LinkedIn remains one of the most essential platforms to establish a professional online presence and showcase your skills and accomplishments. With over 930 million users (and counting), LinkedIn remains the go-to platform for recruiters, hiring managers, and professionals looking for potential candidates.
“Your LinkedIn profile is your digital brand,” says Lianne Zhang, a director of talent at Milestone Technologies. “I can’t tell you the number of times where we had two equally qualified candidates and the one with the stronger LinkedIn profile got the job.”
In the personal branding workshops I regularly host, I often get questions about what recruiters and hiring managers prefer candidates include (and exclude) on their LinkedIn profiles. Since I’m not a recruiter myself, I solicited and compiled guidance from over 100 experienced recruiters and hiring managers around the world to find out exactly how to craft a LinkedIn profile that stands out to recruiters.
While I haven’t featured quotes from all 100 of them in this single article, the guidance that emerged from their collective views in response to the most frequently asked questions I receive about each LinkedIn section follows.
- Photos
- Headline
- About
- Featured
- Activity
- Experience
- Education
- Licenses & Certifications
- Recommendations
- Endorsements
1. Photos: Upload Professional Images
What are the characteristics of a good headshot? Does customizing your background banner photo make a difference?
Two primary photos create the initial personal branding people see when visiting your profile: your profile photo and your background banner photo.
Use A Professional Profile Photo
First, upload a current picture of yourself. You should absolutely include your face on your profile. The lack of a profile photo tends to create a negative impression with recruiters. “The absence of a photo on LinkedIn in some cases can cause distrust for a particular account,” says Oleksandra Syzonets, a recruiter at Reply.io. She says that when a headshot is missing, some employers may question if a real person is behind a profile.
Emma Lindberg, recruiting manager at IT staffing agency Advantis Global agrees that headshots make a big difference to recruiters trying to differentiate between real and fake accounts. “Real accounts are likely to have their background images personalized without stock photos,” Lindberg says.
Second, the photo should be an actual headshot. “Avoid using full-body shots or a photo that looks like a selfie or includes a cluttered or busy background,” says Stacey Mallory, managing director at Altis Recruitment. The photo should ideally not be cropped from another photo because it rarely conveys the same level of professionalism as a solo headshot from the shoulders up.
Third, your headshot should feel professional. “There’s a delicate balance [between] having a profile picture that represents your character or personality while still maintaining some professionalism,” says Trent Cotton, senior global director of talent acquisition at Hatchworks. While you may want to have your personality come through, the picture should still be business focused according to Maciej Kubiak, Head of People at PhotoAiD. “LinkedIn is not Facebook, so the profile picture needs to be business-related,” Kubiak states.
Lindberg does concede that those in the arts, design, or fashion can potentially break away from the typical ‘business professional’ standards of wearing neutral groomed hair, makeup, and formal clothing. “However, across all industries, a clear, well-lit photo is the minimum standard of a good headshot,” she says.
Finally, the image should be high quality. Mallory suggests always using a professional headshot that offers a clear, well-lit view of your face. “Anything that looks amateur or DIY can be a turn-off for recruiters.” These days, you can take a high-quality picture with most phone cameras in a bright room against a neutral background.
“The most important thing is to have a flattering, professional picture,” says Arno Markus, a former recruiter and founder of iCareerSolutions. “This doesn’t mean you need to go out and get a studio headshot, but you want to make sure that the photo is recent, well-lit, and shows you at your best.”
Customizing Your Background Photo Is Helpful But Not Mandatory
Behind your round profile photo sits the rectangular banner image area that appears as a plain grey box by default, but can also be customized. Most recruiters I connected with stated that customizing your background image can be helpful but not absolutely required.
“Having any photo, whether it is a background or a headshot, is a form of self-branding. First impressions are 100% real, and those two images are the first thing people see when they visit someone’s profile,” says Piotr Sosnowski, head of HR at hiJunior. “A background photo is not a must. Some of our best employees didn’t have one during their recruitment process, but it definitely helps recruiters understand what type of person you are.”
According to other recruiters though, while customizing your LinkedIn background image doesn’t hurt, it may not necessarily help either. “Background images don’t really make too much of a difference when you’re being sourced by a recruiter since they are most likely viewing your profile from the LinkedIn Recruiter view, which does not show the background image,” says Weronika Pajdak, talent acquisition manager at Mighty.
2. Headline: Highlight Unique Skills
What’s your view on candidates saying “Ex-[company name]”? What should candidates include in a headline?
