The Number One Thing You Can Do for Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is the new resume and personal branding tool for millennial’s and in a hyper-competitive market, you better do everything you can to have a profile that stands out. Over the years I’ve read many tips to improve ones LinkedIn profile. Things like using keywords in your summary, to adding rich media, to getting solid recommendations. All of these tips are valid and very true but one piece of advice that has truly improved my profile is one that I just stumbled upon.

Who looks at LinkedIn profiles everyday? Who can identify a great profile from a weak one in mere seconds? Who is the best resource to providing you great feedback on your profile?

The answer: Corporate Recruiter/Headhunter

Do you want to improve your LinkedIn profile? Reach out to a recruiter in the field you are seeking employment in and ask them for 10 minutes of their time to have them review your profile and provide raw feedback. Ask them what they look for and what really impresses them. You may think your profile is solid and needs no rework but a recruiter can really look at it with a critical eye and find holes you didn’t see.

Unlike most people, I don’t use my LinkedIn profile solely as a resume but also as a personal branding tool. In the work I produce I strive to be seen as a digital thought leader. I thought I was exuding that persona via my LinkedIn profile until I reached out to a recruiter I’ve worked with in the past named Shadi Ghani, founding partner at Culture & Company. I asked her for a few minutes of her time to review my profile with me and she gave me some very valuable feedback on how I could show my digital experience and capabilities a lot better. As someone who works on their profile quite a bit I was humbled by the various things she noticed and caught. The persona I was working so hard to craft was not coming through strong enough so Shadi coached me to tweak some things.

The number one thing you can do to create a better LinkedIn profile is to reach out to recruiter and allow them to coach you through improving it. Take the valuable feedback they have to offer. After all, who better to tell you how to create a better profile than someone who studies and analyzes them everyday.

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