• 8 years ago

10 Questions Your LinkedIn Profile Must Answer In 10 Seconds

When a recruiter or hiring manager conducts a search on the vast LinkedIn user database, they’re not browsing LinkedIn for fun. They’ve got a position they’re trying to fill, or more than one. They’re all business!

When they come across your LinkedIn profile in their searching, there are certain things they want to know about you right away. When they click through the search results page to view your full profile, you’ve got to be ready to fill them in.

Your profile has to answer questions that your hiring manager or company recruiter has in mind — and it has to answer them fast!

If your LinkedIn profile is confusing or incomplete, the recruiter or hiring manager will go on to somebody else’s profile. Here are 10 vital questions your LinkedIn profile has to answer within seconds. Does your LinkedIn profile make the answers to these questions clear?

1. What do you do for a living?

2. Which job titles are you a perfect fit for?

3. What makes you credible in your profession?

4. What’s your greatest career accomplishment so far?

5. How’s your written communication?

6. What’s your career story?

7. What do former bosses and other colleagues say about your work?

8. If we hire you, can we put you in front of customers?

9. How well do you understand your subject matter?

10. Which tools and systems have you worked with, and to what end?

Right away in the Summary at the top of your LinkedIn profile and in your LinkedIn headline as well, you’ve got to make it clear what profession you’re in. That’s why vague headlines like “Experienced Business Professional” or “Strategic Problem-Solver” are no good. They don’t tell us what we most want to know about you: What do you do for a living?

Give us that answer before you tell us anything else. If you’re a Product Manager, say so! If you’re a coder, ditto. In your Summary, give us a few of the job titles that are a perfect fit for you. Don’t ramble on about your career history — that will be laid out for us below your Summary in your reverse-chronological listing of the jobs you’ve held.

Tell us what makes you credible. That means the biggest projects you’ve worked on and their impact on your employers. Tell us a story in your Summary, like this:

I was lucky enough to head up Inventory Control at Angry Chocolates while we retooled our production and purchasing systems for the company’s rapid growth phase. We grew from $10 million to $55 million in sales in two years and my team created the Inventory Control and Production Planning systems to support that growth.  

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