According to an article in Forbes from 2020, 95% of recruiters use LinkedIn to source for talent.

In June of 2025, I think that number is probably a touch less, but not terribly far off.

Personally speaking, I feel like the amount of spam, fraud, and scams on LinkedIn is grown tremendously in the last year or so.

Which would explain my belief in why that number is lower today. According to Recruiter Flow, that number is probably 87% for 2025.

Still, that is a lot!

So I naturally went to some of the best recruiters that I know and I asked them what role LinkedIn plays in their talent acquisition efforts, so you can understand how important it is to your job search.

Adam Bourgoin, Talent Acquisition Manager at RS&H: "Very high level. All of my headhunting is done via LinkedIn Recruiter and it has proven to be the most reliable place to identify top talent."

Caroline Pennington, Founder, The Feminine Founder: "HUGE game changer, if you are using it in the right way."

Summer Weinspach, Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant at Piedmont Health: "LinkedIn is a great resource for my leadership positions. I will share a position that I'm recruiting for and I can always tag the hiring manager in the post."

Kelli Long, Founder, KG Workforce Solutions: "We use LinkedIn extensively in our recruiting efforts. We use it to further research applicants who make it past the initial resume screening and to source potential candidates who have not even applied for a position. We also use it to research companies and identify competitors who may have the talent we need for niche positions. An incomplete profile can limit job seekers' likelihood of being identified through specific AI tools that build prospective candidate lists."

Katie Gardner, Senior Technology Recruiter, Wells Fargo: "LinkedIn has played a pretty big role throughout my recruiting career. I ran a pilot test for a previous firm and placed a very difficult role by sourcing talent from it."

My Thoughts:

You see some commonality, especially at higher level positions as Adam and Summer pointed out for their efforts.

Caroline nailed the point of using it the right way (she's really good at this) and Kelli talked about the importance of having a complete profile. Those 2 points go hand-in-hand.

So how can you stand out? First, read my blog post from a few years ago - the basic fundamentals of a complete post remain the same today!

Then put the platform to use. You don't have to be a super user, but make sure you're checking it at least a couple of times per week for messages from recruiters. Even if the opportunity they're presenting isn't what you're looking for, respond to them and even offer a referral if you have one. Trust me, that recruiter will remember you the next time they have a position that is aligned to your next step.

You can start by liking and commenting on posts that you enjoy or agree with. And don't just be generic with your comments, truly put your thoughts and engage with it. This alone will start increasing your visibility on the platform.

Once you've gotten a comfort level there, you can begin posting by linking relevant articles or sharing other posts. But don't just share the article or post, offer your own insights on it. What do you agree with? What do you disagree with and why?

Start small when building your presence and take it from there. The only wrong thing you can do with a LinkedIn profile in your job search is to do nothing with it!