“I encourage use of LinkedIn because people are looking. People are going to background check you wherever, you might as well give them something that you can control that you can make sure it is reflecting you in the best possible way.”

Kamara Toffolo
Resume writer, LinkedIn Consultant, and Job Search Strategist

Introduction

LinkedIn is considered the leading social media platform for professional networking. Employers and recruiters actively investigate the digital footprints of potential candidates before reaching out or making hiring decisions. Keeping a well-organized, captivating LinkedIn profile is now crucial to modern job hunting and career progression.  

In episode 82 of the Public Health Insight Podcast, the team is joined by Kamara Toffolo, Resume Writer, LinkedIn Consultant, and Job Search Strategist, to talk about strategies that can make a LinkedIn profile stand out in your network and impress potential employers.

In this article we will be providing some dos and don’ts for your LinkedIn:

• Headline
• About
• Activity
• Experience
• Education
• Licences & Certifications
• Skills
• Recommendations

Headline

The Headline portion is the very first section of the LinkedIn profile and is intended to tell others exactly what you do in 220 characters or less. This section is the first thing others will see under your name and is visible in the search results. This critical piece of your LinkedIn page needs to explain exactly what you do in a way that stands out and encourages others to have a look at your full profile. Although terms such as ‘guru,’ ‘superstar,’ ‘visionary,’ and ‘wizard’ have become popular in some LinkedIn Headlines as a way to be distinctive, they are ambiguous and do not help others understand what your role is or how you may contribute to an organization – and can frankly be a turn off for many recruiters (Toffolo, 2021).

Many people will attempt to include multiple key professional phrases in their Headlines (ie. motivated, passionate, creative, highly skilled, person-oriented) to distinguish themselves and make their profiles pop. Key terms should certainly be used, but they need to be strategic and avoid making the Headline section an auto-populated jumble of buzzwords (Toffolo, 2021).  

About

The About section of a LinkedIn profile gives users 2600 characters of free form text to summarize their professional life. This gives you a chance to tell your story and explain what drives or motivates you professionally. In this section, tell others what your future professional goals are and how you got to this stage in your career. This gives readers a chance to know more about you on a personal level, understand how you work, and how you may fit into an organization.

This section should be engaging and is an opportunity to boast about your professional ‘wins.’ Pick highlights from your professional experience to elaborate on and help give context to the rest of your profile. If you have shifted or pivoted roles professionally, this is a great section to explain that move in more detail than a CV or the Experience section often allows (Toffolo, 2021). 

Activity

It may surprise some people that recruiters, potential employers, and other professionals DO look at a person’s LinkedIn Activity, including posted content, comments, and likes.

With this in mind, it is important to consider how your online footprint represents you, particularly on a professional networking site like LinkedIn. Overly negative and hostile content and comments can be a red flag for those viewing your profile. Be thoughtful when commenting and view your Activity section contributions through the lens of a person who is looking for a confident, professional, and supportive teammate (Toffolo, 2021).

Experience

The Experience section of a LinkedIn profile is arguably the most important for those hoping to engage with recruiters and future employers. This section needs to be kept up to date and include all work experience – even if you may not think it is relevant.

Be sure to include…

• what the position was/what title you held,
• how long you held the position, and
• where the position was

… for each role you have held. Include a new entry for any internal role changes within the same organization (Toffolo, 2021).

Be sure to add some context that describes the working environment to give others an idea of the setting of each role. This should include the type of company/employer, how big the company was, how many people you were working with and/or supervised, and with what type of stakeholders you engaged (Toffolo, 2021).

While the Experience section will certainly include some overlap, it should not repeat your CV word for word. When talking about your role, avoid using generic job descriptions which do not give very much information. Instead, highlight your specific day-to-day activities and emphasize your accomplishments, specifically drawing attention to what you brought to your previous roles (Toffolo, 2021). 

Education

The Education, like the Experience section, should be kept complete and include any awards or honours earned as a student as well as any extracurricular activities. Highlight any particular subjects or modules that are relevant to your career goals.

For those who are in the earlier stages of their career, this section may be one of the first that a recruiter will review. Ensuring this section is clear and detailed will help recruiters and employers understand your academic accomplishments and how this may be applied in an entry role. Those who already have considerable work experience should not neglect the Education section either. Recruiters and employers are often looking for specific degrees and ensuring this section is complete can help clarify your credentials. Alumni groups are also plentiful on LinkedIn and finding people who attended the same institution can help expand your network.

Licenses & certifications

The Licenses & certifications section should be kept current and not include certifications that you do not hold. Some people may mix up ‘certificate’ with ‘certification.’ A certificate refers to evidence of completing education or training (Toffolo, 2021). These should be included in the Education or Courses sections depending on the type of certificate. ‘Certification’ refers to meeting a specific standard, often given out by a governing licensing body. This can include First Aid certification, health care professional licenses, and project management certification.

Skills

The often neglected Skills section of LinkedIn profiles should not be overlooked. Make sure that your skills are up to date and reflective of your current skill set. Include both your specific skills and any umbrella terms – for example, a person who is competent in a specific health information system should include both the specific system as well as ‘health information systems’ in their skills section. This can help the ‘searchability’ of a profile (Toffolo, 2021).

Recommendations

The Recommendations section is also neglected but they are often read by recruiters. Getting other people to boast your skills on LinkedIn can go a long way towards catching the eye of future employers (Toffolo, 2021)!

Key Takeaways and Final Thoughts

A clear and well-written LinkedIn page can go a long way towards helping recruiters and employers discover your talents and how you can contribute to their organization. Reviewing your LinkedIn page to make sure all of your accomplishments are up to date – and trimming out some of the less relevant content – is one of the first steps to finding your next position. Even for those not currently job seeking, regularly engaging with LinkedIn and ensuring your profile is best reflecting your role, accomplishments, and working style can attract important network connections in your field. 

Keep in mind as well that LinkedIn is constantly adding new, interesting features and it is worth spending some time to experiment with the fresh tools on offer. For example, the platform recently released the option to include a Cover Story – a 30 second video to include with your profile picture allowing users to introduce themselves and give employers some insight into a potential candidate’s personality and communication style (Cohen, 2021). This and other updates can provide potential candidates with new, more personable methods of presenting their professional journey.

Written by: Malissa Underwood, BSN, MPH