Jobs abound. Best candidates seem to be elusive. Familiar lament?

But a question from a former colleague raised another issue:

I was wondering if I could pick your brain about LinkedIn jobs. We are looking for people but have had a very bad experience in the past with this feature. Please let me know if you have a few minutes to chat.

Always willing to help, I sent some materials to him ahead of our call: 2 comprehensive LinkedIn-produced guides to optimize a job opening on the LinkedIn Jobs tab:

both of which I highly recommend.

I also called his attention to searching the Job tab for positions open nearby / in similar areas as his need to hire, for comparison. Perhaps his firm’s salary and/or benefits or something else made him uncompetitive. Hence the resulting applicants  were not up to par he expected.

Appreciating my help, we ended the call with his offer to have me coach two of his recent hires to up their LinkedIn game, just as I had taught him.

Time well spent for both of us, I’d say.