You are ready to take the next step on your career path, LinkedIn is one of the best tools to help you with that. Although with over 400 million users, you have to go above and beyond.
Before you start improving your profile, change your settings to: hide activity changes . Depending on what and how much you change, your network of contacts, e.g. your current employer – does not have to know what you do, like and share (if the change you are making is large and you want the world to know about it, change the settings back) .
1. Stay up to date
Your LinkedIn profile should be up-to-date, not only when you are looking for a job. You never know who is offering the position of your dreams and looking for someone like you.
2. Smile
Your profile is 7 times more likely to be visited if you include your photo. Open the hem of your personality, but stay professional, after all, the goal is to make a good impression. Ask a friend who has a good camera to take a picture of you. Don’t rely on your iPhone unless it has good performance. Remember to keep your photo up-to-date so that the interviewer can recognize you.
3. Call yourself
To create a professional headline, you have 120 characters to do so. Be creative: show that you have traveled the world or that you are erudite, use professional vocabulary. If you do not edit the headline, it will match your last position, which will not necessarily give a complete and up-to-date picture of the situation. Be sure to check the header whenever you add a new experience to your profile as it may revert to a previous version.
4. Keep in touch
If you want to encourage people (who are not related to you) to contact you, please leave your contact details (email, website, phone number) in your profile summary.
5. Highlight achievements
Your achievements should shine. Highlight your role in major projects, people management and achieved goals – if you can, illustrate it with concrete numbers. Communicate everything clearly, specifically, and don’t beat around the bush. Summarize your achievements and experience in a few sentences.
6. Share your second language
Show openness to the world by showing off your language skills. For example, you can take the free and simple language test, EFSET, and immediately add your result to your LinkedIn profile.
7. Earn and give recommendations
Recommendations are easy to get on LinkedIn. Ask friends, previous managers or current managers to provide feedback on your work and skills. Remember to pay back.
8. Join groups and follow people
Don’t just get in touch with people you know. Join groups, or observe people outside your network to learn from them. You can join as many groups as you want. This way you will establish new relationships. If you want your profile to look even more professional, start your own group and show the world that you are an expert in a specific field.
9. PERSONALIZE YOUR URL
Now your profile link might look like this: linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname-a821191a. Nobody will remember that, right? Fortunately, LinkedIn allows you to personalize your URL, so you can ditch the numbers and add your profession, industry, or whatever that says about your professional life. Remember to update your profile link on your business cards, website and social media.
10. PERSONALIZE YOUR MAIN PHOTO
Personalize your cover image with a splash of personality. There are publicly available photos that you can use, but if you can, add your own (in JPG, GIF or PNG format, no larger than 4MB and between 1000 × 425 and 4000 × 4000 pixels). For inspiration, you can browse through photos of other people. Anything related to your industry, company or personality should fit. Oh, and remember that the profile must look professional, after all, you want your future employer to see it.
11. MAKE A SPRING CLEANUP
You probably created your LinkedIn profile a few years ago and now only add your skills, experience, groups, contacts and recommendations from time to time. If so, it’s time to clean up. Make sure your profile is clear, specific and consistent. List the skills and experiences that are relevant to your career plans. Knowing how to use Microsoft Word or the Internet doesn’t make you noticeable. The summer odd jobs you did 10 years ago are not that important anymore. Leave groups or delete contacts you don’t need. The same goes for recommendations. There was a time when everyone got recommendations. Nobody is an expert in everything, so add recommendations that are relevant to the position you would like to get.
