It's important to make sure your LinkedIn profile stands out and is optimized for search. We asked some of the top experts in Talent and HR for tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile and make it exceptional!
Steven Amrhein
Talent Acquisition Branding Specialist at Panorama Education
Treat your LinkedIn profile just like your resume! We actually read through your work history and summary section to see if your work values and aspirations match with the position we're sourcing for. Specifically in tech, we recommend listing the technologies you want to be hands on with. Lastly, just like a resume, keep your profile up to date, accurate, and check that box if you're open to work.
Matthew Liptak
Director, Talent Acquisition at Scipher Medicine
Keep in mind, Linkedin is a summarized version of your background and you want to group your experience together as you do in the resume and put all of your held job titles under headings. If your resume is not in line with your profile, it will look awkward. Never integrate your resume into a Linkedin profile. I see you have too much information similar to a resume. This is a serious problem on this site. If I see your resume on your profile and review it, why would I bother to contact you? Linkedin is about dangling the carrot in front of a prospective employer. Give the employer a snapshot of your background and skills. That is what Linkedin is all about. Candidates with their entire resume uploaded to their profile most likely may never get contacted. Scale back the profile, add a few bullets from each section on your resume. Add a more professional picture of yourself. No matter what people think about privacy and confidentiality these days, that is out the window with social networking. Your profile is out there and in order to personalize this, add a professional picture of yourself. Not a picture of you mountain climbing or in a restaurant but a professional picture. Change your top line title. Right now your top lined only tells me half the story. Nothing kills a Linkedin profile more these days than a strange title at the top or no title at all. Employers use Linkedin to search these days so change the title to reflect the actual job you are in now or even put down you are an active job seeker and the types of role you are looking for. Your a director where? Look at my profile for guidance.
Add a Summary from your resume or something close to it. The summary similar to the resume should have an ice breaker/impact statement at the top to lead into the profile and give some bearing of what the employer is about to read. Without this, or with something much like you have, I get a sense, but not enough. What are you in search of? What motivates you?
Make more connections. Just a few connections is someone not taking the social networking scene seriously and without building up a core network, there is no way you are ever going to be able to utilize Linkedin to your advantage. I have over 21000 first level connections that I can tap into anytime for advice, job searching or just general networking. Add at least 300-400 to be taken seriously by employers.
Get more recommendations. You need at least 5-10 for employers to review and think of you as a credible resource to hire. This adds more of a professional touch to your profile and makes a statement that you are an active networker. Join more groups, 2 is not sufficient. You can join up to 50 groups on Linkedin at anytime and by joining one of the 100,000 groups on Linkedin, this will assist in your job search even more. You can ask questions, share info and tell group members you are searching for a new position and get additional advice. Remember, Linkedin is a professional business networking site, not a job searching board. It is not the same as Monster or Career Builder.
LinkedIn has recently purchased an e-learning platform called Lynda.com which if you upgrade your LinkedIn to Premium, will be included in this monthly fee. This platform includes hundreds of courses including some tailored to your career or skill set. I usually do not promote paying additional fees to LinkedIn, however they give you a 30 day trial to try this out and not only does this include the e-learning, it includes LinkedIn Premium features which give you some added features for your job search using LinkedIn. Some of these features include free supply of monthly Inmails, rankings when you apply to a role and how you stack up to other candidates that apply and other job searching bonuses. The one good feature about the e-learning piece is that it will automatically add the course completion and certification to your profile under the Accomplishments section. This will help to further build out and enhance your skills and profile even more and give you a more competitive edge over any other candidate.
Paige Friedlander
Senior Manager, Talent and Employee Engagement at MassChallenge
To make your profile more inclusive, I recommend using some of LinkedIn's new features. You can now add your pronouns to your name and record yourself pronouncing your name so recruiters and others you connect with know the right way to address you. To improve your profile, I recommend you update your skills every time you add a new role. Job seekers often make sure their jobs and titles are updated but forget to add new skills they learned. Recruiters can search by skills, and those keywords are so helpful. If you have learned a new platform, improved your public speaking, or completed training, add the relevant skills to your profile. Lastly, a small tip that goes a long way in making it easier to find you and your resume look cleaner: make sure to customize your profile URL!
Bianca Kaczor
GTM Sales Recruiter at Simon Data
I’ve been in Talent Acquisition for 10 years, and I’ve learned a lot of great tips over the years. Here are some that I would love to share:
- Keep your LinkedIn up to date! Your LinkedIn profile is your business card and your first impression; especially if you are in a customer-facing role. Always keep your LinkedIn up to date with your most recent job, company verbiage, and graphics ( i.e. LinkedIn banner, company collateral, etc.)
- Be specific with dates. If you worked at Google from July 2015 until July 2017, make sure you include the month AND year on your LinkedIn. If you simply put 2015-2017, it is unclear how long you were there (and it can unintentionally come across like you're trying to hide an employment gap).
- Engage and share OFTEN, but avoid interacting with or posting topics that are controversial (i.e. politics, opinions about current events, a rant of any sort, etc.).
- Always be professional! When engaging with recruiters, always communicate with professionalism. Avoid slang and sentence fragments. If you’re going to respond to a recruiter, always greet them with a “Hi” or “Hello”, and conclude with an appropriate salutation ( i.e. “Thank you”, “Best wishes”, etc.).
Taylor Roa
Director of Talent at Wistia
I have plenty of tips on how to touch up your profile, but LinkedIn will walk you through most of them. My best advice is on how to USE LinkedIn. Don't be overly scrutinous about who you allow into your network - accept and request a connection with everyone you come across. Also, be active! Share the interesting articles you're reading, congratulate people on promotions, and comment on thought leaders' posts. LinkedIn's algorithm works best for you when your network is broad and you're contributing to the feed. I even recommend you go to LinkedIn every time you apply to any job, find three people who work at that company, connect and message them to introduce yourself.
Stefanie Bishop
Head of People at Hi Marley
I recommend leveraging LinkedIn as a way to make your resume come to life and add the little extras that are more difficult to portray in a traditional resume. Some ways to do this are utilizing media pieces, such as linking any articles you’ve been featured in, videos, etc. Ask for recommendations – this is a great way to showcase the impact you’ve had on others in your career journey. Lastly, make sure to post, like and comment on things – this will increase your visibility and position you as a thought leader on the topics that interest you most.
Elizabeth Raymond
Head of Global Talent Acquisition at Nexthink
LinkedIn profiles are an extension of your personal brand. They should tell the story about who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and what you’re proud of. My biggest tip for LinkedIn profiles is to utilize all the features available to you within the site. If you’ve submitted a job application, the recruiting team already has access to your resume, so use LinkedIn to highlight different hard and soft skills. For example, rather than just listing out your experience using the same bullets from your resume, use the space to add more around your impact and accomplishments. Add a visual portfolio if applicable. Highlight your skills and interests. Ask for (and give!) recommendations from former or current colleagues. Showcase your volunteering efforts. Include your pronouns in your profile. You want all these things visible in your digital footprint - they help paint the picture of who you really are in a more dynamic way than you might be able to express in a resume.