Welcome back guest blogger Abhyank Srinet and his insight on the top LinkedIn profile tips to help you land your dream job.
– Coach Wolfgang

LinkedIn is unarguably the best professional networking site out there. With more and more recruiters looking at candidates’ profiles to get to know them better, it is imperative that you present a well crafted LinkedIn profile.

In fact, a great LinkedIn profile can make or break your chances to get that dream job. Here are 10 LinkedIn profile tips which are guaranteed to make your LinkedIn profile look more professional and get your closer to your dream career.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #1 – Use a Professional Photo

LinkedIn being a professional networking site means you to have a professional photo by default. So, what exactly is a professional photo? Here are some rules you can follow to perfect your profile picture:

1. The photo must not have any additional effects or filters.
2. Preferably, the photo must contain your face and a little bit of your neck and shoulder region.
3. Don’t forget to smile as almost 60% of the photo contains your face and it goes a long way to have a warm welcoming face.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #2 – Craft A Clever Headline

The headline is the first 4 to 5 lines which appear right below your name in LinkedIn. It is also one of the most viewed parts of your LinkedIn profile and, hence, it is essential to keep it creative or eye catching. Ensure that you state how you can add value to others by using your present skills.

For example, a headline may go this way if you are into marketing: “Direct Marketing guaranteed to get you more business”

LinkedIn Profile Tips #3 – Reorder your first 12 endorsements

For each of the skills you mention in your profile, LinkedIn allows others to endorse your skills as a proof that you are proficient in the same. Over time, you might have accumulated a lot of endorsements and as LinkedIn arranges these endorsements based on time. Thus, some important endorsements may not be visible as they probably came in first.

These important endorsements may be from your senior colleague or from your Head of Department. To reorder the endorsements, follow these steps:

1. Go to “Edit Skills”.
2. Select “Manage Endorsements”.
3. Now deselect the 12 endorsements for a particular skill and save.
4. Next, repeat the above three steps. This time, add the deselected 12 endorsements and save. These endorsements appear first now.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #4 – Powerful Recommendations

Getting recommendations from the right persons is the first step in creating a powerful set of recommendation. Always choose a person who has worked closely with you and knows your abilities as well as your soft skills like managing time, working well under pressure, communicating and leading too.

This is important as a powerful recommendation must not only state your technical abilities but must also depict your soft skills as these are the ones that often matter more. To write a powerful recommendation, ask the recommender to start out by stating the working relationship that you two shared. Next, they can mention all your skills and how you have contributed effectively in any project or research work.

Pro Tip: Ask the recommender to include specific examples as to how you have improved your skills or held your cool in a difficult situation. It will be more personalized that way.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #5 – Augment new sections to your profile

Everyone has sections like “Work Experience”, or “Education” in their LinkedIn profile. What many don’t know is that LinkedIn offers a feature where you get to add new personalised sections to your profile. For example, have you won a lot of competitions? You can add a separate section called “Competitions” and showcase all that you have won. Or, if you have invested a lot of your time in volunteering activities, then you have the liberty to create a new section called “Volunteer Work” and add all that you have done there.

Adding new sections gives a respite to those who are viewing your profile and it will surely make you stand out from the crowd.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #6 – Personalize your connection request

We are used to sending requests on Facebook by just clicking on one button. While the same works for LinkedIn, if you want to connect with someone, you should go one step further and personalize your connection request.

This serves as a great conversation starter too. For example, if it is someone that you look up to, you can state your admiration for their previous works and projects and let them know how you can improve your knowledge through them.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #7 – Open candidates

If you are looking for better job opportunities through LinkedIn and don’t want your current employer to know about it, then LinkedIn has got you covered. Through Open Candidates, you can signal to other recruiters that you are open to new opportunities and you can be assured that your current employer will never be able to see this. Here is how to enable this feature:

1. Click on the Jobs tab.
2. Turn sharing ON.
3. Now, you need to write out information as to what kind of job you are looking for.
4. Once you are done, other recruiters can now see your profile as “Open To New Opportunities”.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #8 – Personalise your LinkedIn URL

When you first create your LinkedIn profile, you get a default URL for your profile which usually contains your name followed by a lot of unwanted numbers and characters which look unprofessional. The good news is that LinkedIn has a feature where you can customise your profile’s URL just about however you wish to.

It is always advised that you maintain professionalism in every aspect in LinkedIn and hence your URL must either contain your full name or a combination of your name and your current job title. Here is how you can change your URL:

1. Click on Me > View Profile.
2. Select “Edit Your Public Profile”.
3. Now, click on “Edit Public Profile URL” to customize.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #9 – Don’t overuse these buzzwords

Quite a lot of people tend to write words like “Responsible team leader”, or “Solved the problem analytically”. Such statements look empty as it is crucial that you state how exactly you were responsible in leading a team or what analytical solution you came up with to solve a problem.

Stating these specifications will give a much better outlook as people now know what exactly you did. Here are some words that you must definitely treat with caution in your LinkedIn profile: “Responsible”, “Strategic”, “Analytical”, “Effective”, “Patient”, “Expert”, “Innovative”, “Strategic”, “Driven” and “Organisational”.

LinkedIn Profile Tips #10 – Have a Call to Action

Your summary section is where you describe all that you have done in your professional life. What is more important is that you add a call-to-action section at the end of your summary section. This shows that you are proactive and sends out positive signals.

A call-to-action is just a line or two where you state how others can contact you. Here is an example: “I am always up for a challenge. Contact me at abc@gmail.com”. Keep it short and simple.

Optimizing your profile with the above mentioned LinkedIn profile tips will surely take your profile to newer heights. There are many features in LinkedIn which – when rightly used – can boost your profile and make it shine. Now go get more LinkedIn tips and hacks or see Abhyank’s previous post on how to use LinkedIn.

Author bio:
Abhyank Srinet holds a Masters in Management degree from ESCP Europe & has an engineering degree with a specialization in Instrumentation & Control. His interest in the digital landscape motivated him to create an online start up for Masters in Management application consulting (MiM-Essay.com), focused on spreading quality information about the MiM degree & performing application consulting services for clients. He is the chief consultant of the company and takes care of the Business Development and Digital Marketing side of the company. He is very passionate about writing and marketing.