Your headline is one of the first parts of your profile someone will see, so it deserves some extra attention. “When we run a search on our LinkedIn Recruiter account, the first thing that shows up underneath your name is your headline,” says Pajdak. “More importantly, it’s the only part of your profile in that search view that doesn’t get cut off by a See All button. It’s literally a recruiter’s first introduction to your experience and a great place to make yourself stand out,” she says.
Selectively Articulate Your Unique Value
Use the 220 characters available in your headline statement to specifically and selectively highlight the title, skills, or areas of expertise for which you want to be known. Margaret Buj, a senior talent partner at Mixmax, shared a few useful frameworks to optimize your headline for keyword searches:
1. Role | Specific achievement
- B2B Inside Sales Rep | $2.4MM generated in 2020
- Digital Ads Manager | 5 Years Experience Managing 7-figure ad budgets
2) Role | Years of experience in industry | Fun fact
3) Role | Helping ___ (type of company) do ___ (result)
4) Role | specializing in _____, _____ and _____
Including “Ex-[Company]” Offers Limited Benefit
The verdict was somewhat split on whether including “Ex-Company” in your headline offers any benefit, but most were not fans of the idea.
The vast majority of recruiters don’t prefer the use of Ex-Company. “I’d advise against using ‘ex-[Company]’ in the headline because a recruiter will be reviewing the candidate’s whole profile anyway,” says Mallory. “Use your Headline to list your job title, skills or areas of expertise rather than using an ambiguous line.” Nathan Deily, chief people officer at nth Venture agrees. “Ex-Company does a candidate no favors in my book. Any recruiter or hiring manager who’s paying attention will see that the candidate worked those places without them bragging about it in a headline,” Deily says.
Note, a small minority of recruiters felt there could be some upside to mentioning your former organization in the headline. “Having a well-known company name in the headline gives me the impression that the candidate has already been vigorously screened and may be very capable of delivering quality projects,” says Lindberg. Although she doesn’t prefer to see “Ex-Company” in a headline, Sosnowski states some recruiters and hiring managers will hire someone who worked at a well-known company rather than someone with similar skills from a lesser-known company.
Nima Mirpourian, a former recruiter and CEO of Will Be Live says candidates should ultimately focus on crafting a headline that highlights their unique skills, experiences, and accomplishments. “Stating you worked for a well-known company does not provide any specific information about your experience or skills,” Mirpourian says.
3. About- Summarize Your Unique Value
How long should this be? What’s the ideal scope of info captured?
Err On the Side of Brevity
Most recruiters prefer candidates to get straight to the point about their professional ambitions, personal brand, and unique skillset in no more than two paragraphs. Mallory believes the About section on LinkedIn is one of the most important. “It’s a career synopsis or professional summary of a resume. In one succinct paragraph, candidates should summarize the types of industries they’ve worked in, areas of expertise, projects they are proud of, and key deliverables.” Mallory states this section also offers a glimpse into a candidate’s writing style.
Selectively Highlight Nonwork Interests
While the About section should be primarily focused on your professional life, selectively highlighting personal interests can help humanize your profile. “Your summary doesn’t need to be entirely focused on your work,” says Kimberley Tyler-Smith, VP of strategy and growth at Resume Worded. “A couple of details about your interests and activities outside of the office will help you seem more relatable and personable,” she says.
End With An Invitation
Markus also recommends including a clear call-to-action at the end of your summary. “Let people know what you’re looking for and how they can get in touch with you,” he recommends. For example, the call-to-action could be an invitation to contact you, visit your website, or check out a certain resource of yours.
4. Featured Content: Highlight Key Accomplishments
How much do recruiters pay attention to your Featured section?
LinkedIn gives you the option to manually populate your Featured Section with posts, a newsletter, articles, links, or media. Most recruiters recommend utilizing this area to draw attention to specific aspects of your skills and expertise you feel are most relevant to those working in areas you’re trying to target. “Use the Featured section to showcase your achievements. Include links, articles and case studies of your work,” says Mallory.
Reinforce Your Personal Brand
Selectively highlight articles, presentations, conference talks, or projects that build credibility around the skills you claim to possess. From a branding standpoint, using eye-catching visuals can increase the chances of this section grabbing a recruiter’s attention. You should also ensure you keep this section up to date, removing outdated or irrelevant content, which can also signal you’ve made the effort to keep your profile current.
5. Activity: Signal You’re Professional Engaged
What impact does one’s Activity feed have on your perceptions of a candidate?
