Job hunting can be tough, especially now, but we hope this article equips you with valuable tips to help you navigate the process more smoothly. With these strategies, you'll make it easier for Executive Search firms like ours to connect you to fulfilling and lucrative career opportunities. Given how exhausting job hunting can be, wouldn’t you rather skip the hard part and have someone reach out with prospective roles that recognize your achievements and fit your career goals?

I’m Jordan Sanford, Director of Search Operations and Community at Tom O'Connor Consulting Group. We are a boutique firm that exclusively supports nonprofit arts and culture organizations in Executive Search and Management Consulting. I spend most of my time scouring LinkedIn, researching websites, piecing together lists of competitive candidates for leadership roles, or gathering referrals.

It’s not always easy to find a direct way to reach you. And I get it. Spammers and hackers are a real threat, so we take precautions to protect ourselves online. But I often wonder if we overcorrect to the point that we’re cutting ourselves off from viable opportunities for professional growth.

But why should you want us to find you? Our firm is dedicated to candidate care, and you can trust that an experienced human is carefully reviewing your materials—not an algorithm. The lead for each search draws from years of industry expertise and detailed interviews with clients and stakeholders to form a clear understanding of the ideal person for the role. When we reach out to a prospective candidate online, it’s based on the limited information available—we believe they’re a potential fit or may know someone who is. Throughout the interview process, our focus is on setting candidates up for success, ensuring they’ll thrive in the role, and our clients will be pleased with their selection while respecting candidates’ time by only putting them forward for roles that are truly right for them.

Our job is to handle the heavy lifting. Clients choose us because we take on the most challenging aspects of the search process—from strategic outreach to thoroughly vetting top candidates. Unlike internal teams that have to juggle this work with other responsibilities, we’re fully dedicated to finding the right match. Every application is reviewed thoughtfully, ensuring that our clients receive their best options through a close and collaborative process.

With all of that in mind, I have five tips to help you help yourself—by helping me find you.

Tip #1: Make Your Email Address Accessible on LinkedIn

As someone who lives on LinkedIn, I notice that many people only check it when job hunting or keeping up with industry news. This means only a small fraction of people respond to LinkedIn InMail messages, making email the most reliable way to reach you. Your personal email, which stays with you regardless of employer or job status, is naturally the best option. We’d much prefer to connect with you directly and with your permission.

If you’re concerned about privacy, consider creating a public-facing “burner” email address for LinkedIn and setting up email forwarding. This way, you’ll make it easier for potential search firms, employers, and collaborators to reach you while maintaining your privacy!

Where to add your email on LinkedIn:

Contacts section: Update your Privacy settings to make sure your email address is visible to individuals outside your network. [1]
End of your bio: A great place for added visibility but still covert enough not to draw attention from your current employer (especially if you turn off profile update notifications).
Resume as a pinned comment: If you’re actively seeking opportunities, pin your most recent resume to your profile. [2]

Tip #2: Keep Your Profile Current and Aligned with Your Goals

Here’s the deal: if you want recruiters to find you on LinkedIn, your profile needs to be a living document showcasing your skills, achievements, and leadership journey. Recruiters are actively searching LinkedIn every day, and we’re using skills-based filters to narrow down candidates who fit the executive roles we’re filling. However, it’s important to understand that your LinkedIn profile isn’t just a history of what you can do—its greatest potential lies in shaping how others see the direction of your career to connect you to roles that truly excite you.

When updating your experience, don’t shy away from using bullet points for each of your roles. But keep it focused: highlight the accomplishments and responsibilities you enjoyed most and would love to continue in your next role. Just because you have successfully managed certain duties doesn’t mean they have to define your next step.

Think of your LinkedIn profile as a pitch for your ideal job. By thoughtfully selecting the experiences that align with the future you’re aiming for, you create a profile that shows not only your capabilities but also where your professional passion lies. When recruiters come across your profile, we’ll see what you’re ready to contribute—and, more importantly, what you’re excited to build on.

Tip #3: Delete Your Out-of-Date LinkedIn Accounts

Nearly all of us have, at some point, forgotten a profile password and ended up creating a new account. However, on LinkedIn, this results in abandoned profiles, recognizable by their lack of profile photos, minimal job listings (usually without dates), no posts or comments, and just a few connections—profiles that recruiters like us encounter surprisingly often. When we find these, we can only assume a few possibilities: maybe you lost access to this account, or perhaps you’re no longer interested in receiving professional outreach. If we can’t find additional information for you—like a staff listing on a company website or news outlet mention—we may assume you’ve retired.

Now, at Tom O'Connor Consulting Group, we’re thorough; if we find an old, empty profile, we often dig a bit deeper to verify whether it belongs to someone who’s moved on or is still an active professional. But not every recruiter operates this way. Many will simply move on when they hit a profile that looks inactive, which means your outdated account could be blocking opportunities from reaching you.

If you Google yourself and find an old LinkedIn account lingering out there, it’s time to clean it up. Deleting these old profiles helps streamline your online presence and ensures that recruiters have the most accurate, up-to-date information about you. Follow these steps to recover and delete the old account.

