As a Recruiter, LinkedIn is a great tool because it allows me to get a clear snapshot of a candidate’s professional background and interests. I view hundreds of LinkedIn profiles a week. Last week alone, I viewed 601 profiles! As you can imagine, I’ve come across some great and some not-so-great LinkedIn profiles. With a little time and effort, anyone can use LinkedIn as a powerful tool to attract recruiters and potential employers to their profile.
Here are 5 tips for a great LinkedIn profile to attract recruiters.
1. Clear and concise
I go through hundreds of profiles a week (if I do the math, I’m probably looking at a profile for about 2 minutes). That’s why it’s important to keep the content in your profile as clear and concise as possible. I would recommend to include 1–2 short paragraphs under each role for your professional experience, described in layman’s terms. This isn’t always easily attainable especially for technical roles, so I would recommend asking a friend or family member who doesn’t know much about your job to read over the content. The goal is for them to get a gist of your role and responsibilities.
2. Specify your impact
It’s fairly easy to list one or two points describing your role and responsibilities. To stand out from the crowd, you need to be specific about the value you added to the organization. This shows prospective employers your potential impact to their organization or project. For example, I see a lot of web developers stating that they created a website for XYZ company using ABC technology. Did revenue increase? Did the number of active users increase? How many people did you manage? Including data or stats can help accurately show your impact in a concise way.
3. Personable touch
It’s always nice to see some personality while going through profiles. Not only does it make my day a little more exciting, but it also allows me to remember your profile. You can do this by listing your interests/hobbies/life-long goals in your bio, linking your personal website, or following pages which are captured at the bottom of your profile under “Interests”. It probably sounds like I’m being a little biased here, but according to a paper published by Tyng et al., (2017) “…emotional stimuli appear to consume more attentional resources than non-emotional stimuli.” Therefore, use human emotion to your advantage!
4. List tech stack
Since I’m a Technical Recruiter, it’s only fair I list one point specifically for my tech folks out there. I know LinkedIn has a feature where you can list all the technologies you’re familiar with under “Skills”, but it doesn’t appropriately show the experience you have with that technology. Someone might list “Python” but only have learned the language in a fourth-year university class. To accurately show the experience you have with a specific technology, I always recommend listing the tech stack under each professional experience accordingly after you describe the role. E.g. Tech Used: Python, Java, SQL, React.js
5. Profile picture
Last but not least, the profile picture. There is no need to fork out money for a professional, a headshot of you smiling with your iPhone is perfectly fine. (My profile picture was taken on an iPhone, shhh..). There are plenty of websites and articles that give tips on how to take a professional-looking picture, just make sure to avoid a busy background while making your face/head the focal point of the photo.
I know creating a LinkedIn profile can seem daunting but hopefully, with these 5 simple tips, the process becomes a little easier!
If you are looking for a job in the world of tech, follow us on LinkedIn and check out the job openings we are currently recruiting for.
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