1. Flick the switch on LinkedIn that tells
recruiters you are open to new opportunities.
2. Provide more information about you, recruiters
will see when they visit your LinkedIn profile -- information that other
visitors to your page will not have access to.
3. Construct a LinkedIn headline that makes it
clear what you do for a living. Don't be general -- doing so will drive
prospective visitors to your profile away.
4. Write a short Summary for your LinkedIn
profile, and use your Summary to brand yourself as a person with a point of
view and confidence in him- or herself.
5. Get a fantastic new photo for your LinkedIn
profile.
You don't need to get a professional headshot but you do need a photo that shows
your face more clearly than the profile photo you're using right now. Get that
photo this weekend and update your profile to put your best foot forward (as
well as your best smile). Then, watch recruiters show up!
At the moment, your LinkedIn profile doesn't
tell us what you want to do in your next job.
Your LinkedIn headline "Multi-skilled
Professional" is a non-starter, as my sporty friends would say. It's
keeping recruiters from reaching out to you. We have no idea what you do well
or what kind of job you're looking for.
You have to make some choices. The reason your
LinkedIn profile disappoints you is that it is noncommittal. We can't tell what
you do for a living and therefore recruiters are unlikely to reach out to you.
You might be thinking that your decision to
incorporate lots of business buzzwords in your LinkedIn profile might overcome
the obstacle that your vague LinkedIn headline creates, but here's the problem.
The business buzzwords in your profile are
generic. "Strategy," "team player" and "organizational
skills" are terms that will not help your profile rise to the top of
anybody's "must interview" list. Millions of other LinkedIn users
include the exact same keywords you do in their LinkedIn profile.
Anybody who conducts a search on the vast
LinkedIn database and pulls up your profile as a search result will also have
gazillions of other search results that contain many of the same keywords. Your
brilliance is hidden behind a thicket of generic keywords and a bland,
featureless profile in general.
The biggest problem with your LinkedIn profile
is that we can't learn anything useful about you by reading it.
Your assignment is to find the time and invest
the energy to decide what kind of job you want next. If you can't decide
between two types of jobs that both interest you, flip a coin. You have to brand yourself for the jobs you
want or nobody will give your LinkedIn profile a second glance.
You have good work experience but the
descriptions of your past jobs are mushy right now. It looks like you are
hedging your bets branding-wise. You don't want to turn off anybody who might
come across your LinkedIn profile, but unfortunately,
the result of your super-general branding is that you don't look like the
solution to anybody's problem.
Real hiring managers have real, specific
problems to solve. Recruiters, in particular, are looking for people whose
profiles make it crystal clear what those people can do, and what they want and
intend to do.
An overly general branding approach says,
"Please consider me, your Majesty! I can spin, weave and card wool! I can
do whatever you want me to do."
That branding approach is powerless. An
empowered brand is one that says, "Here's what I do well. If you need somebody
who solves this problem for you, give me
a call."
When you commit yourself to your next career
move right in your LinkedIn profile, you instil
confidence in readers.
Recruiters don't have to wade through
paragraphs of generalities to decide whether or not they want to talk to you.
Good branding is clear. It's easy for the
person who encounters you to make a quick yes/no decision about you.
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