You’ve just updated you CV, you know what kind of job you are looking for and tailored your CV to that specific industry/job. But what about LinkedIn? Do you need to redo your LinkedIn profile as well? Yes, because LinkedIn is basically your online CV. Updating your profile doesn’t have to take up much of your time, but remember that these days LinkedIn is as important as your regular CV. So, investing some time in it, is not wasted time. And filling out a profile isn’t difficult, but there are some important best practices you should follow to make sure it’s as powerful as possible. Because, when you apply for a job, big chance that the employer will view your LinkedIn page after seeing your CV. Therefore, always make sure your CV and LinkedIn match for maximum chances to get invited to that job interview. But even if you’re not job hunting but are gathering leads, or networking in your industry. Having a professional, eye-catching and up to date LinkedIn profile makes sure that you can be found by the right people at the right time.
Before you get started
If you are in a job and looking for a new opportunity make sure you switch your activity broadcast off. This will prevent most alerts from going out to your network. As we all have colleagues, clients or bosses on LinkedIn you don’t want changes showing up on people’s news feeds that can cause suspicion.
Professional Photo
As LinkedIn is a business- and employment-oriented social networking service you will need a professional profile photo. If you don’t have one yet, add that to your to-do-list and for now use the most professional looking photo you have (No beach, bar or clubbing photos). It’s your first chance to communicate that you are friendly, likeable, and trustworthy. These attributes are crucial to getting prospects to engage with you. A few more tips are:
- Choose a photo that looks like you
- Make sure your face takes up at least 60% of the frame
- Smile
- Smart dress
- Choose a non-distracting background
Edit your summary so that it will match your target audience
A summary on the top of your page is crucial. Recruiters click through profiles so quickly that if you fail to grab their attention at the start with a good summary, they’re already on to the next profile.
Write your summary in the first person and it’s important to write down your strengths and experiences that match the core deliverables of the types of jobs you’re pursuing. How do you know which ones will be best? Go through several job descriptions of jobs that you like and list the most common requirements that match your own experience and skills. Important to remember, don’t lie on your CV or LinkedIn page. This will not benefit your job search.
Once you have written down some key points about yourself find the balance between keyword stuffing and an engaging read for your audience.
Change the headline
Yes, you can change this. If you don’t, then LinkedIn will always use the default headline that says: “Current title at name of current employer”. However, you have 120 characters available to change your headline to anything you want. Do keep it professional though.
What you want to do is to make it algorithmically strong and a compelling read for the viewer. As LinkedIn weights the headline quite heavily in terms of SEO.
So, how do you write a compelling headline?As an example, say you’re a Network Engineer who is CCIE R&S certified. Consider changing your headline to:
Before: Network Engineer at X Company
After: Network Engineer | CCIE R&S #number
Keep it relevant
You don’t need to add every single job that you have had in your career. Instead, only list the jobs that are relevant for your current career goals. Write down clear summaries of what your job contained of and don’t make it too long. Making use of bullet points is a good way to summarise your experience per job.
Update Skills and experience
Again keep in mind the job descriptions that you used to match your skills and experience. If you haven’t added them yet, add these skills to your endorsement list. Make sure that they’re appearing high up on the list. LinkedIn will always default the order in which your skills appear as “most endorsements to least endorsements,” but you can drag and drop them into any order you want while in edit mode. So, put the most common and vital skills near the top and delete irrelevant skills that don’t really make sense for the role that you are pursuing.
Fill out as much as possible
Try to bring your profile to at least all-star level. This will include: Summary, experience, education, skills, accomplishments and interests. You can put interesting things that normally don’t fit on your CV that paints you as a well-rounded individual. If you have volunteering experience, also don’t forget to add this, especially if this adds to your job.
Add documents, links or images to your experience
You can add media files and images to your experience. It’s a great way to create a more visual portfolio next to your standard CV information. Also, if you i.e. blog or have an online portfolio, make use of the three URLs that you can place on your profile and link it. Keep it discrete and don’t link it to platforms that are not relevant for your career.
Recommendations
If people endorse you for your skills is great, but recommendations are even better. Reach out to past colleagues, managers or clients you have worked with multiple times and ask if they would like to write a recommendation for you.
Like and share industry related content
With LinkedIn’s new lay-out everyone can see what you have liked and shared at the top of your profile. Liking and sharing relevant content in your industry shows recruiters and hiring managers that you are up-to-date about the industry.
Spell check and proof read
Always spell check your profile. Copy and paste entire profile sections into a Word document and run a spell check to avoid typos. This is the simplest way to make sure you’ve got it right. However, it’s not just spelling mistakes that can make you look bad. Also proofread what you have written to make sure you have flowing sentences and check for any other mistakes that can distract recruiters or hiring managers.