How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn has become one of the necessary online platforms for employees and business owners to apply for jobs. It has more than 722 million members in more than 200 countries and regions around the world. No matter what your professional experience is or whether you are actively looking for a job, this is where you need it.

For job seekers who have just graduated or have limited work experience, there is a preconceived idea that they can do so as long as they have an active LinkedIn account, right? Mistakenly having only one active LinkedIn account – an avatar and auto-fill in basic details – is similar to having one with 2 × 2 photo ID and resume of school details. It doesn’t matter. It may be thrown into the dustbin. Here are some ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile and stay ahead.

Headline

This is one of the most prominent parts of your LinkedIn profile, just below your professional avatar. This part gives your audience a simple and clear impression of what you are doing and where you are doing it. Because only 120 characters can be used, you may think you have nothing to use. Wrong again. That’s enough because your title needs to be concise. The secret to optimizing your title is to make sure you have the right keywords.

“Just graduated, doing marketing internship at Google, looking for an entry-level position in digital marketing.” Or “undergraduate psychology, focusing on child development and counseling.”

How to find the correct keyword

Now you have a better understanding of the purpose of keywords. Let’s discuss the best way to find the right person for you.

Step 1: enter the LinkedIn job search board and conduct a standard job search like looking for a role. Be sure to filter by location, entry-level, and any other factors you want to consider. Write down the titles of all the work roles you are interested in in a separate word document. Ideally, you need at least 20 different positions.

Step 2: Google a word cloud website. This is the one we use! Word cloud is a method of visualizing text data. It displays the most commonly used titles, which are larger than other words.

Step 3: go to the “type/paste” section of the word cloud and upload about 20 positions you recorded in the LinkedIn search. Click enter to get the result.

Step 4: according to your results, you want to select the first three keywords from your cloud computing and put them in the title of your LinkedIn profile. You also need to use the top five and sprinkle them on your “about” section.

About

The obvious purpose of this section is to introduce potential employees to who you are, what you do, and why you stand out from millions of job seekers. This is also the only place in your LinkedIn profile that can show your personality. You have 2000 characters, so don’t be afraid to expand yourself and your experience.

You also need to make sure that the first line of your “about” section catches your readers and lets them continue to browse your page. This is equivalent to a cover letter or resume highlight, so make sure the first sentence is convincing.

It allows readers to understand what you do and your passion without sounding too monotonous or too scripted. The rest should include other relevant details that will help strengthen your qualifications and skills on your chosen career path.

Experience

This part is very simple. It lists your previous work experience in chronological order, including your position, company name, tenure, and a corresponding description of your roles and responsibilities. Its function is the same as the “work experience” or “work experience” part of the resume or resume. However, you can choose to be more detailed or shorter in your LinkedIn profile. It’s important to make sure you don’t miss any important details about your previous career or work experience.

Suppose you want to know where your internship program or volunteer work you have done should be placed. In this case, that’s what this part says, because an internship is a kind of professional experience, and volunteer work itself is an experience. Let’s face the reality; Fresh graduates may face challenges in listing their work experience. don’t worry; It doesn’t take long, as long as you include experience related to your career path.

Education

According to the screening source, in nine out of ten, employees emphasize real-life work experience rather than educational background. However, this should not prevent you from listing it in your LinkedIn profile. Listing your educational background allows you to connect with people from the same niche or network.

Skills and certification

LinkedIn has a pre-defined list of skills that you can add to this section. While you may want to add as many “skills” as possible, this is not always the wisest choice.

When adding skills in this section, make sure they are relevant to the industry you are looking for and have them. The beauty of this section is that your contacts or contacts can support the skills you listed and prove your abilities.

On the other hand, certificates are different from skills. Although skills can be pre-generated and you can choose from a list, certificates are proof of completion of training, seminars, or professional achievements. These certificates can be certificates for completing industry-related online courses or seminars, or even diving licenses! Listing and certification can increase your marketability to recruiters and enhance your motivation to continuously develop professional skills.

Additional tips

1. Disclose your personal data. This will still allow nonmembers to view your profile and improve your visibility.
2. Activate the #opentowork function. This will send a signal to recruiters or employers that you are actively looking for job opportunities rather than sending your resume to every job opening. This is an effective way of passive application; When you turn this on, make sure you are not currently working.
3. Stay active on LinkedIn, just like you do on Facebook, share relevant posts, make elegant comments on others’ posts, and join a professional group.
4. If you want to add more characters to the headlines, if you use the LinkedIn app, you will have an additional 80 characters to use!