The Hiring Manager Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile — Should You Connect?

A job seeker recently wrote to me because a hiring manager had viewed her LinkedIn profile.

(If you wonder, “Do hiring managers check LinkedIn?” the answer is, “Yes.”)

The email said:

“I had a question for you after reading your article, How to Connect with Recruiters on LinkedIn.

I applied for a sales job, and the Director of Sales for the company viewed my LinkedIn profile. Should I connect with him? If so, what should I say?”

My Thoughts on Her Questions

1. Question: Should I connect with him?

   Answer: Yes, connect!

2. Question: If so, what should I say?

   Answer: Good question!

Then, on the second question, I thought, “Why not look at what people have said to me?”

So, I paged back through invitations I had received to connect after:

1. Receiving an applicant’s resume.
2. Looking at an applicant’s LinkedIn profile.

I was a retained search consultant for 25-plus years, not a hiring manager, but there’s not much difference in this case.

5 Sample Invitations

I looked at 8 invitations I received after viewing people’s profiles. There were 5 unique samples:

1. I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

2. I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. I thought it would be great to keep in touch.

3. Donna,

I sent you a letter and resume via email yesterday expressing an interest in the COO position at Organization X.

I am currently the VP of Operations at Organization Y.

We recently merged with a larger organization. As a result, I plan to transition in the next few months.

In addition to 10+ years in the nonprofit world, I have 25+ years in business and government.

I would like to present my background and discuss this opportunity with you.

Thanks,

Kevin Turner

4. Since you are a person I trust, I wanted to invite you to join my network on LinkedIn.

5. Dear Donna,

I heard about your work on the Organization X search through Ed Joyce and Wendy Morgan.

I hope we can connect soon.

Best,

Phyllis Yun

Not much variety, is there? Those invitations show pretty simple stuff from the real world. You can see some slightly fancier, made-up samples here.

I didn’t think more or less of anyone because of the language in their invitation.

OK, #4 made the sender look like a dweeb. (Fortunately, LinkedIn finally deleted that canned invitation!)

Show Your Self-Confidence

Why didn’t I care about what the invitations said? Because I was too busy liking the writers’ self-confidence and initiative.

In fact, if you’re applying for a sales job and you don’t follow up with a Director of Sales when they view your LinkedIn profile, you might eliminate yourself from contention for lack of initiative.

I looked at each person’s LinkedIn profile and did not invite them to connect. Thus, if they wanted to connect with me, they had to extend the invitation. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

BTW, I accepted every invitation.

So, if you’re looking for a job and a hiring manager views your LinkedIn profile, definitely invite them to connect!

You Might Like

How to Unfriend Connections on LinkedIn

More

Please invite me to connect on LinkedIn. The more I know about my readers, the more relevant I can make my blog.

Image: Kaspars Grinvalds
Updated January 2022

© 2014 – 2022, Donna Svei. All rights reserved.