Professional and leadership hiring with worldwide reach
Images: LinkedIn
- Best for
- Professional, commercial and leadership roles where the employer brand helps
- Less suitable for
- High-volume hourly roles whose candidates rarely keep a LinkedIn profile
About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the professional network where people keep a public career profile. Employers use it to reach candidates by employer, title and skills, including people who aren't looking, which makes it the channel for professional and leadership roles where the company's reputation helps the pitch.
LinkedIn profiles carry an employer, a title, skills and a network rather than a search history, so a well-titled vacancy can reach people who were not looking. It works best for technical, sales, marketing and leadership roles whose candidates keep a professional identity online, and for a company that already has followers in the market it hires into.
Hourly roles hired in bulk draw candidates who rarely keep a LinkedIn profile, so give those vacancies to a board where people look for work by typing what the job is called. For commercial and Mittelstand hiring in German-speaking markets, run a professional network centred on the German-speaking region next to LinkedIn from the start.
LinkedIn pricing
New to LinkedIn job ads? You may qualify for up to €200 off your first LinkedIn job promotion through Join.
Prices exclude VAT · Source: Join job board catalogue
How to post a job on LinkedIn
One account for LinkedIn and every other hiring channel, your team and all applications.
Set up LinkedIn once
Enter your LinkedIn Company Page URL once in Join settings. The Page is created and managed from a personal LinkedIn account, by someone entitled to act for the company.
Write your job ad
Write it once in Join; the same ad goes to LinkedIn and every other channel you pick.
Publish to LinkedIn
Eligible jobs published through Join are posted to LinkedIn as Basic Jobs. For more reach, add a paid product or use your own LinkedIn contract. Applications come back to Join.
Posting directly on LinkedIn, without Join
LinkedIn's direct flow runs from the Jobs tab of a personal LinkedIn account, with the job linked to your company's LinkedIn Page. Have the final description, company page, application destination, screening criteria and promotion decision ready. Employers with contracted job slots use LinkedIn Recruiter instead of the standard Jobs flow.
- Sign in to LinkedIn, open Jobs and select Post a job. If LinkedIn presents affiliated contract options, choose the correct posting account before continuing.
- Enter the job title, associate the correct LinkedIn company page and either paste the approved description or use LinkedIn's drafting assistant as a starting point.
- Check the job details carefully, including workplace type, location, employment type and any compensation information required or useful in the target market.
- Configure screening questions and rejection settings. Mark only genuine must-haves as knockout criteria, because LinkedIn can automatically reject candidates whose answers do not qualify.
- Choose whether applications stay in LinkedIn or continue to an external application page, add the notification email, then define must-have and preferred qualifications.
- Review the advert and choose Post without promoting or Promote job. For promotion, confirm the budget, payment method and order summary before publishing.
Sources: LinkedIn Help: post a jobLinkedIn Help: create a LinkedIn Page
LinkedIn job posting requirements
What the ad needs· 8
The real work location
The ad states where the job really is, including any travel or relocation it involves.
A recruiting contract to post for another company
Posting on behalf of another company requires an active recruiting contract with that company — a posting-only arrangement is not enough.
A unique company name
Jobs posted under a generic, confidential or non-unique company name, such as “Remote” or “Confidential”, have to be promoted.
Truthful, complete job details
The ad has to be truthful, accurate and complete: role, title, responsibilities, qualifications and job type, without misrepresenting the job, the company or the poster.
The type of engagement, stated
Freelance, part-time, commission or piecework terms have to be named as such, not presented as regular employment.
Paid or unpaid, for internships
Internships and volunteer positions have to state plainly whether they are paid or unpaid.
Around 500–600 words
LinkedIn recommends roughly 500–600 words for a post that performs well.
Authority to post for the company
Whoever posts for a company must have its authority to do so and to bind it to LinkedIn's Jobs Terms.
What to avoid· 10
Different roles in one ad
One ad, one role. Several hires for the same role are fine; different roles in one ad, or an open call for applications, are not.
Agency jobs as Basic Jobs
Jobs posted by search and staffing companies have to be promoted, or posted into Job Slots, to appear on LinkedIn.
Reposting the same job
LinkedIn may require a job that is reposted within a certain period to be promoted.
Posts that aren't a real vacancy
A post has to be for a real job with a genuine intent to hire. Posts made mainly to sign people up for another platform or service, self-promotion, pay-to-join “business opportunities” such as franchises or multi-level marketing, and links to sites that trick people into handing over personal information are not allowed.
Fees for candidates
Candidates may never be asked to pay a fee at any point in the process.
Photos or ID up front
LinkedIn advises against asking for personal information such as photos or ID up front in the application.
Discriminatory criteria
The ad may not screen candidates on protected characteristics such as age, gender, origin, religion, disability or sexual orientation. Local employment law applies on top.
“Native speaker” requirements
Ask for a level of fluency (“native-level German”) rather than a mother tongue, which reads as a requirement about origin.
Ads copied from a careers site
Adverts copied from a company's own careers site may not be republished without that company's knowledge and authorisation.
Careless or spam-style writing
Excessive capitals or emoji, internal jargon, egregious typos, grammatical errors and incomplete sentences can get the ad removed; write it in full, professional sentences.
Sources: LinkedIn Jobs Terms and ConditionsLinkedIn Jobs PoliciesLinkedIn Help: job posting requirementsLinkedIn Help: jobs from search and staffing companiesLinkedIn Help: discrimination and language preferencesLinkedIn Help: generic company pages
