What Does Top Applicant Mean on LinkedIn?
Find My Prospects
LinkedIn, being the world’s largest networking platform, currently hosts millions of members either looking for the right job opportunity or seeking out new talents to hire.
With a vast pool of talents and countless job offers, finding out whether or not you are a perfect fit for a specific position is no easy task.
Luckily, LinkedIn’s Top Applicant feature was designed for people to find the right job openings.
Top Applicant
You are probably already aware of how crucial a good job fit is to the success of potential employees and, ultimately, the company recruiting them.
That’s why it is important to know more about such a feature, even from a recruiter’s perspective.
It’s also a good idea to look into tools like Prospect Ladder to help you search and connect with top users.
What Does Top Applicant Mean on LinkedIn?
If you are subscribed to LinkedIn Premium, you might have stumbled upon this term previously while searching through open vacancies.
As its name suggests, this feature was specifically designed to help job seekers pinpoint positions for which they might be the top or best candidates.
This way, you can clearly see what job postings are worth applying for.
It is very time consuming and laborious to have to go through hundreds of job offers only to be rejected because the job fits other qualified candidates better.
Instead, let what you list on your profile and in your resume do the matching for you.
You can then search for job offers more effectively and increase your chances of getting employed and being satisfied with your career choice.
Top candidates are those who happen to be within the top 50% of all people who applied for the job.
For this to work, at least 10 people should have already sent in their applications. Once this condition is fulfilled, your resume gets compared to theirs.
How Does LinkedIn Determine Top Candidates?
Essentially, the server’s algorithm determines a top applicant percentile through what might resemble a match score calculation.
Simply put, the more your profile measures up to the requirements listed by the work offer, the higher your ranking will be compared to other candidates.
It all comes down to how compatible your technical and soft skills, previous experiences, and relevant qualifications are with the job description.
It is always important to make sure the information you display in your profile is constantly updated, especially when you gain new skill sets.
Typically, LinkedIn will show you listings where you ranked in the upper 50%, 25%, and 10% of all applicants.
For example, you would see a highlighted section of the job posting saying, “Top 25% of 400 applicants.”
Needless to say, offers where you are in the higher percentage-based ranks should be your first choice since you are most likely to land an interview.
What About Other Applicants?
It is possible and quite simple to view the details of other applicants.
It is a good and easy way to get an idea of where you fit compared to like-minded people who also applied for the same role.
After logging into your LinkedIn account, head to the top menu.
A list of all the postings for which you are considered a top applicant will be displayed in the Jobs section.
You then get to perform an advanced search to filter out the openings you are interested in.
For each of these positions, you also get to look at a breakdown of all the skills, qualifications, and experiences you share with these candidates, as well as their rankings and education levels.
The Feature’s Reliability: Is It Worth It?
It’s always best to take the results of algorithms with a pinch of salt, especially when what you are calculating could have otherwise been a subjective opinion.
In this case, that pertains to being the best fit for a position.
It is not an entirely useless feature, but it would be wisest to consider the level of accuracy case by case.
Remember, it only takes 10 job applications to trigger the feature.
That said, a work listing with 200 candidates will result in a more reliable and accurate ranking than a listing with only 30 other people.
That’s because when few applicants send their profiles, a flagged job posting will have less to do with you being the best fit and more with the fact that there is not enough competition to compare your resume to.
So, after knowing what does Top Applicant mean on LinkedIn, is it something worth aiming for?
Although the questionable accuracy is a caveat, this does not rule out the time and effort it saves you while in the job search process.
Just keep this all in your mind as you look through your flagged openings.
From a Recruiter’s Perspective: What Do They Look For?
The recruitment process requires diligence from both the job seeker and the actual company hiring them.
Regardless of what talent sourcing method a firm utilizes, it being the LinkedIn Recruiters tool or other job boards and match score feature, they generally look for the same set of details.
These factors help them pick top-ranking candidates from a pool of 200 to 400 applicants.
When actively recruiting, hiring managers will most probably apply LinkedIn’s advanced search filters and keyword searches.
So, the best way to stay on top of their job search algorithm is to optimize your LinkedIn profile and information according to the types of jobs you are interested in.
You do not have to tailor your application and resume every single time. Instead, here are the few details recruiters will look for:
- A LinkedIn headline rich in keywords and possibly the job title itself
- Previous work experiences and number of jobs you previously applied to
- Relevant skill sets and your education level
By ensuring you highlight all this information in your profile to match with LinkedIn search algorithms and what recruiters look for, you increase your performance and improve your search ranking.
Find Top Applicants More Efficiently With Prospect Ladder
If you are a recruitment manager, you probably know what top candidates are and where to find them.
That said, it’s also possible that you don’t have the time of day to search for them on LinkedIn.
Well, good news!
Prospect Ladder, a software tool for lead generation and recruitment, is the perfect solution to your problem.
This tool will connect you with all kinds of top talents and prospective candidates.
Let them do half the networking work for you, from LinkedIn Events and group invites to automated SEO campaigns and messaging.
Now, you can focus on other important aspects of the recruitment process, like responding to and interacting with qualified talents the software finds for you.
Top Applicant: Ensure the Right Person – Job Fit
Whether you are seeking a new job or looking for qualified people to recruit, you may find yourself sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of job postings or applicants.
In reality, both ends desire one thing: a good Person – Job fit.
LinkedIn has seized this opportunity and developed the Top Applicant feature.
If you just joined the online job-seeking community, take advantage of this shortcut and apply to openings you know you are likely to get.
Sign-up for LinkedIn Premium and check the feature out.
And if you are on the other side of the process, searching for an effective and easy way to connect with top candidates, Prospect Ladder has you covered!
Either way, don’t miss out on finding the right person-job fit for you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Glaubitz
Michael has over 22 years in Public Safety but has always had side jobs. From Logistics to Real Estate, Finance, and Staffing there have been many experiences. These all lead to Social Selling and Marketing as both a Salesperson, Small Business Marketer and Recruiter. By combining all of this experience with an innate desire to serve others he plans to deliver more value than you can handle.
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