s new hires looking for people who just left IBM…could these represent unadvertised positions?

People:

With over 50M people now on Linkedin, Company Pages is like an internal phone directory (sorry, no direct extensions, but many email addresses). In prior years, recruiters would sell their soul (be nice, candidates) for this kind of information…now it’s available to candidates, for free. Search Company Pages by division and/or location to hone in on the people who are most likely to get you to a hiring manager. If I search IBM’s company page for Chicago area employees, I get over 3,000 people. I can narrow that list by keyword, specialty or division.

A separate section lists former employees…could former employees help you find the right hiring manager in a company as large as IBM?

New Hires & Recent Promotions/Changes:

Do new managers ever hire their own staff to build their own teams? Even companies that are laying off may hire new staff as well, as they change focus, strategy, or just get new blood into the company. New managers often come into a company to bring about change, and change often means new people. Recently promoted officer and managers may also have new challenges, or take over additional areas and want to staff their own teams.

Newly hired and promoted managers also give you the opportunity of communicating something other than “can I have a job?” Instead of spamming this contact with an uninvited resume, could it be valuable to congratulate your target on their promotion or hire?

Other information:

Company pages list specialties. As a candidate, why is this important? Could clicking on these specialties give you insight into other companies in the space…maybe small competitors not on your radar screen? Could specialties give you some guesses into keywords that a company might use to search Linkedin profiles and resumes?

Company pages list recent articles about the company, stock price graphs, links to Business Week articles, major locations (Does IBM have many employees where you live, in Nashville? ), demographics (maybe not a great place for women to work, as only 27% of their workforce is female, nor a great place for the guys to start an office romance)

Why is this feature hidden?

It’s not hidden, but it’s not exactly apparent to the casual Linkedin user. The easiest place to find Linkedin Companies is just to the left of the search bar. Most Linkedin users use the search bar to find for specific people. Click the drop down menu to the left of the search bar, select company, and search for companies on your target list.

Can you come up with other ideas of how Linkedin Company Pages can change your search methods?

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