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Rock your LinkedIn profile: Tips to help you find your next role

July 19, 2022
Daria Diadenko
Editor
What LinkedIn is, how to create a profile and make it visible for recruiters, where to look for vacancies and finally get hired for the dream job — read in a brief text version of the online workshops by LinkedIn Nordics and Beetroot Academy. During June, over 350 Ukrainians joined those events, and we will continue collaboration in early autumn. Organized for Ukrainians who have been forced into a new working environment, it will be helpful for talents around the globe hunting for a job.

Why LinkedIn?

LinkedIn has a vision: to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. It aims to build relationships and connect the world's professionals to enable people to find work. This social network is fast-growing, considering two people join LinkedIn every second. In terms of people that work in Sweden, there's a population of 5.6 million people.

Of those, 4 million are on LinkedIn, meaning every four people you meet will have a profile on LinkedIn.

Here are three reasons why the majority of people are on this platform:

  •  to get connected to other professionals and grow your network;
  •  to stay informed through professional news and knowledge;
  •  to find a job and build a career.

Now is an excellent time to look for work; there are so many open roles, lots of companies looking for people lots of people are changing roles. So what you need to do is to be a member of the platform. Watch the detailed instructions, both in English and Ukrainian, on creating a profile by this link (starting from the 38th minute of the video).

Your profile, your story

Start thinking about yourself and what you want to communicate. Think of your attributes, what you would bring as your strength, or maybe what you aspire to. Your profile's not like a restroom. It is more like a digital portfolio of who you are and want to become. Brand yourself and bring this story to life to stand out from the LinkedIn crowd. 

‍Add a photo

The first step, which is super basic, is adding a photo to your profile. It shouldn’t be with your child or pet, for example. It should present you from a professional point of view and be a high resolution.

Record your name 

The second tip, a new feature on LinkedIn, is to record your name. It is very simple. You can only do it on a mobile phone. So it would be much easier for recruiters to start talking to you and avoid the awkward situation of making spelling mistakes with your name.

Add your pronoun

Another recommendation is adding a pronoun. This is about how you want to be addressed. Speaking of inclusiveness and gender equality, this helps to support everyone's right to self-identification.

Create a profile video

It is also a new feature to create more stickiness to your profile. Record a quick video about yourself, maybe with a call to action like contacting you to talk about something, for example. Moreover, when you look at someone's video, you can send a message directly to them.

‍Add your industry

The next tip is to add the industry you work in, are still studying, or even want to work for in the future.

‍Show you’re open to work

You will have a green circle around your profile to stand out when recruiters are looking for talents. If you're happy with your employer but maybe want to get some offers to benchmark with, you can hide this as well, so only recruiters will see this.

‍Draft a compelling summary

There is a summary section on the profile, and here is nice to share more of a storyline about who you are and what you aspire to do. Mention your talents, years of experience and achievements, maybe foreign languages you know or certificates you have, and would you like to work remotely or for any type of company. Think of it as an “elevator pitch”:  here, the recommendation is like 40 words rather than an extended essay about yourself.

Feature content

Detail your work experience. Tell a story and give the context of what kind of company it was, a small startup or big corporation, what you did, and what were the fruits of your work.  

Add a career break

Especially during the pandemic, LinkedIn emphasizes this feature as well. So if you've been on maternity leave or for some other reasons you didn't work for quite some time, there is an option to add the break and highlight some experiences you learned from.

‍And don’t forget:

  • to add the location, especially if you changed it recently.
  • to mention education and courses, you took to upskill or reskill yourself:
  • to tell about your volunteering experience or other socially responsible activities if you have those.
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The last but not the least tip will be to schedule time to work on your profile. Do this weekly, and also ask your friends or colleagues for feedback. Sometimes they point out your professional or personal qualities you don’t even think of. All these help recruiters to see the whole part of you. So, the more you will work on your profile and post things, the faster your network will grow, and you will get better chances to find a job. 

Find the video recording of the workshop by LinkedIn Nordics here.