LINKEDIN INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATIONS EXPLAINED

Example Industry Search: I.T.

So let’s use I.T. as an example. I.T. is a subcategory of Professional Services.  I.T. Services and Consulting is a level two all these other types of I.T. are level three underneath that.  When I go over here to search the industry in I.T., type in I.T. Services and Consulting is the level two.  There’s nothing that tells me that’s a level two and that all these other things are included underneath it.

Same thing if you search on Sales Navigator.  If I come over here and I type in I.T. you see all these different things that come up and there’s nothing that tells you that you have to choose I.T. Services and Consulting to get the level two, which includes all the level three things that are underneath it. 

Don’t Pick the Wrong Level

Now it gets a little bit more squirrely from there.  But this does explain why sometimes you pick something that you think makes sense and there’s 60 million people that fit that industry category.  And other categories just seem suspiciously small.  All right.  Well, it’s because you don’t know which level it is.  You probably picked a level three.  Or one time you picked a level one and didn’t realize that you caught all this other stuff, but then your search results are going to be totally wrong because it includes a bunch of things in that bucket that you just didn’t realize that included.

You’ve got to go back and look at this article and look at the levels.  I’ll include a link below the video so you can take a look yourself.  Make sure you copy and paste the name of it into the industry classification, so it’ll come up now.

Now It Gets Complicated

Here’s where it gets crazy.  Lets say like my wife, you happen to have a Recruiter Lite account.  And I come over here to industry, and I go I want I.T. just like you did…

Oh! What?  “No industry found?” What’s going on?  Then you type in “Information Technology Services”….Wow.  So, you have to manually type out the word “Information Technology” to get that to come up.

I’ll tell you another one that’s even crazier I have found. Yeah.  In the copying and pasting sometimes, an ampersand (&) will get the category to come up and the word “and” will prevent it from coming up or vice versa…depending upon which platform you’re on.  If you are on Recruiter

or are you on regular or you’re on navigator.  So when you’re using this category list, use it as a guide, ok?  Look at those levels, but remember you may need to switch out an “and” for an “&”

and you may have to spell something out (like I.T.) if it’s not coming up like you think it should. You might have to play with it a little bit, but hopefully that’s enough of a head start in understanding how to use the industry filters to correctly find the right person.

Good luck!