Although LinkedIn has evolved over the years, unfortunately many users still treat it like a static, digital version of their résumé. There are many ways to use the platform to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. Keeping your profile up to date and being active are the best ways to do it.
As we continue with the second section of our LinkedIn Audit, we’ll cover the “meat” of your profile including your experience, education and skills. Before you get started, it may be helpful to locate the latest version of your résumé.
Visitors to your profile will move from your summary to your experience. Be consistent in your writing and keep it in first or third-person throughout your profile. For users planning to maintain their accounts and be active, first-person is best, however; if you're using it to pitch yourself or others are using it to pitch for you, third-person is acceptable.
While you update or draft new content for each of your positions, think about two audiences that will be most interested 1) those who want to work in your role or industry and 2) those who want to hire or work with you.
Experience
Work History and Volunteer Roles
Work and volunteer experience are separate sections of your profile and résumé, but both are important.
Although your work experience is the priority, showing your volunteerism connects your skills and experience to your passions and purpose. Whether you include service projects that are related to your career, like a journalist who produces news releases and social media content for a nonprofit pro-bono, or is a traditional act of kindness like volunteering at a food pantry or homeless shelter, listing volunteer experience shows your humanity.
When updating or adding your paid roles be sure to include your position title, start and end dates, biggest responsibilities and up to three top accomplishments. If you're a seasoned professional that's been at the same company for a while, break up the years by updated roles and accomplishments each year. Prioritize listing achievements over responsibilities, especially if there are a significant amount of each, and make sure responsibilities of past roles are written in past tense. It’s common to see bullets in this section, but whether you use complete sentences or bullets, they should all lead with actionable verbs (executed, achieved, completed, etc.). Also be sure that you’re consistent with capitalization of the first letter of the first word of your bullets. When you’re done with your review your work experience you should be able to check the following boxes.
__ My current role and last three positions are listed. This is a standard for most positions you pursue. Include the roles that best show how your experience will align with the role your pursuing, and if you’re not in the process of a job search, studies have shown more and more that a variety of experience enhances potential because it allows diverse perspectives and skills beyond what is required.
While the roles you share should be listed in chronological order the last three roles you’ve held don’t have to be included specifically, especially, for example, if you’ve worked part-time to make some supplemental income in a job that isn’t aligned with your career trajectory. You can account for gaps by listing years instead.
__ I’ve supported my accomplishments and responsibilities visually with attachments. Work samples, news releases and other media that can show the value you brought to your past and present team, company and role. This can also include major company projects that you supported like an event that includes several members of your team. Failure to use this section is a wasted opportunity to add value and credibility. While external links are awesome, websites and pages can be updated and links can be lost, place more emphasis on attachments like photos, presentations or pdf documents than web addresses. If you include the link at least have a backup copy in your personal portfolio.
__ My roles are connected to the company or organization’s official LinkedIn Page and their logo or profile image is shown. Any time you can connect to an official page, your visibility will increase instantly. The platform will begin to list you in connection with the organization and current and former employees. So if there’s someone with similar work history and skills that isn’t available LinkedIn will provide alternative recommendations, which could lead to an opportunity for you that you weren’t looking for or didn’t know existed.
Education
Most positions will require a high school diploma or bachelor’s degree at minimum, but don’t limit your education to diplomas and degrees. Certificates and other training programs can also be included. Connecting to official educational institution pages here is important for the same reason I shared above. It expands visibility to your profile and increases potential for future opportunities.
Skills
LinkedIn allows users to add a maximum of 50 skills to their profiles, but it's important to include at least five.
Adding the skills that are most critical to your field or role is a great way to receive endorsements on the skills that you want highlighted. As you're endorsed for your skills, those with the most endorsements will appear at the top of your list. This will also help recruiters find your profile in a sea of 700 million other potential candidates for opportunities. Another way to highlight your top skills is through LinkedIn’s new skills quizzes that allow you to post a badge when you pass. I passed the Search Engine Optimization assessment and added the badge, as shown below.
Beneath your top three skills, other proficiencies will be broken up by industry knowledge, tools and technologies and interpersonal skills.
Accomplishments
This is another section that allows you to provide an overview of your achievements in a list format including publications, patents, awards and honors, projects, languages, test scores, organizations and courses.
Be sure to include links to publications and dates for awards, honors and organizations. Add a description for awards, especially if it's not clear to someone unfamiliar with the presenter or what it could be for. Including accomplishments related to your experience in those sections will serve you well, but this is another opportunity to include major accomplishments that could have been missed earlier in your profile visit.
This concludes the second section of our LinkedIn Audit and the logistical set up of your profile. The final step of the audit will cover connections, engagement and activity. Before you move on proofread your profile again, correct any typos or mistakes and be sure that your profile makes visitors want to do one of the following.
Keep scrolling and reading to learn more about you
Follow you or connect with you on LinkedIn
Contact you outside of the platform for an interview or opportunity.
If you’re not sure if you’ve achieved this ask a friend or colleague to review your profile and give you feedback or send me a message in the comments or on social media.
Hugs & Handshakes,
Jasmine C. Tate
