How scary is your LinkedIn profile?

This is the Halloween edition of the Insights from a Headhunter newsletter. In my job as a Headhunter I screen hundreds of LinkedIn profiles and CV's weekly. In the spirit of Halloween I find some of them a bit scary. A profile that has no profile picture looks like a Halloween ghost. Just having a gray shadow as your picture doesn't create the Know, like and trust factor. Have a profile picture that is visible to all the network and make sure it is a recent photograph of you. Preferably with a smile :) and dressed in an outfit that you'd wear to a client meeting in 2022.

Here is an update from LinkedIn Recruiter that I came across recently. Recruiters are prompted to take an Diversity opportunity! The search engine calculated that only 33% of the candidates in the search are female. To increase the percentage of female candidates I was encouraged to add related locations. To make the search with a bigger geographical reach. Adding New York, London and Barcelona to the search. I am very much welcoming these types of changes on LinkedIn that bring diversity to the recruitment process.

In a recent interview with Lavinia Thanapathy we were talking about Navigating Change In Your Career. One of the things that came up was the importance of having an updated LinkedIn profile.

My big “aha” moment was when I realized that LinkedIn has fantastic SEO, said Lavinia.

If you want to be found, you want to make sure you're putting the things that you want to be found for in your LinkedIn profile. Think of the words and the ideas that you want to be found for, and make sure you're putting into your LinkedIn profile.

Also you should add new & relevant skills.

Make sure you've written your Linkedin About section to tell people who you are today.

Most people's About section is all about their past. It's not an autobiography.?

As someone who has moved around the world who's had to change careers and went from a career in big companies to now having my own business, plus managing children & family moving around the world,?LinkedIn has been a constant for my career at least for the last 15 years. Linkedin helped me transition every single time.

LinkedIn has changed so much over the years and it's really important to keep it up to date especially the About section.?

Most people write their About sections like a cover letter and focus on their past. That means recruiters and potential customers have to do mind reading to figure out why we should contact you.??

You can fix this easily by being clear and just saying where you are now in your career/business and where you want to be and what opportunities you are open to, it would make recruiters life so much easier. We are then more likely to reach out with the right type of opportunities to make it a win-win situation for everyone.?

Many people are afraid to do that because they're they think they might compromise their current position. The secret to that is to actually see where you could be in your own organization so no one would take offense. What you want to do is to look in your own organization at a position that's a little bit ahead of you look at the job description for that and start including some of those words in your About section. Start including some of those advanced skills as you acquire them. Do this regularly so no one will take offense at that. No one in your company can say ‘oh you know, look she's looking for a new job’ when what you're doing is just being aspirational at that moment within your company & updating your LinkedIn profile regularly. Regularity is key, most people only do this when job seeking and that can cause strife with your current employer. Regular updates and upgrades to your LinkedIn profile will not cause heads to turn.

Happy Halloween!

Tiina Jarvet Pereira

31.10.2022

PS. This picture was taken 10 years ago. My daughters are both taller than me :)

Tiina Jarvet Pereira?speaks about LinkedIn Recruiter and?how to be found on LinkedIn by Recruiters and Headhunters.

Having lived in Estonia, Sweden, Austria, Brazil and Belgium, it has given her a unique opportunity to learn about other cultures and therefore bring?diversity, equity, inclusion?and?belonging?in her recruitment work. Tiina speaks 9 languages: English, Swedish, Portuguese, Estonian, French, German, Dutch, Finnish and Russian.