Class of 2020: Let’s Discuss Your LinkedIn Profile! (Part 1)

Hello again, Class of 2020! I thought weekly posts would be fun, but it seems so long since I was here chatting with you all! I am sure in the past week, you must have done some amazing upgrades to your old CV or tried your hand at Canva to make your CV from scratch! Keeps you occupied, doesn’t it? For those of you who missed it, you can check out the post here!

This week, I’m going to tell you, Class of 2020, how to write an impressive LinkedIn Profile! In case you hadn’t thought of nurturing your LinkedIn profile before, you need not worry! That’s what I am here for. As a Recruiter, I have taken LinkedIn training many times & parts of it apply to everyone, which is, creating your Brand Identity.

Now, I don’t want to brag, because I have a pretty great LinkedIn profile myself. But as a recruiter, it won’t help you graduates so much. This is why, I am sharing the most ideal profile of a graduate who we hired recently - Nina Ntatidou! I’m going to tell you in detail how to go about each section on your profile and be rest assured that Nina has written everything on her profile, top to bottom, perfectly! With Nina’s profile as a benchmark, I will also give you all, Class of 2020, perfect examples for each section. Let’s start!

Photo & Header:

Believe it or not, but as little significant a photo is on your CV, the complete opposite is the case for LinkedIn. Ideally, you should put up a professional headshot. Don’t put an image where you have cropped other people & it is evident. Just, no. Don’t use one where you are outdoors or wearing casuals or wearing sunglasses. And leaving it blank is not an option! I won’t say no to a selfie if it is professional enough. (Mine always are, as a matter of fact.).

The other photo is your Header. This could be some quote you like or something you are passionate about. Let it reflect YOU. Check these two examples if you’d like. Both these profiles have a professional photo & an appropriate header.

• Sameera Iyer
• Mrinalini

Headline & About:

Most of the LinkedIn profiles I see have a very basic headline. Just their job title & the company they work for or graduation degree & the university you are at. I don’t have anything against this, but this also doesn’t create an impression. Especially for you, Class of 2020, you need to create an impression! Write a short yet interesting headline! You have it in you! You can come up with something brilliant, I'm sure!

I know a lot of you are STEM Graduates & would be lazy enough to skip the ‘About’ section, but please, don’t! This is the most important part of your LinkedIn Profile. Talk a bit about yourself. Tell us who you are as a person! Tell us your skill sets & what you are looking for, but also tell us your hobbies & interests! You can also put a Call to Action by putting your email id or your github link. Brace yourselves because I’m going to keep repeating this – Create your Brand Identity!

Here are 2 examples:

• John Zizikani Banda
• You can also check out mine.

Work Experience:

Only a few of you will have work experience & if you do, tell us! And I mean, really tell us. Only writing your Job Title, Organization & Period will not do! Head over to the Description & get cracking! In this, you can make it into two parts. Firstly, explain about your organization & the work they do. (Brag if you want to. I know I have!) Secondly, write about your responsibilities while you worked there. Simple enough, right? You can also add photos! How fun! Add that Group Photo of your big 20-member Team or add a link to an article about your organization winning some award! Go above & beyond!

In case you don’t have official work experience, don’t fear. You can write about your Assistant-ship position at college or any other role you took while you were at Uni. You can also write about your Project in detail if you want to. Have fun with it!

Here are some examples:

• Ashwin Dias
• Pranali Bole

Education:

This is Top Tier for you, Class of 2020! As I mentioned in the earlier post, do not only write your course & uni. Get into the gorgeous details. Tell us what your modules were or mention in detail about the topics you learnt from Year 1 through Year 3. You will be asked about it in interviews anyway, so best revise it, right?

Here are some examples:

• Abraham Otaigbe
• You can always check Nina’s profile for the perfect ‘Work Experience’ & ‘Education’ sections!

That is it for today, Class of 2020! Head over to your LinkedIn profile & get cracking.

Be creative. Be impressive. Be truthful.

Stay tuned for the remaining sections of your LinkedIn Profile which I will be updating next week!