LinkedIn Q & A [Part 7 of 7]: What To Write In Your Profile When Job Searching

Questions: If I’m job searching, what should I put in my LinkedIn profile?

Answer: Here are 10 tips:

1. If you’ve been made redundant, don’t write “looking for a job.” Factually it may be true, but it smacks of desperation and isn’t the first impression you want to give to recruiters and contacts coming to your page.

Focus instead on telling the reader what you can do, what you can offer and who you can help by following the 9 tips below:

2. Don’t define yourself simply by your previous job titles (it limits the potential opportunities)

3. Define the target sectors, the kind of problems you can solve and the value and benefits you’ve a track record of delivering (it will open you up to different possibilities)

4. Make sure you state job titles (recruiters search using titles and so to come up on searches quote the type of key words and titles you think they’d put into a search)

5. Notice how this list is full of contradictions (there’s no hard and fast rules. I’m simply sharing my experience and opinions – so make up your own rules and test them)

6. Test, try, edit, evaluate (now rinse and repeat)

7. Make the profile more than two lines please

8. But don’t tell me your life story

9. Make it slightly different or quirky from what everyone else writes on their profile (take a look at my own LinkedIn profile)

10. Be yourself. Don’t try and be different or clever by copying what everyone else writes.

Do you agree or have I got it all wrong? Feel free to share ideas or suggestions in the comments section below. 

By Sital Ruparelia

Comments

[Ernie Perez]

This series was veru comprehensive and loaded with good nuggets abut using linked in as a job search tool.

[Sital]

thanks Ernie, pleased to hear it helped

[Marshall Kern]

One way to test that your profile can be found is to search just as a recruiter would. Use LinkedIn and Google to search by job title, or keywords in the job decription of the job you want. If your profile comes up in these simple searches, then you are on the right path. Good luck!

[Debra]

One of the things I find most annoying about updating my LinkedIn profile is that every time I do, several people in my network seem to think I got a new job and I receive countless congrats notes. If I follow your advice and add titles, that will likely double the problem. Still it might be worth it but I'm not sure where to integrate them...??
Debra

[Tola]

It's possible to change your profile settings *not* to send updates when you change your profile...this is done under Settings> Privacy Settings > Profile and Status Updates.

If I have a lot of changes to make, I turn the notifications off until I've finished, so it doesn't generate a lot of unneeded email.

[Lynda]

Hello Sital,

Thank you very much for this comprehensive series of articles. I found them interesting and very helpful. I particularly appreciate your comment on updating the Status. So many online articles have suggested that this be done frequently (every day or 2) and that made me very cautious and uncomfortable about "spamming". Nice to see a “voice of reason”!

Keep up the great work!

[Mari]

Thank you for your comprehensive suggestions, which I will incorporate into my linkedin profile. One silver lining to a job search is that it throws wide open the vista of possibilities. However, this can be also daunting. I am a self-identified "serial expert," and have interest / potential / experience in career possibilities as wide-ranging as govt contracting, fashion retail, non-profit association management, and doggy daycare! I sense a common thread of "customer service" running through all of these interests and will try to devise a profile that isn't too far-ranging, yet still touches on my myriad possibilities. Thanks again!