Recovering Your Old Account

Visit the LinkedIn login page and click on the "Forgot password?"
Instead of entering your email or phone number, click on "Need more help?"
You'll be redirected to a form where you can provide additional details about your account, including:

The name on the account
Other email addresses previously associated with your account
Your connections on LinkedIn

Fill in the required information as accurately as possible to help LinkedIn verify your identity.
Submit the form and wait for LinkedIn's support team to review your request and assist you in recovering your account.

Deleting Your Old Account

Once you've regained access to your old account, you can proceed with deleting it.

Log in to the old LinkedIn account you wish to delete.
Click on your profile picture in the top right corner and select "Settings & Privacy" from the dropdown menu.
In the Account tab, scroll down to find the "Closing your LinkedIn account" section.
Click on "Change" next to "Closing your LinkedIn account."
Select a reason for closing your account from the dropdown menu.
Follow the on-screen instructions to confirm your identity.
Click on "Close Account" and then "Yes" on the final confirmation page.

Important Considerations

Deleting your account is permanent. All your data will be removed, and you won't be able to reactivate the account or retrieve your data.

If you can't recover your old account through the above method, you may need to contact LinkedIn support directly for further assistance. Review the profile before deletion to ensure you can retain any important information, such as previous work details or connections.

By following these steps, you should be able to recover and delete your old LinkedIn profile while keeping your new one active.

Tip #4: Subscribe to Our Newsletter (And Maybe a Few Others Too!)

You knew this was coming—the pitch to subscribe to our newsletter! But stay with me; even if you’re already a subscriber, this is worth your time.

If it’s an option, don’t go at your job search alone. One of the simplest ways to keep opportunities coming your way is to subscribe to our newsletter, as well as those from other firms conducting searches that align with your goals. We at TOCG do reach out to candidates directly, but our newsletter is typically the first place you’ll hear about new and upcoming searches. If you want the earliest access to these opportunities, make sure you’re subscribed.

And if you’re using Gmail or another email service that sorts incoming mail into tabs, make sure the newsletters you care about are going to your Primary inbox. Doing this ensures you won’t miss relevant opportunities that may otherwise get lost in secondary tabs or spam.
Here are step-by-step instructions to keep our newsletter (and others you care about) in your Primary Gmail Inbox:

Find an email from the newsletter sender you want to move.
Drag and drop the email from its current tab (e.g., Promotions) to the Primary tab.
Gmail will prompt you to confirm if you want all future emails from this sender in the Primary tab—click “Yes.”

Or, you can:

Right-click on the email.
Select “Move to tab” and choose “Primary.” And follow the same prompting as above

To further prevent emails from going to spam:

Open an email from the sender.
Click the three dots in the top right corner.
Select “Filter messages like this.”
Check “Never send it to Spam” and click “Create filter.”

Finally, add the sender to your contacts to boost deliverability:

Open an email from the sender.
Click the three dots next to the sender’s name.
Select “Add to contacts.”

By following these steps, you’ll ensure our newsletter—and others with important updates—make it to your Primary inbox. You may need to repeat this for each newsletter you prioritize.

Tip #5: If You See I’ve Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile, Drop Me a Line!

I generally keep my LinkedIn privacy settings open, so if I’ve visited your profile, you’ll see it. If you notice I’ve stopped by (or any representative from an executive search firm, for that matter), feel free to reach out! When I visit your profile, it usually means your background, skills, and location align in some way with a current or upcoming search we’re conducting. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the exact match we’re seeking for every role that fits your experience, but you’re certainly on our radar. Reaching out keeps your information fresh in our minds and helps us explore any alignment with our searches.

We love hearing from you, so if you or anyone in your network is exploring new opportunities, please connect! At the same time, it’s important to set realistic expectations. While we’re eager to stay in touch, our small but mighty team can’t offer career coaching or individualized advice on specific roles all the time. Our searches are highly competitive, and not every opportunity will be the perfect fit. However, just because you weren’t selected for one or even a few roles doesn’t mean you won’t be an excellent candidate for future positions. We’re here to foster a lasting professional relationship and encourage you to apply for roles that align well with your skills and experience.

You’re welcome to message me directly on LinkedIn or email me at searchteam@tomocgroup.com. Whichever way you reach out, please include a personal email address—one you check regularly—so we can connect outside of LinkedIn and continue the conversation seamlessly.

We believe these small steps can make it much easier for search firms to reach out with opportunities that align with your goals and keep you visible for the right roles. From adding your email to LinkedIn to crafting your profile like the resume for your ideal position, these moves add up to a stronger online presence that works for you.

And hey—don’t keep this all to yourself! Share this article with colleagues who might benefit, and pass along opportunities when they land in your inbox. The truth is, what you put out there has a way of coming back around. It’s a great feeling to know people are rooting for you in rooms you’re not in, and the best way to make that happen is by doing the same for others. Let’s keep lifting each other up. Good luck out there!

Jordan Sanford is the Director of Search Operations & Community at Tom O’Connor Consulting Group. TOCG is a NYC-based consultancy for arts and cultural institutions and leaders, offering two complementary services: organizational strategy and executive search. For over a decade, Jordan has dedicated his efforts to helping emerging creative professionals forge successful careers, with a special emphasis on supporting youth of color. Jordan developed and coordinated college and career pathway programs to serve systematically marginalized youth through senior management roles at The Art Effect and the Maryland Institute College of Art.