Did you know that 93% of recruiters use LinkedIn to search candidates? (Source CNET.com)
Also, according to LinkedIn research, if your LinkedIn profile is 100 % complete you will receive more than 40 times more job opportunities in comparisons to incomplete profiles. (Source LinkedIn)
With digitization, online recruitment processes are currently undergoing a big transformation in order to hire the right candidate for the job.
Further Hiring managers have a preference for LinkedIn because the site segregates the candidates on the basis of job profile, experience or skill which helps hiring managers evaluate whether a candidate is suitable for the job or not.
So how can you make the most of this?
Here are some quick steps, which will upgrade your LinkedIn profile to a Professional Resume:
1. What should be in your Profile Header Section?
The header is the first element of your profile which the recruiter will notice while visiting your profile .
- Profile Picture: Your profile picture will give the first impression when someone comes across your profile. LinkedIn is not your Facebook profile where you can upload your selfies. It should be professional, influential, and competent. Here are some dos and don’ts for a perfect picture for your LinkedIn profile:
- Wear professional attire.
- Try to avoid an exaggerated background or keep it white or light blue.
- Don’t use Selfie or Group pictures.
- A full-length picture isn’t required.
- Don’t use a picture with sunglasses.
- Avoid fuzzy pictures; use a High-Quality mug shot.
- Current Job Title: It gives an idea to the recruiter about which job profiles you fit in. It should never be left blank, especially if you’re a fresher. Put your job title as an intern or mention that you are a student. Recruiters use job titles as keywords for searching prospective candidates for a particular job post.
Example: – Marketing Manager, Sales Officer, PR Manager, Intern
You can also mention that you’re looking for a job change.
Example:
Looking for a new opportunity
Looking for job change
Recent college graduate looking for job opportunities
Former Marketing Manager looking for new Marketing availabilities
- Company Name: It’s another significant component of your profile; it shows your experience level in that particular industry.
Location: It is the most important element which you have to mention in your profile and it should be the job location where you’re working. Specify the city’s name because LinkedIn is a global platform with 500 million users and hiring managers use this keyword to find candidates for their job location.
2. What should be in your Profile Summary Section?
After the header, the recruiter will come across your profile summary. So make your summary strong and professional, highlight your work experience, job profile, and skills in a few sentences or use bullet points. In desktop, the first 220 words and in mobile, the first 92 words will straightaway be visible to the recruiter, only then they will go towards viewing more of your profile. 58 percent of LinkedIn users prefer a mobile for viewing instead of a desktop so pay more attention to the first 92 words because they will attract the attention of recruiters towards your profile, even before they click ‘view more.’
Example:
This is how the Profile Summary of a Digital Marketing Manager looks like:
- A consumerist with experience across Fashion, Real estate, and Insurance domain.
- Managed and executed end-to-end assignments with the proficient skill set in:
– Marketing Operations: Product Marketing, Digital Marketing, BTL, and Project Management.
– Analytics: Web + Data | Conversion + Sale Volume | Business + Marketing
– Sales: Team Management, Agency / Channel / Vendor Management
3. What should be in your Profile Activity Section?
First you need to understand what profile activity is and how it works. Profile activity is nothing but the visibility of your updates and post. LinkedIn is a professional networking site, not social networking so, make your news feed professional by,
- Sharing research updates related to your field.
- Share success stories of your company.
- Take part in group discussions related to your industry.
- Share your point of view about the current scenario of your industry.
All these activities show in your profile activity. When the recruiter scrolls through your profile it gives insights about your industrial knowledge and connections.
4. What should be in your Experience Section?
List your current and past work experience and give an overview of your work profile in chronological order by including,
- Company Name
- Job Position or designation
- Duration (Include date and year)
- Major roles, responsibilities, and projects you handled.
Optimize your bullet points because bullet points are the most proficient way to represent the information in LinkedIn. Use minimum 5 bullet points per company. Avoid long description in bullet points because reader like short & crisp details, keep bullets points in one line.
There are two major points which you have to consider before writing content of the bullets,
- Quantifying Data Points: Always quantify the work you have done in your previous company so that recruiters know you have created something valuable.
- Action Words: The action words sound more fascinating and help to set the tone for your profile. It describes your work experience in different ways by creating a unique impression on the recruiters. These are the words which express an action, for example – “Managed, Spearheaded and created “.
5. What should be in your Education Section?
Give a brief overview of your degree including:
- Name of University
- Course Duration
- Mention your Specialization
- Highlight all your achievements& awards during your education.
- Include projects you have worked on, it should be those projects which reflect some that support your job role. It will show your emphasis on connecting to your industry.
