On the Job
LinkedIn is a central part of networking and recruiting practices. Having a complete and professional LinkedIn profile is a critical part of applying for a job online. Almost 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to either source or vet candidates. For all these reasons, we have created a complete personal LinkedIn profile guide to help you on your recruitment journey.
When creating a LinkedIn profile, make sure you have these fields completed first:
Location: This helps LinkedIn recommend connections and local jobs.
Your work experience: This builds your profile and allows LinkedIn to offer suggestions for networking, jobs, and more.
Education: If you are a student, fill out your current school and your future graduation date. If you aren’t, make sure to add all courses and your education history with dates and specific modules that might be relevant.
Your profile photo is more important than you might think, as this is how you are introduced. This photo should be a professional headshot that represents your career or career goals. Here are some tips that might help you pick the perfect photo:
Recent picture
Your face should take around 60% of the picture
Make sure you smile
Dress professionally
Don’t over edit with filters
Your background picture is the second visual element of your profile. It should set context for what you do in order to help your page stand out and engage attention of the right people.
This is the first section of your profile and therefore the first thing people will look at. This headline is the perfect opportunity to create a positive first impression.
With 2,000 characters, you can talk about the things that don’t fit else where in your profile. It’s relevant if you can connect it with your experience section (for example talking about the can be the biggest take way from your work experience). Now, this is not just a space to talk about “work”. Choose stories and points that show what you are as a person, not just professionally. Authenticity and passion are key. Remember to mention what you love about work and what excites you professionally.
After you have added the skills you have mastered, the “Skills and Endorsement” section is very relevant. Listing your skills is a quick win on LinkedIn as you can quicky add skills that are relevant to you.
In this section you can organise your skills and it also allows you to have external validation by having your connections endorsing your skills. This is a constant process but when looking for a job, it is helpful because it acts as proof od those skills.
Using keywords throughout your profile will make the profile appear higher in rank searches. This is extremely relevant if you are looking for a job, as there are recruiters that look for specific keywords and others use ATS (applicant tracking systems) that will look at the words in your profile and rank you depending on those.
“Stay away” words
The “stay away” words are words that are used too often, mainly in summaries and headlines. Because they are used so often, they tend to become meaningless. Some of these words are:
Specialised
Leadership
Focused
Strategic
Experienced
Passionate
Expert
Creative
Innovative
Certified
You can use these words, but try to stay away from them as much as you can.
This can seem daunting, but it’s easier than it looks. When you create your profile, you have the option to important contacts from your email account which is a very helpful way of starting to create a foundation for your network platform.
You will also get suggestions after you finished completing your profile. You will get recommended people that worked with you or that you went to university with.
Also, don’t forget to follow companies, hashtags, people and pages that you are interested in as well as relevant topics to your career goals or industry, to help to connect with like-minded individuals and grow your network.
