Easy Apply is easy! But, should you click Easy Apply as a job applicant on LinkedIn? Are you a job seeker with a hyper-focused job search and have you optimized your LinkedIn profile with keywords? If so, you could click Easy Apply.
What is a hyper-focused job search? A hyper-focused job search is where you are targeting a very specific role and not several varying roles.
Although you may have many talents and skills, you may be a multipotentialite, or have a hybrid professional identity. You can’t be a Jack or Jill of all Trades. You need to have tunnel vision for your job search for a targeted job title if you want to use Easy Apply.
Along with the hyper-focused role you hope to land, you present a positioning statement that is carefully wordsmithed and keywords that have been researched on your LinkedIn profile along with your achievements.
Hopefully, your accomplishments are quantifiable with a dollar amount, percentage, or number, and you are using frameworks like STAR, SOAR, CAR, PAR, OR PARADE. You have explained how you have helped a company make money, save money, save time, or improve some processes.
The keywords need to match your skill set, and are words that are typically found in the job descriptions for that targeted role. You want “matchy-matchy” with keywords in the job descriptions to keywords on your profile.
If you have not done keyword research or have a sparse LinkedIn profile, you leave the chance as an applicant up to others’ extrasensory perception. I just want to know how ESP is working for you. If you are still job-seeking, I can only guess that the ESP method is not working well.
Treat the Easy Apply feature like you would any Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
Once you have an optimized LinkedIn profile, you can apply to jobs using the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn, but note that this feature does not exist for all job applications. People like applications that are fast and easy to save time.
If you click on the Jobs tab on LinkedIn, enter a title in the search bar, and then your major metropolitan city. You will see an opportunity to click on an Easy Apply filter that will provide a list of jobs where you can spend minimal time applying.
However, you have probably heard that about 80% of jobs are found through networking, so keep that in mind! Humans hire humans, not bots, so don’t get lost in the crowd.
Using Easy Apply (or Indeed or ZipRecruiter and the like) might even kill an opportunity that might otherwise be fruitful if you had applied on the company website with a tailored resume.
There are only so many people doing talent acquisition in companies. If you think about the big picture logically, the recruiters would probably head to their company portal before a third-party application.
You have probably heard the expression that effort creates ability. If you put very minimal effort into your job search and use the Easy Apply button, you may reap what you sow … very little. Why? Hundreds of others may do the very same thing, and you become a small fish in a big ocean.
I suggest you proceed cautiously with Easy Apply an consider customizing your resume to each job application from a base resume. It will show that you put forth time and effort for a job that excites you rather than take the easy way out.
What’s the biggest downfall of Easy Apply? It’s when LinkedIn shares that Easy Apply may no longer be available. How’s that for a buzz kill when the company that created it loses confidence in the feature?
If you need some resume tips to customize your resume for a job application, now that you know the downside of Easy Apply, there are a lot of strategies you can use.
NEXT STEPS
- Subscribe to my newsletter on LinkedIn for bright ideas to manage your career.
- Join as a member at https://greatcareers.org/membership of the #1 business networking association on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Book of Lists three years in a row!
- Register on the events page for upcoming online events.
- If you need a resume or LinkedIn profile to get you to your next step, book a call to chat!
- Follow #GreatCareersPHL
AUTHOR BIO
Lynne M. Williams is the Executive Director of the Great Careers Network, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides career education and networking connections for 1) job seekers in career transition, including veterans, and 2) employed and self-employed for career management. She is also the President of ChemPharma.net and is on the leadership team of the Thought Leadership Branding Club.
Aside from writing keyword-focused content for ATS resumes and LinkedIn profiles, Lynne is currently writing her doctoral dissertation on LinkedIn for Job Seekers. She is a contributing author on “Applying to Positions” in Find Your Fit: A Practical Guide to Landing the Job You Love, along with the late Dick Bolles, the author of What Color is Your Parachute?, and is also a speaker on career topics.
This article is also published on: vista.today, montco.today, delco.today, bucksco.today, and in the author’s LinkedIn newsletter. A list of articles can also be found in a Google doc.
