A career-boosting alternative to Christmas TV
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With the break for Christmas and New Year on the horizon, have you given any thought to how you can use the time to drive your career in 2014?
If you’re looking for a productive alternative to Christmas TV, here are six tips for improving and optimising your LinkedIn profile which will help you find and land your dream job next year.
LinkedIn is one of the main ways recruiters and managers are searching for new hires. And writing your profile in terms of the reader – the keywords they’re searching for and the things they’re looking for in a candidate – is one of the fastest ways to get hired.
If you’re looking for a productive alternative to Christmas TV, here are six tips for improving and optimising your LinkedIn profile which will help you find and land your dream job next year.
- What do you want to be known for? Before you dive into updating your LinkedIn profile, it’s crucial you have a clear idea of the work, skills and experiences you want to be known for. This way you can tune your profile to include the words people will be searching for, and when someone arrives at your profile you know they’re going to get a clear understanding of what you do and what you can offer their team or department.
- Give people a positive preview. Each LinkedIn profile has a headline that is shown in both LinkedIn’s internal search results and when people search for you on Google. This headline is usually what convinces people to click through into your full profile, so make sure it conveys enough about you, your successes and your goals to capture the eye of a potential recruiter or manager.
- Write a summary that sells. Your summary will be one of the most frequently read (if not THE most frequently read) parts of your profile, so spend the time getting this right. This is your chance to explain why you’re different to others in your role, the strengths you can bring to a team, and the major relevant successes you’ve had. And don’t forget, people will be searching LinkedIn by keyword so make sure your summary uses the language people will be using when searching for candidates or connections.
- List your full work history, but only flesh out the relevant parts. Your LinkedIn profile is your online CV so needs to list your past roles and, if you’re new to your career, possibly your education too. However, only flesh out the career steps that enhance your profile in regard to the role you’re trying to get. Not only will this keep your profile shorter and more readable, it will help sell you as an expert in what you do.
- Make sure your spelling and grammar are spot on. An easy one to get wrong, even with the best spell checkers in the world. Try reading your profile out loud whilst making a game out of spotting any spell checking gotchas (eg. “there” vs “their” or “you” vs “your”).
- Connect with the people you know. Once your profile is complete, the next step is to connect with your wider network. Start by searching for the key people you know and send them personal connection requests (don’t send the generic “I’d like to connect” message). Once you’ve done this LinkedIn gets very good at suggesting people you may know and will help you fill out your wider network quite quickly.
LinkedIn is one of the main ways recruiters and managers are searching for new hires. And writing your profile in terms of the reader – the keywords they’re searching for and the things they’re looking for in a candidate – is one of the fastest ways to get hired.