If you’re still on the fence about LinkedIn, it’s time to jump off. A 2013 social recruiting survey by Jobvite concluded that LinkedIn is recruiters' top social network of choice for hiring. Recruiters use it to search for and contact candidates, keep tabs on potential candidates and vet applicants prior to an interview.
Your LinkedIn profile is just as important as your résumé. However, they are not the same thing and should be treated differently. There will be some crossover between the two, but your LinkedIn profile gives you the opportunity to create a more substantial version of your résumé. You can include elements in your profile that you cannot fit or easily include in a standard Word or PDF résumé.
Are you convinced yet that you need to build or update your LinkedIn profile? Here are five major fixes that will distinguish your profile from your résumé – and take you less than one hour to make.
1. Picture. Yes, you need one! According to a 2012 study by TheLadders, recruiters spend 19 percent of their time on a candidate’s LinkedIn profile looking at the picture. That seems a bit funny, but it points to how important the photo really is. If you do not have a picture up, your profile may not get any attention at all.
You do not need a professional photo. Pick one you like that doesn’t have a distracting background. It’s also best not to choose one taken from so far away that you appear to be a dot on the landscape. If you can’t find a good photo, take a new one and upload it to your profile.
2. Headline. In addition to your photo, the headline is the first thing recruiters and connections will read. You have 120 characters to craft a headline that provides a unique professional description. If you just put your current job title or “sales professional searching for new opportunities,” it’s not going to do you any favors when recruiters search for candidates.
Consider what you want for the next step of your career. Search for people on LinkedIn who are in that particular field. Or if you're looking for a role with increased responsibility in the same industry, search for more senior people in your field. Do you see any patterns among those headlines, like common keywords? You want to construct your headline so it demonstrates exactly who you want to be next.
3. Summary. A summary is essential to a profile and doesn’t have to be more than a few lines, although you can use up to 2,000 characters. Within that space, you should highlight your background, major accomplishments and your goals. Write it in first person and make it personal.
The summary helps the recruiter get to know you beyond your résumé. Tell a brief story about why you love what you do or why you want to do something new. This is the way to stand out and make recruiters want to meet you. If you only use professional-speak and leave out your career story, recruiters may lump you with the other applicants. If you are just starting out in your career, describe what made you choose the field you’re targeting. Keywords are important to include here, too. They will help you get found by recruiters when they do general searches for candidates.
4. Publications. While you can add links to publications, interviews and other media in your résumé, they can be cumbersome. These are much more likely to be clicked on through LinkedIn, which has a section dedicated to publications. You can insert a link there or directly in the appropriate job section, or you can simply write the name and date of the publication if no link is available. The same can be done with interviews, podcasts or videos related to your professional and volunteer work.
5. Recommendations. Recommendations are vital to a solid LinkedIn profile. You can request a recommendation from a former colleague, client, professor or vendor easily through LinkedIn. When you do, include a brief personal note to the person asking for the recommendation instead of using the generic language LinkedIn provides. This makes it more personal and thus more likely the person will say yes. It will only take a few minutes. Just make sure you’re asking someone you worked well with.
You should aim to eventually have three or more recommendations, so you may want to send out a few requests if you have the time. At any time, you can edit your profile, add to your publications field, tweak your headline or summary or change your photo.
These five elements of a LinkedIn profile are significant and can have a direct effect on whether you’ll be found in a recruiter’s search or called for an interview. Your résumé might be stunning, but if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, the recruiter may second guess that first impression. If you’ve filled out your profile and have a customized, concise résumé, you are much more likely to get called.
Marcelle Yeager is the president of Career Valet, which delivers personalized career navigation services. Her goal is to enable people to recognize skills and job possibilities they didn’t know they had to make a career change or progress in their current career. She worked for more than 10 years as a strategic communications consultant, including four years overseas. Marcelle holds an MBA from the University of Maryland.
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