Your Activity section provides a running feed of what you’ve shared, published, and commented on. Being active on LinkedIn can also demonstrate to recruiters that the candidate is actively seeking ways to grow their professional network and skills according to Steven Waudby, senior recruiter at Delta Hire. “Sharing insightful articles, congratulating your network on professional achievements, and updating one’s network on their professional journey shows that the candidate is engaged and motivated to advance their professional career,” Waudby states.
Engage Regularly With Your Network
Most recruiters agree a candidate who’s active on LinkedIn creates a more positive impression compared to those with more static profiles. “Seeing a candidate who is active on LinkedIn — posting, commenting, sharing, connecting with others on the platforms shows a high level of engagement within their networks,” says Jonathan Reynolds, CEO of Titus Talent Strategies.
Share Useful Commentary
Your commentary can also give a recruiter a glimpse into your professional approach, values, or personality. “A post advocating for diversity and inclusivity could reveal a commitment to social justice and equality. A comment praising a colleague for their accomplishments could demonstrate a collaborative and supportive attitude,” says Mirpourian.
Thoughtful activity can even make a difference when deciding between two candidates. “Intelligent and well-written posts, shares or commentary could be a differentiator in a tight decision between two otherwise well-qualified candidates,” says Deily.
6. Experience: Include More Detail
What level of detail is best? Just role & company? Summary of responsibilities? Bulleted list of accomplishments? All of the above? Do you prefer more or less detail?
You can certainly find LinkedIn “experts” who recommend simply including your role titles and company names. I’ve crossed paths with plenty of career coaches who claim a “less is more” approach to the LinkedIn Experience section is more appropriate for an online medium. However, recruiters who weighed in on this article overwhelmingly prefer seeing more detail about your professional experiences.
Include Accomplishments
Detailing out your accomplishments can help recruiters immediately assess your viability as a candidate without having to go through the extra step of requesting your resume. “Your Linkedin profile should be able to act as your resume,” says Brianna Rooney, founder and CEO of TalentPerch.
Your experience section should be treated almost like a resume says Lindberg. “If the resume is not available on the candidate profile, I prefer more detail. Having the roles and companies listed, summaries of responsibilities, and bulleted accomplishments are important.” Lindberg also states that when working for a smaller or lesser-known company, candidates should also include a few sentences about what the company does, which can save recruiters time in having to research that company.
The Experience section should mirror the candidate’s resume, highlighting their skills and experience in as much detail as possible says Mallory. “Since a LinkedIn profile is sometimes the recruiter’s only source of information about a candidate, the more detail they provide in the Experience section, the better because it makes it easier to determine their suitability for the role at a glance. If the recruiter can’t easily see what they’re looking for, they might move on to other candidates,” says Mallory.
Use Bullet Points
A job title and company name are not enough for a recruiter to draw meaningful conclusions about your qualifications. “I’d recommend having a few bullet points listed, ideally tangible achievements,” Buj says. Yes, you can use bullet points, just as you would in a resume, when detailing accomplishments.
“A candidate should list out bullets describing their responsibilities and any measurable achievements from their time at that position,” says Waudby. “Recruiters want to know quantifiable metrics in addition to the soft skills that helped you achieve success and grow your professional development.”
Bullets are indeed an effective format for the Experience section according to Reynolds. “Long paragraphs are hard to read so keep it in bullet formatting and make sure to tie it back to your headline, “ says Reynolds.
Buj also recommends starting (rather than ending) bullet points with a quantifiable result. She shared this example: “Instead of saying: ‘Promoted to my current position where I excelled in sales, increasing them by 12% in the first year,’ say ‘Increased sales by 12% in the first year following my promotion.” Leading with quantified results enables someone scanning through your accomplishments to quickly understand your measurable impact.
7. Education
Does it matter if dates attended are included?
The verdict on whether to include dates on your Education section is a bit split.
Including Dates Can Introduce Age Biases
The dates of your schooling may have no impact on how a recruiter perceives you, but it does introduce some risk around age discrimination. “I don’t recommend including education dates on your LinkedIn profile because it can trigger unconscious bias related to age,” says Molly McIlvaine, executive recruiter at Hanover Search.
“As someone in HR, I’m concerned that this might create an occasion for discrimination,” says Jennifer Miller, head of people and coaching for Lingo Live. “As candidates hit the category where they’re in a protected class (i.e., ages 40+), including these dates may put them at risk for discrimination.”
But Excluding Dates Can Also Raise Questions
Other recruiters stated that including dates is actually helpful to recruiters trying to make sense of how your education fits into your broader professional narrative. According to Mirpourian, leaving out dates in the Education section can raise questions and appear misleading. “Potential employers may wonder if you are trying to hide gaps in your education or work history. By including dates, you can provide a clear and transparent history of your academic achievements.”
