Andy Foote: LinkedIn Tips for Job Seekers

It's no secret that LinkedIn is a great online platform for job seekers. With more than 20 million companies listed on the site and 14 million open jobs, it’s not surprising that 95% of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn (Thanks for the stat, Arnie Fertig!).

When you have over 660 MILLION registered users, it's important to differentiate yourself on the site. I recently sat down for a virtual coffee/kombucha with my friend, Andy Foote, who I consider to be one of the leading thought leaders on all things LinkedIn...to talk about why LinkedIn is such a great platform for job seekers.

In addition to being a LinkedIn strategy and professional branding coach, Andy runs a popular LinkedIn centric blog which attracts thousands of monthly visitors. His focus is on helping executives to present powerfully via the LinkedIn platform. Andy’s post ‘3 Stunningly Good LinkedIn Summaries’ has been shared over 2,000 times on social media and viewed by close to a million people.

Sarah: Ok, Andy…. I’ll just come out and ask. What’s the deal with your LinkedIn profile picture? How did you settle on this picture?

Andy: One of my favorite comics of all time is Billy Connolly. He talks about making himself “windswept and interesting” and that’s mainly why I chose that picture. The picture came before the headline and the headline (The reason I'm not smiling? I've seen too many awful LinkedIn profiles today) is a riff on why I look so miserable in the picture. I get so many people saying something along the lines of “I hope my profile made you smile” which constantly reminds me how powerful and effective that headline is. I probably won’t change it for a long time.

Sarah: While it's well documented that having a keyword rich header is an important factor in being "found" by recruiters, job seekers should not rely on search optimization alone in an active job search. Why is that?

Andy: I think keywords lull job seekers into a false sense of security and my fear is that some folks think that this is all they need to do. Sure, go ahead and try to figure out which keywords to use on your profile page but that’s the minimum requirement. You still need to write that kick-ass About section. You still need to leverage the hidden job market and knock on doors, ask for intros, meetings, favors, information. Build your well before you are thirsty. Parachuting into LinkedIn and declaring that you need help in your time of need is going to fall on deaf ears, if you have not spent years nurturing your people and steadily building your support network.

Sarah: When working with job seekers, I often review LinkedIn profile pages. One of my biggest pet peeves is profile summaries that read like a boring 3rd person bio. I personally feel like the individual is missing an opportunity to share their story in an engaging and memorable way. I get a lot of inspiration from your website Linkedinsights.com. You regularly share “stunningly good profiles”. In your opinion, what makes a stunningly good profile? Can you share an example of a profile you’ve seen lately that stands out--and what makes it exceptional?  

“Your LinkedIn Summary is the most important white space on your entire LinkedIn Profile”

Andy: Everything’s a competition on LinkedIn. The sooner you realize this, the better. We are all being judged, constantly and in every respect, by strangers who will never tell you if or why you suck. So I decided long ago to shine a light on the summary which is still, I think, the most important part of your entire profile. One of the quickest way to improve your own is to see real life examples of well-written, highly engaging, authentic summaries. They’re still all too rare, unfortunately but yes, I do my best to highlight the great ones. Mark R. Morris Jr wrote a great short summary (only 137 words) and he’s a copywriter, so yes, I’d expect him to be able to write a great summary:

Andy (continued): What makes it exceptional? The short answer is that it’s actually pretty easy to stand out, because so many people have left the bar so low. 90% of the summaries I read are in that boring bio category, 5% are those fake 3rd person soliloquies, 5% are highly engaging advertisements. Write how you speak. What should strangers know about you? What makes you tick? Why should people care about getting to know you? Answer those questions in your summary.

Sarah: A common question that I get from executive job seekers is, “I’m not in marketing. Do I really need a customized LinkedIn banner? Can I just leave it standard?” What do you suggest?  

Andy: EVERYTHING’S a competition on LinkedIn! Do I really need a customized LinkedIn banner? Do you want to get the interview? The risk of leaving it blank is that this will define you and most likely put you at a disadvantage. It’s so easy to (a) find a suitable image and (b) add it to you profile page. There really are no excuses. My advice would be to do a simple google image search on your field i.e ‘accountancy’ or ‘business development’ and go from there. There are numerous sites that offer royalty free (https://unsplash.com/) or cheap stock images (https://www.shutterstock.com). If you’re feeling creative, I recommend https://www.canva.com

Sarah: What are some trends that you are seeing job seekers do to stand out right now on LinkedIn? Any trends job seekers should avoid doing?

Andy: I’m seeing job seekers being more open than ever about their availability on and via LinkedIn, I’ve never seen as many job seekers posting their resume as a document post before. This together with the #ONO initiative seems like a trend that shows no abatement. I’m not sure if it’s a trend but hopping over the head of the hiring manager to senior management, which may be very tempting, should probably be avoided. I think doing this could very well kill your application. One of those, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should, decision trees!

Sarah: Linkedin is a great website for producing native content because of the ease of going “viral” with a quality post. Interestingly, I read a study by The Economist Group, along with Hill+Knowlton Strategies, who surveyed 1,644 executives worldwide, who either produce or consume thought leadership content. According to the data, the largest share (47%) of respondents said a top intention for creating thought leadership content was to set their business apart from competitors. 

You’ve done an excellent job of creating community through your smart, informative content. What advice do you have for people NEW to content creation for influence/thought leadership?

Andy: I tell all of my clients that they should publish on LinkedIn. I firmly believe we all build a collection of ‘war stories’ during our careers. Those stories we share with our trusted colleagues, partners and friends. Usually they’re pivotal in how we think or see the working world and they shape our opinions, perceptions and make us better and wiser. These are exactly the experiences that we can and should share on LinkedIn. Obviously sanitize and make these stories fit for public consumption. Don’t share anything that could embarrass individuals or organizations, but that’s easily done. There will always be an audience for real life, valuable learning content, based in reality and born of experience, in the field. LinkedIn thrives on this type of content.nly about 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users share posts, and those 3 million or so users net the 9 billion impressions.

Only about 1% of LinkedIn’s 660 million monthly users share posts, and those 3 million or so users net the 9 billion impressions. (source)

Sarah: What’s the best career advice you’ve ever gotten? Did you take it? (Asking everyone this question)

Andy: My Dad gave me the best career advice. He said “Son, I don’t care what you do just as long as whatever you do makes you happy”. So, no pressure, which I really appreciated. My Mom said that she wanted me to become a lawyer. I did become a lawyer and hated every single minute. So I tried something else. I’m certainly happy doing what I do now. Sorry Mom.

Want to learn more about Andy's work? Follow him on LinkedIn and/or check out his website, LinkedInsights.com.

Did you like this "Curated Career Conversation" series post? If you did, click follow for more conversations. I am very excited about upcoming interviews. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing negotiation tips from a former Fortune 50 compensation expert, video interview tips from one of the top YouTube and video coaches and more. 

Do you know an expert I should be interviewing? Send me a message with their information.

Special thanks to my career professional colleagues and friends who have been generous with their ideas and suggestions. I've "picked their brain" numerous times when writing this article series. Thank you Sarah Henning, Virginia Franco, Austin Belcak, Madeline Mann, Bob McIntosh, Hannah Morgan, Ana Lokotova, Maureen McCann, Adrienne Tom, Wes Pearce, Ashley Watkins, Tricia Lauducci, Sarah Katherine McNeal, Natalie Fike, Rachel Boehm, Rebecca Oppenheim, Tabitha Cavanagh and others.

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