Hey Dear,
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Last week, we covered how to write "Open to work" posts.
If you missed it, you can read it here:

This week, I wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain and show you how recruiters search on LinkedIn and what you can do to increase your "findability". Not sure if the word even exists, but we'll roll with it.

Oh, and I'll bet dollars against peanuts that you never even thought number 3 on this list was relevant.

There are 2 LinkedIns

And you're on both of them.
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The first one is the one you know - the business-focused social media with posts, feeds, photos from events.
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The second one is specifically for recruiters. Also, not every recruiter uses it because it's really expensive.

So how does the second one work?
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​It allows recruiters to look through the LinkedIn database. ​
And it uses filters which look like this:
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There are more than 40 available to choose from. And most of them give you an option to modify them.

I needed you to see this because now those tips will (hopefully) make sense:

Tip #1 - Be precise with job title

I ran a quick search in LinkedIn Recruiter.
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​Job Title: Lead Recruiter
​Location: Katowice (my hometown)

One thing stood out immediately:
Lead Recruiter was bolded in my profile - that means it was a direct match.

With this simple search I also saw people with titles like:

• Recruitment Lead
• Recruitment Manager
• Recruiter

None of those were bolded because they weren’t exact matches (although they were shown in the search results!).

Why does this matter to you?

Bolded in LinkedIn Recruiter is triggered by exact or near-exact matches to search input, especially in job titles or keywords.
It’s a strong signal that your profile is hitting what the recruiter is actually looking for.
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Check out this example:
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Let’s say you’re a 3D Artist with 10+ years of experience, but your job titles have always just been “3D Artist” never “Senior", for whatever reason.

Now, imagine a recruiter searching for a Senior 3D Artist.
They might eventually add “3D Artist” to broaden results, but they often start narrow to save time.

How it is saving time?
The broader the term the more hits you have (and in a result more potential profiles to go through).
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I tested this only using job title + location:

• Senior 3D Artist + Spain = ~1,400 results
• 3D Artist + Spain = ~4,800 results

To be fair, even 1.4k is way too much and most likely would be narrowed down more, but you get the idea.
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Here's what the Job Titles filter for Senior 3D Artist looked like.
And as you can see, the only highlighted thing is exactly Senior 3D Artist.

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All the 3D Artist jobs are there, just not highlighted as it isn't a direct match.
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Of course, LinkedIn isn't perfect, and sometimes it highlights parts of the title anyway.
There is a way to avoid that: putting the job title in quotation marks.
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So instead of Senior 3D Artist, it is "Senior 3D Artist" and then it will show people with this exact title only.

The key takeaway for you is to use common industry-standard job titles AND be precise with them.
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You should focus on the ones where there's the highest chance someone will put in the search bar.
But also it's worth being more precise than "Software Engineer" because that shit is just recruiters nightmare.

Example:

• ✅ Game Designer (good)
• ❌ Gameplay Wizard (bad because no one searches for that)
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Tip #2 - Keywords matter

This filter right here is the powerhouse of the LinkedIn recruiter search.

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​It basically works like a search engine. ​
Kinda like Google, but for LinkedIn profiles.
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It finds the keyword anywhere in the text and ranks results based on relevance (the relevance ranking part I'm 80% sure of, but it's mostly based on my experience working with the tool for years).

Anyway, it looks for matches across multiple fields:

• Headline
• Job titles
• Current and past experience
• Skills
• About/Summary
• Education
• Certifications

Pretty much on most text-based fields on a profile.

So, if someone goes for the infamous "Software Engineer", but lists all the relevant technologies somewhere in their profile there's strong chance their profile will appear in the search somewhere. How close to the top - that depends on how close those matches will be.

Because one major flaw is that it doesn't restrict by context:

If you search Node.js, you might find someone who just mentioned it once in a hobby project, even if it’s not their main skill.

Second flaw it that it doesn’t prioritize recency or current role unless combined with filters:

This is less of an issue, because it's easy to use Keywords and filters, but it is a flaw nonetheless.
A keyword match in a job from 10 years ago is still a match unless you layer on filters like Current Job Title or Years of Experience.

