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LinkedIn Profile 101 for Job Seekers

LinkedIn Profile Tips Your LinkedIn Profile can be an invaluable resource for most job hunters.
LinkedIn, LinkedIn Profile, Job seeker, recruiter, employer, hiring manager, job search, career advice, roxxywrites, bkreader, brandi tape
LinkedIn Profile Tips

Your LinkedIn Profile can be an invaluable resource for most job hunters.

Now, before you write the site off as the uptight cousin of Facebook, check out this two part series to learn how to make your LinkedIn profile work for you. We've sifted through lists upon lists of the good, bad, and ugly LinkedIn tips to bring you the most valuable information that can help you shine now!

LinkedIn, LinkedIn Profile, Job seeker, recruiter, employer, hiring manager, job search, career advice, roxxywrites, bkreader, brandi tape
LinkedIn Profile 101

1. You get out what you put in. This is not the time to be lazy here, complete your profile as thoroughly as possible. Sure, having a profile at all will help your odds for that recruiter magically find you, but filling it all the way out will increase your chances of a call or offer if they're able to discern a little bit about you from your profile as well. Make sure you include details about what your skills are, where you've worked, and what people think of you. LinkedIn makes it easy to gauge how well you've completed your profile with its built-in meter, prompting you with suggestions with suggestions on how to strengthen it further.

2. Make it yours. This makes you significantly easier to find. Try something like "linkedin.com/yourname" instead of the awkward automated link that the site initially assigns you. Head over to the "Edit Profile screen" at the bottom of the gray window with your basic information. Click "edit" next to the public profile URL. Simply specify what you'd like to rename your address to be and voila…custom URL.

3. Give good face. Pick a picture that comes across as professional, appropriate, clear, and friendly. Another words, no bathroom selfies, club shots, or candids, save that for OKCupid! When in doubt click around and check out a few profile pictures of professionals in your industry for direction. Bonus points for action shots of you doing your thing.

4. Write a headline to turn heads. Newsflash, your profile headline doesn't have to be confined to your job title and company. Majority of people do this, and while it's not incorrect, it is boring. Make the most out of this feature by concisely highlighting your specialty, value, or wow factor. Be creative and specific to really knock it out of the park.

5. Turn your target job description into a weapon. Copy and paste a few of the job descriptions that you're most interested into a word cloud tool like Wordle. This nifty little tool will translate a large group of words you enter into a design, highlighting the most frequently used words by ranking them by largest on down for the words less frequently used. It not only looks pretty cool but shows you what skills are probably most important to the employer so that you can pepper them throughout your profile.

LinkedIn, LinkedIn Profile, Job seeker, recruiter, employer, hiring manager, job search, career advice, roxxywrites, bkreader, brandi tape
Word Cloud Magic

RoxxyWrites LinkedIn Bonus: Even if you're currently unemployed, make sure you include a current position. Now I would never encourage you to lie. However, when recruiting professionals are using the candidate search tools on LinkedIn they usually include job seekers with current positions.

If you don't have a current position on your profile there's a pretty good chance you will be automatically excluded from the search. Even if you have to include a creative decoy to fulfill this area, it's probably worth it. Don't take yourself out of the game before it even begins.

Happy Hunting!

RoxxyWrites!




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