A job seeker's LinkedIn strategy for maximum results

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Use your LinkedIn real estate well. A recruiter or potential employer will spend probably 30 seconds looking at your page, you need to make those 30 seconds as impactful as possible. Open your LinkedIn profile on your phone and scroll through it. Does the quick scan of your profile tell people enough about you? You have just a few chances to make a good first impression: your photo and cover photo, your headline and your featured posts. So ask yourself, what story am I trying to tell and is it reflected in an initial glance at my LinkedIn profile? Go through each of these profile components one by one and redo them.

Photo:

This should be a headshot. No photos with other people cropped out, no selfies, no photos from a wedding ten years ago, a headshot. If you don’t have a headshot, take one! Most smartphones have “portrait” or “focus” modes that will highlight the person in the frame and blur the rest out. Have a friend, coworker, spouse, or family member take a photo for you.

Cover image:

Choose a cover image that reflects your personal brand and identity. This could be a custom graphic (websites like Canva allow users to create custom images), a quote, a skyline of the city you work in, an image of something connected to your passion, etc. 

Headline:

You get 220 characters here. Ideally, someone should be able to read your headline and nothing else and understand who you are and what you aspire to do. 

What to include:

1. Give them a clear statement of who you are (example: Product development leader) 
2. If you’re looking for a job in your current industry- offer domain knowledge (or subdomain knowledge). This will help you get more relevant outreach from recruiters. (example: Financial Services, Wealth Management Technology expert)
3. Optional: 
4. Offer a little insight into who you are, what are you passionate about? This humanizes your profile a bit. (Example: Marathoner, Volunteer Firefighter, Knitter)
5. We’ve noticed a trend of candidates saying “ex-former employer”. You can absolutely include this if you previously worked at a great brand. If you want to do this, only include brands that are relevant to the industry you want to work in and put it at the end of your headline.

What not to include:

1. Ditch the jargon and buzzwords here, no one knows what “rockstar” or “ninja” really means in a professional context. If you’re job searching- you want language here that someone is searching for.
2. Don’t include that you’re job searching here- there is a better use for the real estate.
3. There is no need to make it super long, keep it short and sweet.

Featured posts:

Notice that your featured posts and activity show up before the rest of your profile. Is that recent activity on there reflective of who you are and your current career goals? You should absolutely feature a few posts (do this by going to a post of yours, clicking the … in the top right hand corner and selecting “Feature at top of profile”). Posts employers love to see: an article you’ve written (all users can post blogs on LinkedIn), a post with thoughts about your area of work or your domain, a recent announcement or event you spoke at.

We always tell people to write a new resume when they’re job searching rather than add their most recent experience to an old one. We believe this is good advice for your LinkedIn as well. The whole profile should tell a story about you and your career. Here are three things to do:

Go back through your work history:

Go through every job you have listed. Remove any roles that were less than 6 months, especially if they are 5+ years old or not relevant to what you’re looking to do next. There is no need to show perfect continuity and recruiters likely aren’t looking too closely at the dates of old experiences. They’re looking at the career story overall. While you’re at it, you can also remove old career breaks. Maternity, caregiving, or other career breaks from years ago shouldn’t be taking up prime real estate on your LinkedIn profile. Keep anything that is meaningful to you, just remember that you don’t need to use LinkedIn like a super resume of every job you’ve ever had. 

Tell the same story:

Next, make sure that your LinkedIn work history is in sync with your resume. Work backwards from the types of jobs you’re applying to right now and make sure your work history tells a recruiter exactly why you’re right for that job. So if you’re applying to be the Head of Product, your work history should show a clear arc of Product development and leadership roles. Feel free to go back and rewrite the descriptions/responsibilities you’ve listed on those previous roles. Write them from a “30,000 foot view”. This means replacing granular details about responsibilities and talking about overall impact and value. Especially now that you’re more senior, you have a better perspective on the importance of those roles and the value they play in the grander scheme of a team. 

Get specific:

When you’re actively job searching, you want your LinkedIn profile to be really specific about your current role and the industry you work in. This will help recruiters really understand what you do, where you do it, and will make the outreach you get far more relevant. So, ditch the generic “thought leader” profile with vague titles and empty statements like “evangelist” and taglines like “lover of tech”. It just isn’t serving you at this moment. We love a LinkedIn profile with a strong personal brand, but when you’re looking for a role, you want to make sure it isn’t too buzzword heavy and vague.

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