So in our example above, if keyword filter were the only one we used, LinkedIn would show me people in the entire world with the phrases "Lead Recruiter" or "Senior Recruiter" (Just one of those would be enough) and "Gaming" or "Computer Games". The catch is that those phrases could be anywhere in the profile.
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So if someone were a painter, but they had a sentence in their about section, "My partner is a lead recruiter in the computer games industry" there's a chance LinkedIn might show this result as a potential match.
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​Key takeaway: Use keywords throughout your profiles

Make sure relevant terms appear in:

• Headline​
  i.e. Senior Unity Developer | Mobile Games
• About section​
  i.e. I specialise in combat systems, balancing, and level design using Unity and C#.
• Experience descriptions​
  Led a 6-person team in designing levels for a top-down shooter using Unreal Engine.
• Skills section​
  Add core tools/skills - Unity, C#, Agile, GDD, Monetisation, Blender etc. (Protip - don't overdo it, the more skills you add the more chances you have that someone will find you through skills you haven't even used for years)

Because LinkedIn allows the use of Boolean Search (that's for another email :P), it is also a good idea to write a couple of versions of abbreviations.
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Don't just say AAA, write also triple A games or triple-A games.
Instead of just F2P write free to play or free-to-play.
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You get the idea.
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Bonus tip: LinkedIn also indexes text attached to media files. ​
So if you have any projects, portfolios, pitch decks with relevant keywords, it might also be useful to upload them to the platform if you're ok with sharing them of course.

Tip #3 - Your English setting is costing you jobs

The mistake here is very simple: Not setting up the proficiency, only language. ​
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When you go to my LinkedIn profile and scroll down to the language section you'll see this:
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And when I click on the pencil here's what I see:
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Ok, so why does it matter?

Just English should be enough, right?

See, yes, but no.
And to understand that, we need to get back to LinkedIn for recruiters.
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The way the language filter works is essentially the same as what you can set up on your profile.
​It allows me to filter by the language AND the proficiency.

There are 6 options when it comes to language level:
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Any, Elementary, Limited Working, Professional Working, Full Professional, Native or Bilingual
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LinkedIn has many flaws, but this system is actually quite useful.
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Because let me tell you what happens whenever I am looking for a role which requires fluent English (which is honestly the majority of the positions):
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I set up a language filter for:
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​1) People speaking English,
​2) Mark it as "must have"
​3) And go for "Full Professional". ​
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Why? Because it saves time.

If someone hasn't specified their language proficiency, then it's a roll of the dice - they either speak in limited capacity or have a good command of English.
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So if English is required, then in 95% of the searches, I will start with marking the "full professional" on the English level.
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​That means anyone who hasn't marked the proficiency level won't be visible in this search.

They will pop up in the next one, when I will use just "English" with "Any" parameter.
(Unless they haven't added the language, then they are moved to the next search, which will be even wider)

So if you have something like that on your profile:

It paints an accurate picture of your skills and what the company can count on.

And just like that, you made your profile more findable.

If you have any questions feel free to reach out.

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PS.

I'm putting together a small paid workshop based on a huge amount of industry feedback. It's focused on helping game dev folks who are either feeling stuck in their careers/roles or are on the lookout for something new.

After conducting extensive interviews, I've found that many gaming industry professionals struggle with helplessness, feeling trapped, or simply wondering what's next for them and where they can go.

It's kicking off for a small audience, to keep focus and impact high on Thursday, 15/07/2025 19:00 CEST (10:00 AM PST), during the workshop we'll be covering:

o What do you actually want + we'll identify where you are right now.

o How can you apply what you already have to get where you want?

o You'll leave with an actionable plan to take the first steps in this direction.
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I normally run this content exclusively with my coaching clients. Still, for this workshop, I want to get people moving in these challenging times, so I'm keeping the investment at an extremely low buy-in of $19 to cover the costs of preparation and running it.
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Seats are limited to 6 spots, so you can secure yours here:
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