I’ll make it easy for you and quickly answer the question – “Can LinkedIn really help you get a job?” The answer is – YES, YES, YES!!!!! However most people don’t set up their LinkedIn profiles properly so that they get found.

Here are 7 tips for setting up your LinkedIn profile to ensure that your profile helps you to get found by employers and recruiters looking for engineers with your skills.

1. Your title or headline on your LinkedIn profile has a huge impact on search results. Don’t just list yourself as the title on your business card (i.e. project manager). Make sure your title reflects what you do. For example, your title might read: Structural Engineer or Civil Engineer, Environmental Engineering Consultant. Yes you can have multiple titles in the headline. Think about the words people searching for someone with your skills would type and use them in your headline.

2. Fill out your profile completely.  The more words and information on your profile, the more words that can be picked up in searches. Describe all of your past jobs in detail going back to your first job. This is very important, not just for coming up on searches in LinkedIn, but LinkedIn profiles often come up on the first page of Google searches as well. Go ahead, Google your name and see what happens!

3. Claim your public profile. LinkedIn gives you your own public profile, but it contains randomly generated numbers. You can edit it and use your name or something close to it if your name is not available. For example: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyjfasano. This is important as many people believe this URL will eventually be on everyone’s business cards.

4. The section labeled Summary should include a few paragraphs summarizing the benefits that you can provide a prospective employer. Don’t write something like, “Highly motivated civil engineer blah, blah, blah.” Instead, write something like, “I have a keen ability to bring in projects on schedule and under budget. In managing my last project, I was able to save our client 1 million dollars by selecting a new material to be used.” Remember employers are thinking about filling their needs, that’s it.

5. The section labeled Specialties should include all of your skills and services you are capable of providing. I recommend listing them in bullet form or separate them with commas. For example for a civil engineer it might read: civil engineering, site engineering, stormwater design, construction cost estimates, construction inspections, shop drawing review, client management, proposal preparation, etc. This is also very important when it comes to the search engines.

6. Seek recommendations from trusted connections, especially former supervisors. You don’t need 100 recommendations, but 3 to 5 solid ones can certainly mean a lot to a prospective employer. In seeking the recommendations, ask for them in a way that will ensure they are powerful. For example, say something like, “Can you please give me recommendation? It would be really helpful if in giving the recommendation you answer the question, What makes Anthony a good project manager?” Trust me, this works!

7. As uncomfortable as you may be, adding the words unemployed or in transition to your current job title could help you land a job. My wife did, and a recruiter found her searching for “Unemployed engineer.” She ended up getting a great job that she still has today.

If you would like to see a sample of these items listed above, click here to view my LinkedIn profile – and feel free to connect with me!

I know these 7 tips can help you to land a job on LinkedIn, I just hope you implement them as soon as possible. They are easy, and best of all, LinkedIn is free!

This is a guest post by Anthony Fasano, PE, author of Engineer Your Own Success. Anthony found success as an engineer at a very early age and now writes and podcasts to help other engineers do the same. Visit Anthony’s website at EngineeringCareerCoach.com and subscribe to the top 3 resources Anthony has used to become a partner in a firm at the age of 27.