Afraid he was about to be laid off, Joe, who was a sales manager, called for career counseling and job search help. He began our conversation by saying, “Job search seems to have changed in the last year. There aren’t that many jobs to apply for, and there is a lot more competition. When I reached out to network with my former boss, she pointed out that my LinkedIn profile was pretty weak. She said that having a strong one is essential. So how do I create a LinkedIn profile that will get employers to notice me?”
Your LinkedIn profile should be a powerful job search tool. A well-optimized profile increases your chances of being discovered. When a recruiter or hiring manager looks at your page, will they be impressed? Will they call you to discuss a job or pass you by because your profile is poorly written, mediocre, or doesn’t grab any attention?
What recruiters are looking for
A critical mistake recruiters point out is that under work experience, many people simply list the job title or very general job descriptions.
Employers are impressed by RESULTS. They are looking for tangible evidence of your work contributions and how they impacted the organization. You want to show how you performed that job and excel in doing it. This self-marketing technique is crucial to getting attention.
To make your profile more impressive, show a few key accomplishments that highlight important results. Analyze each job’s work responsibilities. How did the employer benefit? Define what you did (actions) and the outcome (results).
What to stress
Employers want to hear about the important results you achieved in the role. Did you:
- save money?
- make money for the company?
- save time?
- increase productivity?
- improve efficiency?
- enhance a process or system?
- deliver a successful project or strategic initiative?
- create something new? And if you did, what was the impact?
Examples
Your accomplishment needs to be stated clearly, precisely noting what you did with a specific outcome. Use the formula Actions = Results as a guide when you write each bullet point explaining your work experience.
QUANTIFY! Numbers are impressive, so whenever possible, use them. They demonstrate the size of the impact your actions made.
These examples demonstrate this formula.
- Developed and implemented numerous process improvements. Results increased productivity, efficiency, and decreased costly errors, saving $250K.
- Created a new change management training program and taught the classes to dozens of groups throughout the company.
- Designed and implemented a new tool used by the manufacturing teams. Results saved $2.5M.
- Negotiated a global contract with a large supplier securing better terms and lower prices by 12%.
- Achieved a 95% customer retention rate by launching a new loyalty program.
- Led the go-to-market process and launched ten new products.
- Developed high-performance teams through strategic hiring, training, mentoring, and collaborative leadership.
- Managed multiple complex projects simultaneously involving scope, milestones, and deliverables and completed projects on time and within budget.
Job titles matter
The job title your company uses might not be reflective of what you actually do. Or, it doesn’t align with what other companies would call that role. Instead of listing the assigned title, you can alter it to represent your actions.
For example, the company uses a vague or broad title like “manager.” But the appropriate title was “project manager.” So, change the job on LinkedIn and your resume to “project manager.” This accurately describes what you are doing. Recruiters warn you should not inflate it or completely change it to a higher or different role. Just represent the actual level of work you perform.
Headline requires keywords
The all-important headline is the most searched part of LinkedIn. And by default, LinkedIn lists your current job title and company name. People do not understand the importance of optimizing keywords in their headline. Most do not realize they can change the headline or that they should change it.
So, unless you are Bill Gates and the world knows who you are without any words under your name, your company name and job title aren’t what you want in your headline. That information is listed in your work history. Instead, load the headline with the right keywords. This change will allow you to appear in more LinkedIn searches, enabling recruiters and hiring managers to find you.
In the LinkedIn headlines, the vertical slash lines are critical as they tell the algorithm that those are the keywords between each slash. Here are a couple examples of how you might write your headline.
Sales Software Engineer | Technical Sales Account Executive | Technical Software Sales | Fortune 500 company experience
Program Coordinator | Events Planner | Community Outreach Specialist | New College Graduate majoring in Communications | two years of experience
Connections matter
You will be invisible to employers if you only have 21 connections. The more connections you have, the more you can be discovered when recruiters are looking for people with your background. A decent network has at least 200 connections. A great network has over 500. Purposely seeking out recruiters and asking each one for a connection is the best strategy of all.