Lunar New Year represents the end of the old and the beginning of the new. Although it’s been a month or so since the new year, there’s no reason to wait until next year to take up new writing habits and polish off outdated material – especially on LinkedIn, where there are a surge of new job listings and people looking to make new connections after the holidays. Even if you’re not in the market for a new job, it’s still important to maintain a well-maintained account. Why? Because professionals can’t afford to have outdated and unkempt appearances! Join Wordsmith as we do a bit of LinkedIn spring cleaning.
What’s your story?
Aside from your name, photo and current job title, most hirers will generally look at your work experience first. Once they’ve confirmed that your experience is up to par, they’ll gravitate towards your profile summary (the “About” section) to learn more about you as a person.
With 2,600 characters to work with, it might sound like a lot… but trying to sum up your life and profession in about 600 words is much harder than you think – and that’s assuming someone sticks around long enough to read the entire thing, as the average person will only bother to read 28 percent of a web page!
Given how important this section is, avoid the pitfall of simply “copy and paste”-ing your education and work history here… or worse, leaving it blank. “Your summary is your chance you tell your own story, so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had,” explains Jane Deehan (Senior Content Marketing Manager at LinkedIn).
Instead of regurgitating material from your CV, explain why or how you’ve come to be where you are today. Why did you choose a particular major at this university? Why did you work at that company? What have you learned from your experience, and how has it affected your choices today? These details interest recruiters, who appreciate a fuller portrait of your skills, processes and personality than a one-page CV is able to convey.
Even if you didn’t make the best choices nor had the best opportunities, there’s no reason to feel ashamed and hide your past – life happens, and whether we stagnate or grow is what matters. The key is to demonstrate how you’ve overcome life’s challenges.
As you develop your story, Deehan recommends leaving out buzzwords. “Buzzwords are adjectives that are used so often in LinkedIn headlines and summaries that they become almost completely meaningless,” she writes. Instead of describing yourself as creative, experienced, strategic and innovative, what have you accomplished that helps you demonstrate these claims? Perhaps your idea generation game was on point and helped your team score a big pitch with a client, or your clever thinking helped your company anticipate a new trend – wouldn’t you say these are more useful and contextual over just saying that you’re creative or strategic?
Don’t forget those skills
Although your CV should always have your most updated list of skills, LinkedIn’s “Skills” section gives visitors a quick snapshot of your self-declared proficiencies.
For example, if you’ve been programming in Python for over 10 years, recruiters who are looking for new hires with Python experience will be able to see that you’re a potential match without having to skim through your profile.
Don’t go trigger happy when listing skills, though. Deehan suggests that you should only list your most relevant skills to avoid confusing your visitors (and because it also sounds pompous). “A long list of skills that aren’t really core to who you are and what you do, can start to feel unwieldy,” she writes. Unless your uncanny ability to grill the perfect medium-rare steak affects your ability to write computer code, save it for in-person conversations.
Lending authenticity to your profile, LinkedIn has an endorsement system where others can vouch whether your listed skills are true. This is typically done by former colleagues or supervisors, so you may need to reach out and ask for their help. If you maintained healthy working relationships, you should find that most people will be happy to help. And remember that a positive endorsement in return is always appreciated.
Now if you really want to back up your list of skills, LinkedIn offers skills assessment tests across a wide range of skills – SEO, Microsoft Word, Excel to name a few – you’ll need to answer 15 multiple choice questions with a 90 second time limit per question, and if you can score above 70 percent, you’ll receive an official LinkedIn endorsement for said skill. Be warned, the questions can vary from general to very specific. If you fail the test, you can retake the test one more time. Fail that again and you’ll need to wait 6 months for another shot!
Establish an online presence
Despite being a professional networking hub, LinkedIn is still an extension of social media, which means that having and maintaining an online presence is important.
If you haven’t fiddled around with visibility settings at all, most of your recent activities are viewable to anyone with a LinkedIn account – this includes stuff that you’ve liked, people or companies that you’ve followed, your recent posts and even new connections you’ve made (the latter being only visible to your 1st-degree connections, AKA the people you’ve added directly to your connections list).
Here are several things that you can do to expand your list of actions:
· Follow influencers and thought leaders relevant to your industry
· Share or comment on content that you find interesting – if you repost something, don’t just copy and paste. Explain your views on the subject and why people should care
· If you have the rights to your previous works, showcase media and marketing collateral that you were involved in – “Sharing case studies, white papers and other brand content helps to show what the business you work for is all about,” describes Deehan. “[It] helps people understand what makes you tick. It demonstrates passion and commitment as well.”
As industry professionals, it’s our duty to maintain a sharp and well-groomed appearance. Our social media personas are no different, and whether you’re looking for new work or not, being presentable (online and off) is a matter of pride and principle!