LinkedIn is an important professional network, and in many instances, it can make or break your job application. LinkedIn Jobs is a great tool to search for potential employment opportunities. If you apply for a job through the site, this means that your profile is essentially your resume (you will have an opportunity to attach an actual document resume too, but there is no doubt the company will also look at your profile). With all of this said, it is imperative to make your LinkedIn the best it can be.
1.) Make your headline an objective
Photo from: https://blog.linkedin.com/2017/april/11/more-features-coming-to-the-new-linkedin-experience
People typically make their headline their job title. This is perfectly fine if you aren’t actively seeking a new job. If you are unemployed and on the job hunt, or just a student looking for your post-grad job, changing your headline to an objective can be a very useful tool to let recruiters know you are actively looking for employment. Let’s say you are a marketing intern, but you are ready to move on to another company that might offer you a full-time position. In this instance, you would change your headline from “Marketing Intern” to “Seeking opportunities in marketing.” This makes your goal clear, and it will make you stand out to potential employers because they will see that you are available to be hired right away.
2.) Showcase the right skills
Getting endorsements on LinkedIn is great, but the key is to showcase the right skills on your page. If you are applying for jobs in finance, you don’t want the first skill that pops up on your profile to be Photoshop, because this won’t be as relevant to your career path. You’ll want to showcase skills such as financial planning or data analysis! You can toggle which skills show up as “Featured Skills” so you’ll want to make sure the top three that you have, are applicable to your goals.
3.) Add bullet points or dashes to your job descriptions
Take the time to perfect your job descriptions for each position you have listed on your profile. You may have these in a short paragraph, but for quick skimming purposes it is best to convert your information in these fields to be in list format. Recruiters will only be taking a quick glance at your profile, and it will be much easier for them to read quick bullets and get the idea of what you did at each job, rather than a daunting paragraph.
4.) Don’t sell yourself short! Add volunteer experience, honors, and even courses.
LinkedIn is a place to self-promote, so don’t hold back! There is a field where you are able to add courses, and this is a great place to showcase awesome classes that you’ve taken that will translate to your professional career. List the full names of the courses, and LinkedIn will condense the list so it’s not as overwhelming. Under accomplishments, you can also add any honors you have received or publications you have been featured in. You can also add volunteer experience, and certificates or licenses you have, and honestly anything that you think will make you stand out!
Just remember that the one thing that makes you stand out most, is that there’s only one you!