12 Tips To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search

Your Linkedin profile  is your shop window to recruiters and potential employers, and the first place which potential recruiters will look when they are considering contacting you.

Here are our top twelve tips to make sure your Linkedin profile is found by the RIGHT people:

1. Consider your job seeking objectives

Like any social networking medium you need to firstly decide why and how you will use LinkedIn for your job search. Before you can use LinkedIn, you need to have decided on what role you are looking for. It is no good branding your LinkedIn profile for a role within a professional practice if you decide you want to go in-house.

2. No typos, spelling or grammatical errors please

You don’t need to tell us that on-line first impressions count just as much as face-to-face first impressions. It’s also even easier to make assumptions about someone or some group when working with them on-line rather than face-to-face. Make sure that your profile as well as being error-free is succinct and articulate. Ideally, spend as much time working on your LinkedIn profile as you would your CV.

3. Who do you want to be seen as?

Every time you appear on LinkedIn your headline or personal tag line goes with you. Make sure you brand your headline as what you want to be seen as by the on-line community, and especially potential recruiters. It is better to brand yourself for the job you want rather than the job you have. The reason? Recruiters will often search for a specific job title when looking for potential candidates.

4. Write your elevator pitch
The summary box in your profile needs to be your personal elevator pitch but targeted at the people you want to see it – i.e. recruiters. Your elevator pitch needs to be why you are different and the value you can bring to an organisation. Make sure you include some of the keywords which recruiters are likely to be searching for.

Use the second paragraph – specialties, to list your specialties as this is a good opportunity to add in keywords as recruiters search on this section.

5. Public Profile and URLs

Fight for the right to have your personal name in your LinkedIn profile URL, i.e. “http://linkedin.com/in/yourfullname.” As well as your LinkedIn URL you need to think about other websites that you want your profile to display. Do take the time to put the actual title of the link in rather than leaving them as ‘My company’ or ‘My website’. For example, instead of ‘My Company’ – I have written ‘The Efficiency Coach’. Do include links to any profiles you have on social media sites where you maintain a professional presence.

Tips 6-12 and the complete UnderCoverRecruiter article

Jorgen Sundberg

The original Undercover Recruiter, after 7 years in tech recruiting Jorgen now runs Link Humans, a social media marketing agency in London.