Waudby agrees that Education dates are important to include because they help to illustrate a complete timeline of your career. “At the very least, candidates should include the year they completed their education so that recruiters are able to better gauge the timeline of their professional development,” he says.
You could also take an in-between approach, keeping dates in if you are a recent graduate, but removing them after a certain period. Mallory states, “If the education or past roles took place more than 15 years ago, I don’t recommend including the dates.”
8. Licenses & Certifications
How much does this section matter? What types of certifications are worth mentioning?
Mention Relevant, Prerequisite Licenses Only
Including licenses and certifications on your LinkedIn profile is a good way to showcase your professional credentials and highlight your skills and expertise according to Danielle Bedford, senior manager at Coople. “While there is no hard and fast rule about which licenses and certifications should be included on a LinkedIn profile, as a general rule of thumb, only list those relevant to your current occupation or industry,” says Bedford.
McIlvaine agrees that industry recognized certifications are extremely important to detail on your LinkedIn profile. “Particularly in finance, CFA, CFP, or Series 7 are some important requirements we search for, particularly regulatory ones.”
Signal Professional Commitment
“Not everyone wants to add the letters after their name but adding certifications to your profile shows dedication to continued development,” says Reynolds. “Certifications are a great way to showcase additional knowledge and professional achievements to your profile.”
A certification can signal how much importance a candidate places on continuous learning and skills development says Rooney. “This means this person makes a conscious effort to better themselves and this makes them an excellent addition to your team.”
9. Recommendations
How much does this section matter? Which recommendations carry more weight?
While recruiters are aware that solicited recommendations may contain some positive bias, most agree they can help support your candidacy. “Recruiters are aware that a lot of people trade recommendations, and achievements and skills can be blown out of proportion,” says Sosnowski. However, he states that recommendations do more good than bad because they provide social proof to support the claims a candidate makes in the other profile sections.
Markus agrees written recommendations generally help. “If other people are vouching for your skills and experience, then recruiters will be more likely to take you seriously as a candidate,” he says.
Source Recommendations Through Direct Relationships
Waudby states recommendations from current or past managers carry the most weight when trying to showcase your skills and experiences. He also suggests managers get recommendations from direct reports who can speak to their leadership abilities. “If a candidate has sufficient, relevant recent recommendations, it may even decrease due diligence time and the need for multiple reference checks,” says Waudby.
Use Keywords To Increase Visibility
Having a robust recommendation section on LinkedIn can enhance an individual’s profile’s visibility and searchability. “Recommendations that contain relevant keywords and phrases that can improve an individual’s search engine optimization (SEO) and increase their chances of appearing in relevant search results,” says Mirpourian.
Pace Yourself
Having too many recommendations suddenly appear on your profile, especially before a job change, may be less effective according to Himanshu Jain, managing director of recruitment company ReachExt K.K. “Avoid too many recommendations during a short period of time or several recommendations just before any job change,” Jain says. Instead, consider drip-feeding these out periodically over time to demonstrate a steady track record of positive work relationships across various roles and organizations.
10. Endorsements
Does this section matter at all to recruiters?
Endorsements Carry Little Weight
In short, no, endorsements don’t count for much on one’s LinkedIn profile. While a very small handful of recruiters say endorsements can feed into a candidate’s overall personal brand, the vast majority feel endorsements are not necessarily related to a candidate’s actual skills. “These have very little weight since people can endorse you who don’t even know you,” says Charlie Saffro, president of CS Recruiting. For this reason, Mallory also agrees the Endorsements section “carries very little weight when our recruiters are assessing candidates.”
Get Recommendations, Not Endorsements
Eva Chung of Advantis Medical Staffing explains that endorsements aren’t meaningful because they’re not linked with any concrete details or measurable outcomes. “Looking at the Experience and Recommendations section is more valuable for me as a recruiter to understand where they applied these skills,” Chung says.
Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile Helps You Stand Out
Your digital persona is part of your personal and professional brand. It often creates that important first impression when someone looks you up online, so taking some extra time to shape your professional narrative is absolutely worth the investment. “Your LinkedIn profile is your personal presentation to the professional world. Don’t miss this opportunity to present yourself properly,” says Syzonets.
Following this guidance from recruiters on how to optimize your profile can help you stand out as a candidate, remain top-of-mind for relevant roles, and increase your chances of landing your dream job in a competitive job market.
Originally published at Forbes.
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