Is your LinkedIn profile missing something?

I love it when I get a request to analyse someone’s LinkedIn profile. Over time, I’ve developed a template that I use for clients. This template looks not just at what is there, but what is missing. Many people massively under-sell their achievements by simply copying and pasting the content of their resume. Their profiles don’t include anything more than their work experience, education and a couple of skills. In some cases, they don’t even include descriptions of what they did in their jobs, only recording their job titles and the companies that they worked for. This means that LinkedIn doesn’t consider their profiles complete, as so puts them at the bottom of search results.

Think of LinkedIn as your mini-master resume. Whilst your master resume should contain every job, course, project etc, your LinkedIn profile should include a version that is relevant to your current role or job search activities, so for example as a nurse I attended many courses and have a certificate in Tissue Viability. If I were to apply for a job as a trainer for wound care products, then this would be useful to include, however, in my current role, this is not relevant, so you won’t see it on my resume or LinkedIn profile.

On the other hand, I had a client who had moved from nursing into providing complementary therapies. Her LinkedIn profile was all about her nursing experience and then her current role as the owner of her own business. All her qualifications were about her nursing career but she hadn’t included any information about how she was qualified to provide these therapies, and consequently, it looked like that she was not qualified for her current role. In fact, she had certificates and diplomas covering each of the therapies she practiced, but hadn’t thought them relevant and so didn’t include them. We tweaked her profile a little bit, and her current career suddenly made sense.

Take a look at your profile and have a look at all the sections that you haven’t used:

• Summary  – this doesn’t have to be a narrative of your career, more a chance to provide an overview of brand you. What do you actually do? What are your key achievements? Why should I employ you? Always include a call to action, such as connect with me or contact me…
• Languages – do you speak more than one language. If so, let people know, You could even create your profile in the different languages that you speak. Just don’t use this section if the only language you speak is your native language. We kind of got that you are English-speaking when we read your profile.
• Publications – Have you published a thesis, report or book. This could help position you as an expert in your field.
• Certifications – These may be occupational certificates such as the Oracle DBA or license to practice such as my nursing registration.
• Patents – if you have filed a patent or have a patent-pending, why would you not tell the world about it?
• Volunteering and Causes – Many employers are now looking more favourably on any volunteering experience. This is also a really useful section for people who have taken a career-break for whatever reason, but spent some time working in a voluntary capacity. Have you raised funds for your school, been a volunteer driver for meals on wheels or been trained to work with children as a brownie or scout leader? These jobs require a specific skill set and shouldn’t be under-estimated.
• Courses – These can be linked to a job to show professional development or to a qualification to demonstrate the different skills that made up the qualification. Each of the courses will include keywords that will also help you profile get found.
• Projects – Again, these can be linked to a job or a qualification, so could be the research project that you completed for your degree, or a stand-alone project that you worked on as part of a team. Describe the scale and scope of the project, the intended outcomes and the actual ones.
• Test-scores. Only useful for students who have exceptional test scores.
• Honours and awards – These could be personal or professional, but do demonstrate that someone took the time to nominate you for something exceptional.
• Organisations – Again this links to both jobs or educational qualifications. It was originally intended for students but can be used to show which professional organisations that you’re a member of.
• Recommendations – I’ve covered this before, but employers really value recommendations. Try and have at least three as this is more than an employer would usually ask for.

These are just the sections that appear in the”background” area of your LinkedIn profile. These is also the “following” section that includes groups, companies and interests.

Take a look at your own profile. Which sections haven’t you used? Are they sections that you could you to showcase your skills, experience and professional development? If, so, then go and review your profile and get adding them.

I hope you found this post useful. If you would like me to take a look at your profile and provide a full report on it’s strengths and weaknesses, then please connect with me. If you’re not quite ready, then take a look at my latest book

My latest book: 5o Shades of LinkedIn

You can whip your profile into shape in no time.

Take care for now

Karen x