When More is Not Right: Tips for Veterans’ Developing LinkedIn Profiles During Transition

Reviewing many LinkedIn profiles over the years and introducing them during TAP layout the two major hurdles. TMI (too much information) and a lack of a career focus. After reviewing more than 1,000 profiles what I see is that the majority contain way too much information for the private sector. This speaks to a professional sense of attention to detail in telling what they did, rather than what they consider to be their valued accomplishments. Combine this with a lack of a defined “new” career or single career focus creates many over looked profess.

It’s free! Why not show everyone who views the profile everything you did over a successful career? All of your awards, all the exciting places you went – people ask you about it all the time. The biggest issue, however, is 98.5% of Americans never served in the military; much less understand the terminology (i.e., superintendent of wing operations or command sergeant major of the XYZ logistics group). Excessive and detailed information about your military career is then lost to non-military staff as just so much unintelligible nonsense. Worse, the search engines utilized by employers and corporate recruiters looking for talent are unlikely to touch these prized accomplishments, and the transitioning military professional goes undiscovered.

After previewing a wide variety of ‘DO and DON’T’ articles discussing LinkedIn profiles, the following points consistently show up in the DO list. Thanks to authors John Pullen and Don Goodman for these positive things that recruiters look for in a LinkedIn profile:

·????????Profile Picture. Believe it or not, a picture is still worth a thousand words… and smile. Present a good picture – emphasize ‘good’ here – not a selfie or a wedding photo being the last time you wore a jacket and tie. Consider a clean or neutral back ground; wear a suit jacket, shirt and tie, or a nice blouse and jacket, or button down dress shirt. Hopefully, you get the ‘picture’.

·????????Tag Line (Headline). The line directly following your name – the ‘tag line’ – is your chance to make an opening statement regarding your value and the career you for which you’re searching. Your tag line needs to say more than your job title, and most recruiters indicate it was the headline or tag line that was their deciding-point on whether or not to view the rest of the profile. If you list ‘operations manager/project manager/human resources manager’ instead of a click or a computer find, it will be passed over for TMI.

·????????About section.?Summaries need to be succinct, not a detailed description of your past twenty years and should not include “20+ year experienced retired military XYZ manager”. First, ‘20+ years’ experience and ‘retired’ together potentially over-qualify you. Know your market; if the experience range for your desired career runs on average between five and eight years, say you have “8+ years’ experience”.

·????????Connections. To whom you’re connected is of particular interest to recruiters looking to see if you have relevant connections with other individuals in the industry. Employers want to know you network with peers and industry leaders. These connections show an interest in learning more about the career and demonstrate an understanding of ‘networking’ to gain information about the career field as a whole.

·????????Position Descriptions. Keep them short and to the point. ?Focus on those searchable skills that translate into value-added to an organization. In one case, I reviewed a profile of a twenty-year military HR professional with a masters in HR list as one of their qualifications “9mm pistol” in addition to a plethora of other military-related training. This demonstrates a dramatic use of non-applicable information that every reader understands. Where 9mm pistol qualification is obviously very important to military and law-enforcement professionals, that information may cause emotional reactions in others. If the information doesn’t apply to the field or position you seek, don’t list it.

·????????Accomplishments… with value. Too many people draft job function(s) descriptions and fail to speak about their value and what they accomplished performing those functions. Accomplishments are ideally qualified with numbers and/or results that add value to the work you did. The more you understand quantifiable metrics in your new career the more often you will be able to list them.

·????????Recommendations. Recommendations from supervisors or individuals in the career field you seek speak volumes of your accomplishments.?Unlike references not in the resume, recommendations in LinkedIn profiles are looked at by employers and recruiters. A word of caution: Ensure the recommendation is applicable to your career; commentary on volunteer work might highlight your selflessness, but it isn’t relevant to what the employers and recruiters seek.

That all said, what will harm your profile? Again, thanks to authors J.T. O’Donnell and Kat Moon for these profile killers:

·????????Bad or unprofessional photo. A picture of you standing in the driveway in a flannel shirt with a beer in your hand isn’t what you want to put up as your profile picture. And while it isn’t unprofessional, consider a photo in something other than a military uniform. Saying transitioning with a uniform photo says other.

·????????Wholesale listing of schools or military training attended. Instead of listing the Urinalysis Prevention Liaison, Cyberspace Assurance courses, or weapons qualifications when what you want is to be considered as a program or project manager or otherwise. Consider putting your accomplishments in those specific areas to speak more succinctly to your acumen. Relevant military schools may fit – if a recruiter accepts them (i.e., Master Resiliency Trainer or Instructor Trainer Course if you seek employment as a corporate trainer.)

·????????Lame tag line or headline. Decisions, decisions, decisions… again, this is the decision point for many recruiters and you cannot afford being seen as being cute, snarky, or begging for work.

·????????Overly long job descriptions or summaries that add no value (to the career you want to head). Again, provide value in your accomplishment statements, not simply listing functions or skills used. Use of a skill without documented quantified value is meaningless to employers.

·????????No recommendations. Where references on a resume are discouraged, recommendations on your LinkedIn profile are a must and should speak to your value in the career you want.

Informational Interviews will become invaluable tools to create a profile with accurate and up to date career language. The more you speak to people doing the career you seek, the more you are able to use that language and understand those metrics. Will your profile change, of course, and every time it does it should be for the positive in regards to narrowed and clean value adds.

Military professionals need to learn how to present their value. Here’s a quick hint: a tremendously detailed and accountable performance review and reward system documented your value throughout your career. Military performance evaluations and awards all contain quantifiable results and outcomes that met or exceeded their team goals or organizational requirements. If I had a dollar for every transition workshop participant who commented in documenting STARS (value), “This is just like writing an OPR, EPR, OER, NCOER, FITREP, award, etc.…” A short list of career focused STAR statements will create more activity than two pages of non-applicable position descriptions.

Thanks for your service to our country. May God Bless.