How to create a great profile and stand out for recruiters like us?

LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site with more than 600 million users worldwide. If career and professional advancement are among your priorities, you need a LinkedIn profile that is set up effectively and is up to date. It provides you with a chance to get yourself in front of hundreds (or even thousands) of professionals in your industry, which is essential if you want to be seen within your field. As recruiters, we come across hundreds of LinkedIn profiles daily during sourcing. We definitely see how much effort each user puts into their account based on the information they provide of themselves. The list below summarizes the things we appreciate the most in one’s profile, and all the little tricks you want to pay attention to if you want yours to stand out!

1. Be creative with your headline

Nobody said your headline should only be your title at work. You have 120 characters to work with, so why not write something that pops? Use this field to feature your passions, drives, and experience briefly. Define the target audience of your profile, and say something that gets their attention. If you’re working in IT, focus on your achievements by listing things you helped create, numbers that describe growth, and concrete skills you needed for each task. This helps future employers determine what responsibilities suit you the best.

2. List the relevant skills

Your LinkedIn summary allows you to go into more detail about yourself. It can be a more extensive version of your headline. Here you have 2,000 characters to work with, however, we recommend taking up only half of that. Try to focus on values you can bring to new employers or clients rather than past experiences. There are some great examples on LinkedIn’s talent page as well, feel free to take inspiration from other people. Try to focus on skills that are needed for the positions you wish to work and grow in, this can spare you lots of unnecessary messages filled with questions about previous roles. You can also mention if you’re up on the market for new opportunities in this section so that recruiters can reach out to you with available positions.

3. Take skill assessments

LinkedIn Skill Assessments are one of the newest features of the site. They allow you to verify your knowledge of the skills you’ve added to your profile, by completing ca. 15 minute-long quizzes, specifically designed to test your skills. A typical assessment consists of multiple-choice questions, testing your knowledge of concepts and subskills. The questions are timed and must be completed in one session. Of course, they are not the most reliable way to judge someone’s skills but hey, why not. They might be worth completing as they add badges to your profile that prove that you spent time completing the tests to stand out, highlighting your dedication.

4. Feature recommendations and endorsements as a beginner

If you don’t have any relevant work experience, other people praising your skills online might just give you a head start. LinkedIn allows you to collect recommendations from previous employers, colleagues, or teammates. If you know you did good in a previous position or completed tasks worth mentioning, ask the people who witnessed your success for a couple of praise lines. Endorsements give people who look at your profile a quick, visual representation of what you’re valued for the most. Recommendations take this even further. They are personal testimonials written to give people an idea of what it’s like working with you. Take the time to think about whose opinion would illustrate your work in a way you’d like to present yourself, and personalize a request- it’s worth the energy and thought.

5. Be active and share relevant content

Algorithms in general like active users a lot. There are countless things you can do on the platform aside from sharing your thoughts. Be part of the conversation by expressing your opinion on topics in your feed, congratulate your connections for milestones, boost others’ skills and interact with experts in groups. The possibilities are endless, and the more you do the more likely you are to become a valued member of the community.

6. Work in keywords, avoid buzzwords

Figure out the words your target audience looks for. Once you know your keywords, weave them into your headline, summary, experience, skills, and anywhere else on your profile. Make sure that your keywords make sense together with the rest of your writing, rather than just being put after each other like a contextless list. Also, try to eliminate buzzwords that you see a lot in personal bios, but don’t actually say a lot about you or your skills. Think “team-player,” “driven,” “innovative,” “effective,” “21st century,” and “motivated.” Try to go for adjectives that describe you and your purpose more definitely, so that there are no questions left in anyone who reads them. You don’t have to skip these words entirely, you might use them in sentences together with more fitting words, just be careful your message gets through.

7. Keep your profile up to date

LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards users with complete profiles that are carefully updated now and then. Remember, your page should always be in sync with your current CV, so make sure you add relevant experiences and describe them in great detail. It’s also a great idea to include specific statistics and numbers in your achievements, as they attract more recognition. Just below the “About” section is the “Featured” section, which also allows you to showcase media, links, LinkedIn articles, and posts at the top of your profile. Sharing the work or mentions that are most relevant to your personal brand and LinkedIn goals is a great opportunity to show your skills in action. If you have an online portfolio, the “Featured” section is a great, highly visible spot to link to it.

8. Build your (professional) network

LinkedIn is the best place to extend your professional network. You can start by connecting with people you already know, but you can also request connections from people outside your circle that might be able to help you grow in your career. You can also try to seek common ground with other accounts based on experiences you shared like school or people that work in the same industry as you. Send personalized connection requests to many, and watch your network grow.

9. Pay attention to the details

As they say, the devil is in the details. There are numerous small additions you can make for your profile to stand out. Add the way you pronounce your name, request a custom URL, share your current location and your contact information… LinkedIn shows you where you can add those extra little snippets to make your profile complete.

10. Use the right pictures

Even though recruiters usually know what to look for on your profile, your profile and cover photos are the first things everyone who stumbles across your page sees. Your profile picture should be professional-looking and neat- try to smile, not wear sunglasses or use full-body pictures. Be as simple as you can, and try to make other parts of your profile stand out. Your background image can be something more creative: it can feature parts of your personality, website, or events you will be participating in basically anything you want to bring attention to. Both can be great conversation starters if you express yourself and let your personality shine through, but try to keep it somewhat professional.

If you do all of the above steps, your profile will show up in search results more and more, helping recruiters and new connections find you more easily. No matter what your goals are: finding a job, being seen by professionals in your industry, or just networking, taking time to complete your profile and be active on LinkedIn will be worth all your efforts.