Dear Humanitarians: Your LinkedIn Profile Can Get You Hired!
Three reasons that you need to have an updated LinkedIn profile in the world’s largest, most used global recruiter database.
The humanitarian sector is still hemorrhaging jobs. Layoffs continue at every major organization, but also the United Nations and its many agencies.
We need to talk about LinkedIn.
Let's first acknowledge that we hate this conversation. Like Kelsi Kriitmaa says, we have our own special brand of disdain for social media platforms.
We've spent careers rolling our eyes at LinkedIn's endless stream of humble-bragging and corporate speak. We weren't there for the self-promotion and personal branding nonsense. We'd rather not put ourselves out there like that, thank you very much. Our work spoke for itself.
However, LinkedIn isn’t a social media platform - even if it looks like I use it that way. LinkedIn is really a recruiter database.
If you’re not in the world’s largest, most used global recruiter database, you don’t exist.
2025 Reality: Being Visible is Survival
The sector’s instability is now our daily reality. Layoffs have touched nearly every organization we know, with 20,000 laid off in the USA already, and over 230,000 globally.
The UN has implemented hiring freezes across multiple agencies and layoffs are happening there too.
Being visible isn't vanity. It is survival.
Connections, not just credentials, are what moves careers forward now. That network we built through field deployments and conference coffee chats? It's not enough anymore.
The informal referral system that sustained humanitarian careers for decades is breaking down as organizations shrink and people scatter.
Update Your LinkedIn Profile Now
Here's what's happening right now: In 2025, people will Google you. What will they find?
Random mentions out of context from that emergency response you led five years ago?
An incomplete and wildly inaccurate LinkedIn profile you created once and forgot about?
Your Facebook profile from 2015, filled with political rants and photos from that wedding where you had questionable judgment about your dance moves.
LinkedIn profiles rank in the top five results on Google every time. 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to source candidates.
When recruiters post a position in 2025, they aren’t scrolling through Devex résumés. They're searching LinkedIn for candidates with the right experience and connections.
Research shows that job seekers with a comprehensive LinkedIn profile have a 71% higher chance of getting a job interview.
Three Critical Reasons Why LinkedIn Matters
If you're not on LinkedIn, you are invisible to recruiters. You're invisible to hiring managers. You're invisible to everyone you want to have an informational interview with.
1. Algorithmic Reality Rules Hiring
Modern hiring isn't human-first anymore—it's algorithm-first. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) that screen applications before humans ever see them are now standard across major humanitarian organizations. These systems don't just scan for keywords in your CV; they cross-reference your online presence.
LinkedIn's algorithm specifically feeds into these hiring systems.
When a recruiter searches for "project manager" + "healthcare experience," LinkedIn's algorithm determines who appears in those results based on profile completeness, engagement, and network strength.
According to LinkedIn's own data, candidates with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through the platform.
2. Network Multiplication Effect
Every sector runs on relationships, but LinkedIn amplifies those relationships exponentially. That colleague from Chemonics who's now heading up a healthcare division? Their LinkedIn connections become visible to you. Their network becomes accessible through warm introductions.
This matters when you’re job searching.
Research shows that 70% of people found their jobs through weak connections. Second and third-degree connections are actually more valuable for job searches than close relationships.
LinkedIn makes those weak ties visible and actionable in ways that traditional networking never could.
3. Information Asymmetry Correction
The corporate job market operates with massive information asymmetries. Organizations post positions publicly, but the real insight - which roles are opening up, what skills they're prioritizing, which programs are expanding - flows through informal channels.
LinkedIn levels this playing field. Following the right people gives you early intelligence about organizational changes, funding announcements, and strategic shifts.
Just today, I saw a CEO post about a future role that will be perfect for a Profile Clinic participant. I forwarded it on to the participant so she can have an informational interview with the CEO now, and be the inside candidate when the role is formally announced.
However, this only works if you're present and active on the platform.
What To Do Now
Ignoring LinkedIn in 2025 is just impractical.
Stop treating professional visibility as selling out and start treating it as a survival strategy. The sector we love is changing whether we participate in that change or not.
Please invest in your LinkedIn profile. Update it completely. Connect with colleagues. Share insights from your work. Engage with posts from organizations you respect.
Your next opportunity is likely to come through a connection you haven't made yet. LinkedIn is simply the most efficient way to make those connections visible and actionable.
Here are actionable insights you can access for free:
9 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile Now: Step-by-step instructions on improving your LinkedIn profile, provided by a recruiter who hires via LinkedIn Search
10 Ways to Improve LinkedIn Job Targeting: How you can get better job leads from LinkedIn to accelerate your application processes.
Free Download: LinkedIn Profile Toolkit
The AI-Optimized LinkedIn Profile Toolkit is your playbook to be found by recruiters and improve your networking efforts.
This is a 40 page, practical guide built for professionals like you. You’ll learn how to:
Translate your past roles into private-sector positions.
Write an “About” section that actually gets read.
Use ChatGPT to rewrite bullet points, headlines with impact.
Focus on what counts, and ignore the rest.
Stop wondering what’s wrong with your job search. Start fixing what matters most: your discoverability. Be seen, be found, be hired!
Free to annual paid Career Pivot subscribers
Upgrade to an annual paid subscription now and download all four of my job searching with AI toolkits for free. It’s really an amazing deal when each toolkit is $29 and all four are $116.
Build a profile that shows up in recruiter searches, gets you interviews, and reflects your next career—not your last one.