Having a LinkedIn profile is as important as having a
well-written CV.
Yet, most people don’t understand how LinkedIn works and how crucial it is for career growth.
Your LinkedIn profile is not about the description of your professional background for your connections. In fact, it's rarely for that. Its main purpose is to quickly convey your expertise to people who never met you.
It gets you found.
Here's an overview of the difference between a LinkedIn profile that gets inbound messages from recruiters and one which doesn't:
The good news is that it's pretty easy to build a good profile. You just need to focus on the most relevant topics. That's what this article will help you with.
5 Steps to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
Recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates.
They look for people with specific qualifications and experience. It's likely you're missing out on some incredible opportunities just because your profile is not prepared to be found.
Taking a few simple steps can help you land your dream job.
Here are 5 steps you could take to improve your LinkedIn profile:
Some companies are looking to hire candidates from specific countries. You could think that adding this information limits your options, but in practice it will just prevent you from losing time with interviews that lead nowhere.
*Note: All private and sensitive information is
protected.
Write a solid “About” section
You should use it to your advantage by writing a simple text
about yourself, where you include a the technologies
that you’re most comfortable working with, current role and
responsibilities.
Warning:
Be mindful not to add a big list of technologies - this usually just means you're not a specialist at any of them.
Take this opportunity to share
your professional goals with your network and add some
keywords that will lead recruiters to your profile with
different opportunities.
Say, for example, that you’ve been working as a Python
Developer for the last 3/4 years, but you aim to achieve a
Tech lead role. If the word "Tech Lead" is inside your
profile, it's more easily noticed for a related opportunity.
Update your Professional Experience
For each role, you should share some of your daily tasks and associated stack. This will allow recruiters to find and share only relevant offers.
You don’t have to share clients' names if you signed an NDA.
Here’s how you should creating bullet points for this section:
Use action verbs (e.g. “built”, “created”, “implemented”, “managed”)
Clarify the project or task
Show the results or metrics you achieved
Don’t limit your profile to “Software Developer”
or “Frontend/Backend Engineer” titles, because that doesn’t
give us (recruiters) much detail about what in fact you’re
doing.
Interact with your network
The more active you are the more visible you become. This
means interacting with your network, and - who knows -
creating and posting content.
If you want to take your profile to the next level, this will make you really appealing to the recruiters’ eyes. Someone that creates a positive impact in our society is for sure a promising
profile to be hired.
Be kind to people
Reply to the people that are trying to reach you. Even if
you’re not interested, it’s better to say “Thank you, I’m
not interested” than absolute silence.
The world is really small and we all share experiences. If some recruiter shares
with another that you never replied, then even if your
profile is found, it might get ignored, because that person
knows it’s a waste of time sending you a message.
Be nice to people, everyone is just doing their job.
Conclusion
I know this could sound like too much information, but it is
information that could help you achieve the next level and your
dream job.
Most importantly, please search for a job and a team where you
feel fulfilled and recognised. Then you don’t have to work a
day, because you will do just what makes you happy.
To help you to wrap up all the information, here are the 5 steps:
