In recent years, LinkedIn has become one of the most popular social networking sites for career professionals. In fact, there are over 690 million users on LinkedIn, 50 million company pages, and millions of active job listings. It is a great place for career seekers, recruiters and hiring managers to network on career opportunities. It is also a space for candidates to provide supplemental career information that can’t fit on a standard resume.
If you’re not on LinkedIn or you haven’t refreshed your profile in a while, use this checklist to help craft or revamp your online presence.
You should have a professional picture with a plain background and smiling face. This doesn’t mean it needs to be taken by a professional, but it should be clear of distractions.
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Your headline is your marketing tagline. The words in your headline and title carry more search weight than anything else on your profile. Utilize your headline space as much as possible.
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Your about section should be in first-person and skimmable. This should not be a novel on your entire life story, but it should reflect your personal and professional passions. Think of this like your elevator pitch.
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Your experience section is where more detail is better. You might decide to remove certain early career positions, but think about what roles are transferrable and relevant to the positions you are interested in long-term. This is the place to highlight important projects and achievements in your positions.
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Your education section should reflect all levels of education that you’ve received. This is an additional area to sell your background to recruiters and hiring managers. You would be surprised at how many people connect based on alumni status alone.
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These sections are other areas that recruiters and hiring managers often look at for other skill sets that you can bring to the table. The more complete your profile is, the more likely you are to show up in searches for your desired field.
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While connecting with other professionals can seem daunting on such a large platform, this is where relationship building really comes into play. Make sure you take the time to customize and personalize each connection request.
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After you’ve updated all of your sections, don’t forget to review the content (maybe read it a few times before sharing it with the world). There is nothing worse than a profile that clearly has spelling and grammar errors. This shows lack of detail and potential carelessness. Everything you have on your profile is a reflection of who you are, so make sure you put your best foot forward.
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For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly search and staffing specialists can help, contact our team.