How to Find Your Next Intern on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is such a great platform to use to find professional contacts. You can search by many different criteria and narrow down your searches to find the perfect candidate that is right for you. But did you know that you can also use it for finding an interior design intern?

Interior design students are increasingly turning to LinkedIn to connect with professionals, find internships and jobs, and learn more about the business of design. But, of course, nothing is stopping you from connecting with these students. So here are some great tips to help you find your next intern or even interior design candidate by using LinkedIn.

Check out: “8 Ways to Find an Interior Design Intern”

You know what you want to do once you hire your next intern, but now you need to begin the hiring process!

Set up a Business Page.

Your first goal will be to make sure that you have a page set up for your business. This shows your potential candidates that you are a legitimate business. You then want to link this page to your personal LinkedIn profile and regularly post on both pages. Finally, don’t forget to encourage your employees to follow the Company page, as this will expand your post visibility.

It is essential to establish yourself on social media, especially if you have a business. Begin building your following because those followers could be potential candidates or clients!

LinkedIn makes it simple to ask your connections to follow your company page through the invite more connection function. By creating this business profile, you will be able to post job opportunities, and by expanding followers, more candidates will see it.

Check out: “How to Create a Company Page on LinkedIn that will Jumpstart your Marketing Efforts.”

Post your Job Opportunities.

You can post about your internship by going to the ‘Jobs’ icon and then click on ‘Post a Job.’ Job postings are free, but you can also choose to promote your job across a larger audience by paying a fee. Simply decide your budget, and LinkedIn walks you through paying for your job advertisement.

When you start a job posting, you will fill out the information about the internship. Make sure to describe it well; that way, there is no confusion among your potential candidates. In addition, you will select desired skills you want your candidate to have for the internship. LinkedIn uses the skills to help weed out non-qualified candidates.

Finally, You can define how you want candidates to apply either with their linked in profile or with an external link you provide. You will have quick access to your job listing for candidates to see and apply to by taking these steps. Don’t forget to share the post through your personal and company news feeds.

Search for Candidates.

This will take some work. Instead of the potential candidates coming to you, you will have to go to them. You can search for candidates through keyword searches. Many people who are interested in positions will have it listed in their profile taglines. Again, it takes some work, but it can be worth it if you find the right person.

Start with simply sending a request to connect. When requesting to connect, use the “add a note” feature to explain why you are reaching out in 300 characters or less. Once you are connected, you can send messages to those connections at no cost.

Another quick tip is to connect with interior design instructors in your area. They can share your internship with their students. For example, my design students ask me about internships every semester.

Post Jobs in LinkedIn Groups.

LinkedIn has several groups that target interior designers, including ASID and IIDA. Once you are a part of these groups, you can attract potential candidates by sharing your job post. There are so many different groups already formed on LinkedIn. It may take some work to find the correct groups to post into, but this could be a great way to find potential candidates, as well.

Post on your Personal Page.

Sharing your listings or posting about them on your personal LinkedIn profile page is a great way to get them seen by a larger audience. You may have made connections that were not interested in an internship months ago but now are. Cross-promotion is a great way to get more eyes on your listings. If you have other social media pages, it is a great idea to cross-promote them onto those pages.

Fully Optimize your Pages.

This is so important. You want to make sure that your personal and business profiles are entirely up to date at all times. They need to have every single field filled out, your profile pictures and cover photos need to be up to date and the correct size, and you need to make sure all of your descriptions and links are filled out correctly.

Related Article: "Why Interior Designers Need a Company Page on LinkedIn. An In-depth Look."

By doing these things, it can make a huge difference in how you are perceived online. You want to always come across as professional. You never want to leave someone guessing about your business. When candidates visit your pages, you want them to quickly capture who you are and what you care about.  Remember, you are building a brand for both you and your company.

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Taking these steps will allow you to find the right candidate for your internship. Make sure to do your best to make everything user-friendly and make the process easy for the candidate to get to you.

By taking these steps for your internship, you will be setting yourself up on LinkedIn for potential clients, as well. All of this works together. You have to make sure you are present on social media if you want to use it to find candidates or clients.