A well-groomed LinkedIn profile has many benefits: being visible for recruiters, building a solid network, exposing you to opportunities etc. Crafting your profile is rather a sum of common sense actions, ignore those making it sound like rocket science. Take these steps and you’ll see results.
Profile URL
Edit your profile URL to make it clean and contain your name only. The digits & letters MUST BE REMOVED:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/forename-name-94a62812
About section
More “real estate” for you to make a good (and clear!) impression on who you are and what you can do. Mention your expertise, seniority level, skills, and experience with various programs, platforms, the software you use in your work. Any certification could help, too.
3 (relatively short) paragraphs are recommended. It would be nice to say something somewhat personal in the last one: mention your hobbies, aspirations, etc.
Experience section
Write a few words for every job experience you list, don’t go into too many details. Talk about types of responsibilities rather than listing all of them in detail. Say a bit about the specifics of the job, seniority, complexity of the projects, and coverage (local/international).
If there is a standout achievement, don’t leave it out (i.e., In the first year, I increased sales by 50% OR I successfully implemented the project in all European branches).
Featured content
If you have any material, study, an article you wrote, or an interview, add them (upload or link) in the “Featured” section for people to get acquainted with your ideas and expertise.
The same applies to each job section where you can add related content.
Skills
Add as many skills as possible (as long as you have them, of course). Skills are the “keywords” of your resume / profile.
Recommendations
Ask for recommendations from people you worked with. Most recruiters and other professionals involved in the process read them. Recommendations may increase your chances of a first good impression of your resume.
Open to Work
Expand your network
Search for HR (or any other) professionals by company, location and areas of your interest.
More things to do to get your profile noticed
- Follow companies of interest on LinkedIn – become aware of vacancies
- Engage with content shared by companies of your interest, HR professionals – share info, comment
- Follow hashtags of the preferred topics and engage with content under these hashtags
- Provide value – when you engage, always share valuable insights from your expertise/experience – that will get you noticed
- Update your profile constantly and provide relevant info for all sections.
- Think in terms of keywords – LinedIn is a SEO-friendly platform. What are the keywords you want your profile to show up for?