Nearly 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn. So, you need to utilize this platform to seek a job. For that, your profile should showcase your achievements and expertise in an ideal manner. If you start applying for a job on LinkedIn without updating your profile, it will not do you any good.
An optimized profile defines your presence on LinkedIn. Recruiters make decisions about your job application based on your activity log, profile, status updates, etc.
Hence, you must update your profile to land a job. Here are a few Linkedin profile tips you can consider to achieve the same.
Update the headline
On LinkedIn, people judge a profile based on the headline. If a headline is in line with their interests, it gives them a reason to click on your profile to learn more about you.
But most job seekers on LinkedIn are often compelled to write pointers around “looking for a job” which is not ideal.
Your LinkedIn headline should convey your skills. For instance, if you are a data science professional then try to curate the headline in terms of your data science expertise.
For example, the headline for a data science professional can be:
“I bolster decision-making for businesses based on insights driven from data”
Add a profile and cover photo
Adding a professional photo is highly recommended as it ensures more clicks on your profile because just merely having a picture bolsters clicks on your profile by 21 times.
So make sure your profile photo is updated.
Further, you can use the cover photo as a way of showcasing your key skills/expertise or a representation of you. But it should be connected with your profession.
There are tools like Canva that offer readily available banner photos. All you need to do is edit the photo on the tool and upload it to your profile. Also, you can go through the profiles of your contemporaries to understand what sort of cover photo will work for your industry.
Write a profile summary
With 1983 characters, this section can be immensely helpful for your profile.
But you need to take into account the readability factor as well. You should make sure to avoid writing long paragraphs and curate the summary in bulleted points.
For job seekers, your profile summary should showcase your career highlights, skills, and relevant certifications.
Dividing your summary into 3 categories ensures that it covers all the essential elements of your professional career and helps the recruiters scrutinize them.
Add keywords
Consider buzzwords to be like a plague for your profile. They do more harm than good. Instead, we advise you to use keywords.
But why do you need to add keywords in your profile and where do you find them?
Adding industry-specific keywords improves your profile’s visibility. Let’s say a recruiter searches for the keyword “Reports Generation” on LinkedIn. If you have mentioned this skill in your profile, it is highly likely that it will be displayed in the search results.
That is what you are targeting – to appear in the search results and have recruiters visit your profile.
Further, you can extract these keywords from the job description of the profiles you are targeting. Ideally, go through 3-4 job descriptions and make a list of the repeated common keywords.
You can add them in your summary, headline, professional experience, projects, etc.
Utilize recommendations & endorsements
The idea of recommendations & endorsements is that they make your profile look credible.
A recommendation is a brief description of validation from a user. It can be a nice note from a professor or a former employer commending your skills. So, ask your employer, mentor, team members, or clients to write you a recommendation.
Linkedin allows you to add up to 50 skills and it works great when job seekers are trying to display their expertise. But endorsements of your skills help you show off your skills as they are backed by other professionals on LinkedIn.
Let’s say you added “Python” to your skills. Having this endorsed from a user on LinkedIn will help abolish any doubt the recruiter may have about its legitimacy.
Key takeaways
To end, here are a few takeaways:
- Optimize your headline to increase profile clicks.
- Add a photo to improve your profile visibility.
- Write a summary regarding your skills and career highlights.
- Include keywords in your profile to improve its visibility in search results.
- Ask for recommendations & endorsements to bolster your profile’s credibility.
