LinkedIn is a crucial part of any job search. Recruiters, head hunters, HR departments, and hiring managers all use it as a first resource to learn more about you. With so many qualified candidates to evaluate, these hiring professionals’ attention spans are worse than teenagers. Data has shown that you only have five to ten seconds to impress a potential employer online. LinkedIn’s official blog references some of the data as well. As a job seeker it’s largely important to make sure you’re not giving your profile visitors any reason to move on and forget about your online identity. Here are your five tips for success.
OVERUSED KEYWORDS ARE KILLING YOUR JOB SEARCH
Every year, LinkedIn releases a new set of 10 overused words this year, the following keywords made the list: specialized, leadership, passionate, strategic, experienced, focused, expert, certified, creative, and excellent. LinkedIn consulted best-selling biographer Christopher Sanford to understand people’s rationale for using these words. Sanford listed ease of use–meaning it takes minimal effort to fill their profile with these words rather than coming up with a creative sentence–and the widely held assumption that because everyone else is doing it, “it must be the professional thing to do.”
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BYE BYE BAD KEYWORD PIE
Of course, it might be impossible to avoid banishing these keywords altogether from your profile. So if you are going to use one of these words, make sure that you’ve got some experience to back them up.
SUPERLATIVES DON’T DIE THEY MULTIPLY
We also caution LinkedIn users from including too many superlatives, words that people interpret subjectively and see differently. The one that makes me cringe the most is ‘people person’. Instead, t candidates should describe how they mentored their staff, and how many people advanced at their company. Instead of typing “innovative” in a summary profile, they should give an example of something they’ve created from scratch–including improving a particular process.
VAGUE INFORMATION, MISINFORMATION
One of the most common mistakes we see on LinkedIn profiles is the use of vague and clichéd words. Examples of this include “experienced with, proficient with” phrases that don’t “really speak to the level of knowledge you already have.” Steinitz also points out that sometimes, using phrases like that might give someone a reason to think that it’s a “filler” when they see your profile.
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ANYTHING NOT RELATED TO YOUR JOB, SHOULDN’T BE ON LINKEDIN
We urge LinkedIn users to remember that while it’s a social network, it is a business social network. So that video that’s just perfect for your Instagram story? It might not be so great for LinkedIn.
