Create a Compelling Profile

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Make sure your LinkedIn profile is comprehensive, highlighting your technical skills, certifications, and experience. Use a professional photo and create a headline that summarizes your expertise and ambition. Tailor your summary to reflect your passion for technology, your career achievements, and your future goals. This is your first impression, make it count.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is comprehensive, highlighting your technical skills, certifications, and experience. Use a professional photo and create a headline that summarizes your expertise and ambition. Tailor your summary to reflect your passion for technology, your career achievements, and your future goals. This is your first impression, make it count.

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Monique Montanino
Executive Career Coach at Resume Tech Guru
Mon, 04/08/2024 - 17:38

According to Earthweb, “58 million companies are listed on the LinkedIn platform, and 87% of recruiters use it to scout new employees.” Based upon a database of 30 million profiles, career expert Zippia estimates there are over 210,000 technical recruiters in the U.S.

Do you have a LinkedIn Allstar Profile for these recruiters? Let's check out what you can do to make that happen.

Here are 10 actionable LinkedIn tips to become a recruiter attraction magnet.

1. Safety Check: If you don't want your colleagues or the boss to know you're updating your profile, head over to your LinkedIn visibility settings. Select "Off" for the item under "Visibility of Your LinkedIn Activity."

2. Images: It’s time to update your headshot if more than five years old. Professional photographers charge $250 and will come to your location. Or have your significant other take a new photo.

Studies indicate we don’t select our best photos. A free data science-backed analysis is available at photofeeler.com based on how competent, likable, and influential you appear in your photo.

Make the best use of the background space behind your photo by showcasing your professional brand with an image. Royalty-free images can be found at Pexels.com and Unsplash.com. You need to log into linked.com vs. use the phone app to change the image.

3. Headline: I develop headlines for my clients with 3 components in mind, including industry-recognized title, domain expertise, and competitive differentiator. To make these 3 items stand out, I insert separator symbols such as the pipe vertical line (|) key or Unicode bullets (■ ●). As far as an industry-recognized title, it’s easy to discover what by conducting a LinkedIn job search. For example, I searched for a client recently for a role in the US, and “Chief Information Officer” provided 2x more job postings (4K) vs. “CIO” (2K). You can cover your bets and post it as “Chief Information Officer (CIO)” on your LinkedIn Profile.

4. About Summary: Think of this section as your elevator speech when the recruiter asks, “So, tell me about yourself.” My advice to clients is to respond not like you are on the firing line. Instead, why not take the same approach you use with someone at a business conference, explain what you do, and your philosophy regarding leading successful teams and achieving incredible results?

The reality is that most people on LinkedIn write about themselves in the 3rd-person. Weird, it’s your profile, not an introduction at a keynote ensued by a laundry list of skills that they're capable of since the beginning of time. Let's turn that around and position yourself for the next executive role you want. When you're hiring someone, what impresses you in the interview? It's time to interview yourself or ask colleagues or a significant other.

One of my favorite summaries has a line that caught my attention and made me smile: “Leader with a talent for driving strategic relationships with clients and finding mutual wins in complex negotiations. I have negotiated with terrorists; executives do not intimidate me.” It’s from a former sales executive colleague of mine at CenturyLink. Do more of that, please. We’re here to be dazzled, not bored.

5. Industry & Location: This one is quite simple. Use the crowd sourced categories in the drop-down menu.

Think like a recruiter vs. being micro-specific to where you live. I used to live in a small county of 20,000 called Port Ludlow, WA. No one outside of the state was familiar with the town, so I would say it was near Seattle. A large segment of my tech exec clients work at Microsoft in Redmond, WA. We always use the larger metro area of Seattle, WA.

6. Job Description: Similar to your resume, it’s best to keep things short and simple for each of your job descriptions. Begin with your overarching responsibility statement. Follow up with 2-3 bullets of accomplishments applying the Amazon STAR method. Each bullet begins with an action verb and should contain a metric related to the Situation, Tactics, Actions, and Results you accomplished.

7. Education: Select the drop-down menu for a list of degrees, which is crowdsourced on how recruiters search. If your concerned about ageism, skip the graduation dates. Exception for removing dates is if you recently completed an executive MBA.

8. Skills: Please add to your skills section or take a minute to delete insignificant items. It will help with ATS matching for the job listings. You have up to 50 skills, so if you max out, please delete current skills with zero endorsements or items not related to your next role regardless of if 100 people endorsed you. Prioritize industry terminology that recruiters utilize vs. internal corporate babble. What AWS vs. Microsoft discusses in meetings is the same but within different vernaculars, so cover all your bases.

Areas of expertise categorize your skills:
• Industry Knowledge
• Tools & Technologies
• Interpersonal Skills
• Other Skills

Did you know the top 3 skills on your profile are ranked in quantitative order, and you can change them?
1) Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2) Click View profile.
3) Scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section and click the Edit icon.
4) In the pop-up window, click and drag the Reorder icon (4 horizontal bars) located to the right of the corresponding skill you'd like to reorder.

Have colleagues endorse three interpersonal skills and, here’s a tip, tell them which ones. It’s an efficient way to increase your skill rankings where they matter to you.

9. Recommendations: I know it's sometimes challenging to ask for help but get over it. Perhaps you had the same Dutch-like parents that trained me from an early age that it's better to give than receive? I muster the courage and ask for recommendations. It’s OK to receive LinkedIn recommendations; you've earned it.

I tell my clients to ask for recommendations and be extremely specific about a skill they want to highlight. The ones about “she’s a nice person” don’t convey to a recruiter or hiring manager what executive leadership benefits you bring to the table. Request recommendations for leadership qualities such as:
• Strong vision for the future
• Ability to establish trust
• Leadership style that reflects your team
• Delegation to direct reports
• Mentor capabilities for the development team
• Being a master communicator
• Fire up team motivationally

Here are the steps to take:
1) To request a recommendation from your profile: Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2) Select View profile. Scroll down to the Recommendations section and click.
3) Ask to be recommended.
4) Type the name of the connection you'd like to ask for a recommendation in the “whom do you want to ask?

10. Open to Recruiters: Armed with your All-Star profile, you’re now ready to notify recruiters that you’re open to being contacted. Yes, you’ll initially receive some odd “doesn’t even vaguely represent me” requests but give it a whirl.

Here’s how you tell recruiters you're available without letting your network or boss know.
• Click on the "Open To" dropdown that appears below your photo on the left-hand side
• Select “finding a new job”
• Add 4 job titles: limited to 4
• Tip: Conduct a job search based on various titles in LinkedIn to see how many job openings exist within your geography and rank order the top 4 titles.

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GUNJAN PALIWAL
Product Marketing Lead at Meta
Mon, 04/29/2024 - 03:53

Share industry trends and insights: Stay informed about the latest trends, innovations, and developments in the tech industry and regularly share your insights on LinkedIn. Posting about emerging technologies, market trends, or industry news can position you as a knowledgeable and forward-thinking professional. and also add become thought leader

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