Example: Here is what the job profile of an Event Manager should like:
Education – Graduated from University of California with a bachelor’s degree in Commerce, was a member of the cultural committee, organized Inter college fests, attended seminars and field trips.
Don’t forget to link the Institution’s official pages to your LinkedIn profile.
6. What should be your Career Interest?
You must share your Career interests on LinkedIn. The Hiring managers uses LinkedIn’s recruiter product which helps them to find profiles of the candidate based on their career interests. Your career interest should include,
- Job Role you are seeking
- Job Location you are looking to work
- Work Industry you are considering to work
- Job Title you are looking for
- The size of the company you wish to work for
Recruiters who use LinkedIn, can get access to your career interest information but recruiters who work at your company can’t see your career interest because LinkedIn compares unique Id to the current employer listed on your profile with the unique Id (Company Id) for the recruiters on their network. If recruiter company id is similar to yours than LinkedIn will not show your career interest to that particular recruiter. LinkedIn doesn’t give assurance that every recruiter has updated and correct company Id, so there is little possibility that your career interest will be visible to the recruiter of your company.
7. What should your Skill Endorsements include?
List all your skills related to your job role on your LinkedIn profile. It is a great way to showcase your capabilities to recruiters. You can add as many as 50 skills to your LinkedIn profile.
Example: This is how the skills section of a person looking for the post of brand manager looks like:
Skills: – Analytics, Market Research, Business Strategy, Brand Management, Market Analysis, competitive analysis, process improvement, Marketing Management, Sales, CRM.
After adding the skills in your profile, that particular skill can be validated by your connections that are called skill endorsements, it’s very similar to liking someone’s post. When someone endorses you on LinkedIn it will be listed on your profile. Skill Endorsement influences the recruiters if the endorsement is coming from experts of that particular skill set. Your senior manager or colleague would be a good endorser for your profile. It’s not necessary to request a skill endorsement in order to receive one rather you can endorse others’ skills for maintaining a good connection on LinkedIn.
8. What should your Recommendation Section have?
A recommendation is another form of endorsement. While Skill endorsement is a one click process, Recommendation is a written statement of endorsement given by your connections. Send recommendation requests to your connections who can be your Manager, Colleague or Clients. Recommendations from people of your industry will give more weightage to your profile. There is no limit for requesting or giving a recommendation. Try Useviral to increase your LinkedIn connections.
9. What should your Accomplishments Section include?
LinkedIn is all about branding your expertise in Industry. Considering that LinkedIn has recently come up with a new section called Accomplishments, most people aren’t aware of this section. In this section you can add:
Publication: Here you can mention your Journals, Research Papers, Books or it can be your blog related to your industry which performs well on a digital platform.
Certification: Here you can mention any certification courses which add an extra skill set in your profile like, Digital marketing certification course etc.
Projects: You can give an overview about any of your projects where you secured excellent results. You can mention the name of that project with a small description, in bullet point.
Honors & Awards: Add awards and achievements for your work performance.
Language: If you have good command over multiple languages in terms of writing and speaking, like French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, German or Japanese than you can add these to your profile.
10. What about your Volunteer Experience section?
Mention your volunteering experiences in the Cause Section. According to the LinkedIn survey report, 41% of professionals equally consider volunteer work as valuable, when they are evaluating candidate profile. Recruiters will not only evaluate your profile on the basis of skills or qualifications; they will also consider your humanitarian side that should reflect in your LinkedIn Profile if you add volunteer experience. You can include the following under volunteer section:
Individual volunteer experiences- You can list works that you have done for a particular NGO. You can mention the name of that organization, your role, duration of your work and causes you support.
Organizations you support- It’s not mandatory to mention about organizations that you have worked with; it can be about the causes or works you care about. Link the official pages of the NGOs to your LinkedIn profile.
11. What about your Interests section?
Influencers and Organizations which you follow in LinkedIn might show an interest in your LinkedIn profile. So make this section more professional because it gives insights to the recruiter about your industry interests. Follow organizations which are among the top ten in your Industry, follow Influencers from your industry, but do not follow celebrities and models on LinkedIn. Carefully select people whom you’re going to follow on LinkedIn to avoid positioning yourself as unprofessional because it gets reflected in your recent activity.
12. What should your Additional Information Section contain?
Most people don’t use Additional Information section but it is one of the most important sections of your LinkedIn profile. In this section, you can add the links to your Company’s Websites, Your Blogs, Twitter account, your projects, etc. This additional information helps recruiters to know more about you.
Conclusion
Follow these quick steps to upgrade the credibility of your LinkedIn profile and attract recruiters towards your profile. This will present you with a plethora of opportunities in your desired industry. To know more about LinkedIn hacks and tricks visit LinkedIn profile tips for Job seekers for creating a professional resume and guaranteeing your success at securing a job.