For $20 a month, LinkedIn will move you to the top of the application pile. Is it worth it for you? LinkedIn announced this week a new paid account exclusively for job seekers called the Job Seeker Premium Account. The upgrade, LinkedIn says, is intended to help LinkedIn members stand out from the crowd, reach out to hiring decision makers and manage their job search more effectively.This is the latest feature LinkedIn has added to its site that is tailored specifically for job seekers. Last month, LinkedIn announced a free tool that matches users to job openings. As a member of the premium account, you will be moved to the top of the hiring manager’s list as a “featured applicant” when you apply to jobs on LinkedIn. When hiring managers log in to their LinkedIn accounts and view who’s applied for a job, “they’re highlighted and displayed in a more eye-catching way than a non-featured applicant,” says Parker Barrile, director of product management at LinkedIn. Hiring managers, Barrile says, have responded positively: “These job seekers stand out to hiring managers because they’ve invested extra time and money to make their job search successful, so they know they’re serious about it.”The premium account also lets you to send InMail messages directly to hiring managers, even if they reside outside your network, and you have access to the Profile Organizer, which lets you save profiles, add notes to the profiles and keep track of contacts from your job search. [For more articles on LinkedIn, check out LinkedIn Tips: Getting More from the Social Networking Service.]As a paid account member, you also have access to tutorials and videos on how to use the premium features such as InMails and the Profile Organizer (which are also part of the standard upgrade account) in a way that can help you in your job search. There are three account tiers you can choose from: basic, job seeker and job seeker plus.Basic: The basic account costs $19.95 per month. You’re allotted five folders in your Profile Organizer and can view 100 profiles of hiring decision makers per search. You’re also allowed 10 introductions to inside sources at companies.Job Seeker: This account costs $29.95 per month. You’re allotted five InMails that let you contact hiring managers directly and ten folders in your Profile Organizer. You can view 250 profiles of hiring decision makers per search and you’re allowed 15 introductions to inside sources at companies.Job Seeker Plus: The Plus account costs $49.95 per month. You’re allotted 10 InMails, 25 folders in your Profile Organizer and can view 500 profiles of hiring decision makers per search. You’re also allowed 25 introductions to inside sources at companies. All three accounts come with a webinar on looking for jobs on LinkedIn. Staff Writer Kristin Burnham covers consumer Web and social technologies for CIO.com. She writes frequently on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. You can follow her on Twitter: @kmburnham. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud feature 10 most popular IT certifications for 2023 Certifications are a great way to show employers you have the right IT skills and specializations for the job. These 10 certs are the ones IT pros are most likely to pursue, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White May 26, 2023 8 mins Certifications Careers Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe