If you’re anything like me, your LinkedIn profile is often neglected. I only really update mine when I have a new role. (Don’t be like me, this is not great practice 😅)
Your LinkedIn profile can be a great tool for during the job hunt, or important when networking as people want to learn a bit about you. This week, we’re going to look at two sections, About and Experience, and how you can make them more impactful.
👋 Writing a good About section
The About section is that text box that appears right below your header, so people scan it before they see your experience, education, or recent activity. A good About section can help you to make a great impression, so it’s worthwhile to spend 15 minutes crafting one that actually reflects who you are.
My current About section
A good About section should:
Sound like you! Keep it in the first person and don’t rely heavily on ChatGPT – the best ones sound like the person is speaking to you.
Be concise. Nobody’s going to read 5 paragraphs about your experience. Just call out the highlights and keep it to a few lines.
Be unique to you. Don’t be a generic “designer at the intersection of art and technology,” talk about what is special about you or your current role.
Ideally, someone can see your profile header and your About section and have a pretty decent idea of what you’re doing right now.
🎨 Adding colour to your Experience
The Experience section is your job history. This section is one that a lot of people undercook by just listing titles and dates, but you can get a lot more impact for a small amount of effort.
There are a few ways to make your Experience section stand out, so pick and choose which of these suits you:
Expand upon the job title: great for titles that don’t fully capture the scope of your role, add a sentence or two about what your actual responsibilities were.
Add a story: if you have a really great public accomplishment at a role, write a paragraph about it. While your résumé would typically be using bullet points, you can write more conversationally on LinkedIn.
Include links: if you worked on a public website or have files to share (that you’re allowed to share), you can attach them to the experience so that people who are interested can explore.
The audience for your Experience page can be anyone – recruiters, past coworkers, people who forgot why they added you on LinkedIn – so try to keep your language jargon-free and simple where you can.
You don’t need to spend ages curating the perfect LinkedIn presence. If yours is a bit dusty, take half an hour to give it a bit of a tidy. And if yours is already pretty good, you only need to check in annually or at major role changes to make the edits.
