LinkedIn: More Important than your Resume

No lie.

LinkedIn is national and international. As of March 2019, LinkedIn had 610 million registered members in 200 countries, of which more than 250 million are active.

If you do not have a robust, high quality profile on LinkedIn.com, you are SERIOUSLY hurting your job prospects. Have you heard this one:

The average employer spends 6 seconds looking at a resume.
– Often-cited study conducted by The Ladders in 2012. Though it has been disputed, specifically by ResumeGenius.com. So then The Ladders wrote a good follow up with some real doozies. All good reads. See sources below.

So, certainly there is a lot more to the story, but the good news is, your LinkedIn profile and activity offers GREAT opportunity to stand out, capture attention and engage!

If you are only using LinkedIn as a digital version of your resume, you are missing OUT!

Now, of course, LinkedIn should reflect your resume (see our two resume-writing blogs: one about Resume Design and one about Resume Content) but there is SO Much more to do with LinkedIn. Here are a few things that you should leverage. (You might consider carrying a few of these advantages over to your resume.)

1. Your LinkedIn Profile Picture

You can and should use a professional head shot on your LinkedIn profile. Personally, if I look at someone’s LinkedIn profile and they have no photo, I think they don’t take LinkedIn seriously (which leads me to wonder if they take their job search seriously. Probably not.)

By “head shot”, I mean, a nice, “professional”-looking one, from the shoulders (or waist) up, with a light background and no one else in the picture – even if you sort-of-kind-of crop them out. It should look like a professional photo even if it is not. (It doesn’t NEED to be! Just go for natural outdoor lighting and a plain background.)

I’m sorry I have to even say this, but in the photo, you should be dressed professionally. A modeling, sporting, or formal event photo is typically not appropriate. I recently saw a profile picture of young woman with her midriff showing AND nipples visible through her shirt. And she wasn’t seeking a job in adult entertainment (or was she?) If you are unclear on what we mean by “professional”, and even if you THINK you are clear, allow me to refer you to our To Wear or Not To Wear blog.

Lastly, on LinkedIn photos, there is now also an option for a large background picture, or “Cover Photo”, much like Facebook. This is another great opportunity to stand out. Keep it simple, maybe a pattern or image relevant to your career, like a drawing table, table of the elements, notebook and pen, etc. Or a photo of a landscape, your college campus or cityscape… Don’t make it to complex; nothing that will distract from the rest of the content.

2. A HEADLINE: Give yourself a title.

This is one of my favorite “new” things about LinkedIn: You can give yourself a title under your name. It doesn’t have to be your exact serious title of the exact position you have/want. You could write “Project Manager” for your headline. But you can also be a little more creative or descriptive, like “Project Manager and Master of Efficiency”. I just saw one that started with, “Highly-Caffeinated…” Now, don’t get TOO cute, but, you know, you could show a little personality.

You can also combine phrases! Like, “Project Manager | Team Relationship Manager | Time-Keeper”

(I know you want to know how to make those little slashes: It’s SHIFT+ BACKSLASH ( \ ), and you should bold them to make them stand out. BRILLIANT! )

3. INTRO: A Summary of Brand YOU!

Okay, now this is REALLY my favorite new thing on LinkedIn. Remember in the Resume blog we were talking about how an “Objective” is possibly limiting. Well, this is what you want instead. A PROFILE SUMMARY of you, and your core competencies. (I would add that THIS is what you should have at the top of your resume under your name and contact info.)

This is a good time to think about your Personal Brand. (We will write a blog on how to do this soon! In the meantime, google it. There are many articles on Personal Brand Statements. But ours will be more fun, haha.)

You can write in the first person, ie. Use the pronoun “I” to talk about yourself. As in, I am an energetic business student with a passion for x, y and z…” You could also get creative and address a problem, such as, “If you are looking for/If your company is experiencing x, y and z, I am the candidate for you…” Go look at some of your connections and find some that you like. Follow a similar style, we won’t tell.

4. Recommendations!

Endorsements are okay, but recommendations are GREAT! Ask your close contacts to write them for you. Consider asking teachers/professors, bosses/supervisors, colleagues, clients, anyone who can legitimately say something glowing about your performance and skills; specific examples even better. Also, don’t forget to return the favor! (Note that these are people who might also be a reference for you when you are interviewing.)

5. Other Ways to Optimize your LinkedIn profile

Customize your LinkedIn Profile URL to http://www.linkedin.com/YourName, not a bunch of numbers. (You can check/change this in settings. Also, put this link on your resume.)
Include your contact information! Seriously! I suggest at the end of your summary, say something like, Please reach out to me at [email].
Add videos, blogs, link to your personal website, samples of your work – good stuff that can make you stand out.
Build your network but be careful of being annoying. I like to be a bit selective (e.g. people related somehow to my industry, or just people that I know personally.)
Post/Share articles, comment on others’ posts, write articles, be active.

Get to it! Have fun. You should be proud of your LinkedIn profile!

Sources:
Ladders study: https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/you-only-get-6-seconds-of-fame-make-it-count
Good objections raised about this study methodology: https://resumegenius.com/blog/5-problems-with-the-ladders-6-second-resume-study
Snap decisions made about your resume here: https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/is-it-true-that-recruiters-reject-a-resume-in-six-seconds (like, if you use hotmail or AOL or some other outdated provider, you could be rejected outright.