8 Common Mistakes on LinkedIn Profiles

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1. Bad Photo Don’t overdress but do dress well. This is you, and it needs to be a good photo. You probably don’t need a tie in your image if you don't wear a tie at work.

2. Behind the Photo Banner - This space can be blank, but why not make it a good reflection of your professional image? Type your professional title, add “LinkedIn Banner” to the name, and hit enter on Google. Next, shoot “images” and choose from various possible photos that will emphasize this identity. The background banner photo you choose should reinforce who you are (Who you want to be in your next job) and visually support the written portions of your profile, including the “About Statement.” This image should include communication of your overall value, skills, career focus, and professional identity.

3. Bad Headline - The title of your current job automatically goes under your name if you’re still working, and changing this might tip off your current employer that you’re looking. This may be a logical place to add a passion statement about what you like about your field of work. If you are unemployed, you can list job titles you might consider, which can serve as additional valuable keywords for the algorithms. It can open doors to jobs that even algorithms might not find from your experience section.

4. Weak or missing “About Statement” - A statement capturing your general title and what and how you can do what you do. Rather than saying you’re a “Director of Annuity Insurance Sales,” it would be better to say “Experience Insurance Industry Sales,” for example. Your title should reflect your focus on what could be ahead for you. This title is the total of the many parts over your career years.

5. Not enough skills, no Skills, or Skills that are not updated - Cover all skill options offered: Technical, soft & hard skills, people skills ect.

6. Weak Experiences with no keywords: Examples -Direct Reports Areas of responsibilities. Accomplishments. Results

7. Grammatical Mistakes and Typos

8. Most things unrelated to your work should be left off. Sometimes a person adds some of the things they feel passionate about in this site feeling that it makes them look more like a real person. When they need to find the right job it can be hard to help them understand that being passionate about the environment isn’t going to help them advance a “Senior Engineer Job” as quickly as showing how their experiences are the best fit for the job posting.

Summary Thoughts

The LinkedIn profile is what helps you find a job and what helps the company posting a job to find you. It can be a lot longer and broader than a resume but it is still the resume that gets you a job. The profile brings the job to your attention but the resume goes with the application and should be written as much as possible to be a more exact fit to the job posting.

87% of recruiters use LinkedIn and over 70% of employers check LinkedIn before making a hiring decision.