How to Check References and Screen Candidates on LinkedIn

4 of 4 in Series: The Essentials of Filling a Job on LinkedIn

When you use LinkedIn to post a job request, the screening part of your hiring process clearly benefits from using the professional networking site. Rather than asking for references from the applicant and ordering a background check from a services company, you can use LinkedIn to verify a lot of the information in your applicant’s résumé and application at any stage of the process, without paying a dime!

Here are some reference search strategies to keep in mind:

Start by checking for the applicant's LinkedIn profile. If the applicant has a common name, use additional information from her résumé or application (such as past jobs, location, or education) to narrow down your search.
Read through the applicant's recommendations and follow up. If your candidate has received recommendations, go through them and see whether they are applicable towards your open position. Pay attention to recommendations from former bosses or co-workers.
See whether you’re connected to your candidate. When you pull up your candidate’s profile, you will see whether she is a second- or third-degree network member, which would mean there are one or two people who connect you with the candidate. If so, contact that person (or ask for an Introduction to reach the correct party) and ask for more information about the candidate.
Evaluate the candidate’s total picture. If your candidate mentions any Web sites, blogs, or other Web presences on her LinkedIn profile, click the links and see how they’re involved. Take a look at the listed interests and group affiliations and see whether they add to (or detract from) your picture of the job candidate.

There is one catch: You have to have a paid account in order to perform a reference search. You can start your search using a free account, but you will only see a summary of the results, and not the full set of results to actually find a reference.

Performing a reference check is easy; just follow these steps:

Click the drop-down arrow next to People to expand your choices.

Then click Reference Search to bring up the window shown here.

Do a reference search to see whether you can find someone who knows the candidate.
Enter the company name and years of employment in the text boxes provided.

If the candidate is currently working at the company, enter the current year in the second year box. You can enter more than one company in the boxes provided, and your result list will contain anyone who matches at least one of the companies provided.
Click the Search button to start the reference search.

You see a results screen, as shown here, where your search results are sorted by the number of degrees away from you. Therefore, first-degree contacts show up first, followed by second-degree contacts, and so on.

See who you know might’ve worked with your candidate.
Evaluate each profile in your results list to see whether the applicant worked in the same division and, if so, contact the person in your results list for a reference.

Obviously, for a big company, like Microsoft in this example, you may have to search multiple people to find the right division.

If you add a division name right after the company name (for example, you put Microsoft Excel instead of Microsoft), you’re severely limiting your search to people who have defined their position in that exact word order.