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LinkedIn Profile Secrets: 9 Ways Your LinkedIn Profile Can KILL Your Career
LinkedIn.com is the world’s #1 professional networking web site with over 130 million worldwide members (as of early 2012). Leaders from every industry have a presence on the web site (it’s not just for the business world), and 2 new members join the site every second of every day, on average. Despite these amazing statistics, many professionals ignore this revolutionary tool. Of those who have accounts, very few take the time to design LinkedIn profiles that represent them well.
A well-constructed LinkedIn profile can be one of your greatest marketing tools for your job search and career. However, a poorly designed profile can actually damage your personal brand and lower your perceived value to employers and potential contacts. Here are the 9 deadliest mistakes you can make with your LinkedIn profile:
1. You don’t have a professional head-shot (or any head-shot) on your LinkedIn profile. Most people on LinkedIn ether have no head-shot at all, or they use a picture where they look unprofessional or unhappy (because they aren’t smiling). A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Since LinkedIn is a professional networking web site, your picture should be a head-shot from the neck-up, and you should be in professional attire. You should not be wearing a baseball cap or a bicycle helmet, unless that’s what you wear to work. (Save the casual pictures for Facebook.) If you don’t have a great headshot picture, just put on some business attire, and get a friend to take a picture of you up against a solid white wall. Make sure you look friendly and professional.
2. Your headline is boring or unclear on your LinkedIn profile. Most LinkedIn profile headlines are dull, unoriginal, hard to understand, or simply damaging to your perceived value. Like a good “elevator pitch,” your headline should be clear, original, and compelling. Your headline is valuable real estate, so don’t waste any of the 120 characters LinkedIn gives you. Either list one or two relevant, impressive achievements or a 5-10 word description of how you make other people/organizations better. If you have space in your headline, you can also include your email address, so that you are easily accessible to anyone who wants to connect with you. (Note: If you are unemployed, do NOT write that you are unemployed. Focus on past achievements and what you bring to the table for potential employers.)
3. Your LinkedIn profile summary isn’t impressive. A great summary should be written to impress your target audience of employers or your colleagues. It should include your contact information (your email address at the minimum), several relevant achievements, your dream or professional mission, and a short story for why you are passionate about your dream or professional mission. Your summary should expand on your headline and should also be clear and compelling. After reading your summary, anyone should know EXACTLY what you do that adds value to other people/organizations and what you are trying to achieve in your career. You can write your summary in the third person, or you can use bullets. Summaries written in the first person tend to sound arrogant when discussing achievements.
4. Your specialties on your LinkedIn profile are too broad. As your career progresses, you could have a wide variety of specialties. However, you should not list every area where you have any knowledge, experience, or talent. I’ve seen people highlight specialties as broad as “Human Resources,” “Internet Marketing,” and ”Accounting” in one LinkedIn profile! If you claim you are an expert at everything, you appear to be an expert at nothing. Only list specialties relevant to the career you want to build, and make sure your specialties are specific.
5. You are not involved in any groups. LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 relevant groups. You need to be active in at least 10-20. If nothing else, it shows that you are passionate about a topic or field. There are also a number of ways to build connections through these groups and to learn more about topics or fields.
6. You don’t have any recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. Get at least 3 recommendations from clients, bosses, colleagues, professors, or peers. Focus on quality rather than quantity, although quantity is definitely not bad either. Don’t just get recommendations that say how great you are. Get recommendations that focus on results you have generated (i.e. making a company money, finding new customers, creating a new program, leading a team or project that produced certain results, and so on). When you request recommendations, you can also tell the person writing the recommendation what you want them to say. This gives you control over what they write, and it makes it easier for them. Note: Some people will not be comfortable with this, and you can only do this with people you know very well.
7. Your LinkedIn profile does not highlight your past achievements and results. Like most of the resumes that come across my desk, most LinkedIn profiles are unimpressive and way too modest. No one cares about what your past responsibilities were. They care about the RESULTS you have achieved. How have you made other people or organizations better?
8. You look like you don’t know anyone. All other things equal, someone with 427 connections appears to be much more valuable (as a connection or as a potential employee) than someone with 27 connections. Social proof can work for you or against you. While you don’t need to have 500+ connections, having less than 100 connections is a major red flag these days. It makes you look like you don’t know anyone or you don’t care about relationship-building. If you can’t find 100 people you know on LinkedIn (from your academic, personal, or professional network), then you definitely need to start making networking a bigger priority online and offline. (Note: Given their youth, students and recent grads can get away with having fewer connections. However, they can also really stand out by having more connections.)
9. You don’t have a Vanity URL for your LinkedIn profile. Use a “vanity” name for the web page for your LinkedIn profile (i.e. www.LinkedIn.com/in/firstnamelastname). Your vanity name is very search-friendly when people google you. This is also much easier to include in your email signature (hint) or at the top of your resume (hint) than the traditional URL LinkedIn gives you when you sign up for an account.
While LinkedIn can definitely help you get your dream job and advance your career in a variety of ways, a bad LinkedIn profile can KILL your career! When someone checks out your LinkedIn profile, they should think “Wow, this is someone I absolutely need to hire!” or “Wow, this is someone I definitely want to get to know!”
What does your LinkedIn profile say about you right now?
-By Pete Leibman, Founder of Dream Job Academy and Author of “I Got My Dream Job and So Can You”
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5 Responses to LinkedIn Profile Secrets: 9 Ways Your LinkedIn Profile Can KILL Your Career
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Pete Leibman is the Founder of Dream Job Academy, the Creator of The Washington Wizards’ Sports Careers Day, and the Author of I Got My Dream Job and So Can You: 7 Steps To Creating Your Ideal Career After College.
Like most young job-seekers, Pete initially struggled to transition from college to career. However, he persevered and beat out of hundreds of more experienced candidates to land his dream job to work for an NBA franchise when he was only 21. Less than 2 years later, he was promoted into management for the NBA’s Washington Wizards (at the age of 23).
Today, Pete shares his career advice with thousands of people worldwide each year, and he has been invited to speak at some of the world’s best colleges, including Stanford and Johns Hopkins University.
You can contact Pete directly at Pete@DreamJobAcademy.com.
I would have to disagree with the not having at least 100 connections raises a red flag. To whom, as with any social networking event making meaningful connections takes time. The main objective is how you are engaging your connections is what determines success. I just hit the 50 market and I had not trouble with connecting to established professionals and experts.
What if you can’t get any recommendations? I’ve worked with great professionals who are either not on Linkedin or refuse to take the time to write anybody a recommendation. They complimented my work and everything, but a recommendation doesn’t appear on Linkedin.
And then there’s the question about opportunity. Students and recent grads are having a hard time finding any type of work – be it paid or unpaid. When an unpaid internship is landed, it lasts a short while due to budget, someone losing their jobs, or they graduated college.
And what about students who can’t afford to skip work to do an unpaid internship?
So, how do recent grads and students improve their profiles and experience when they can’t find internships or can’t get recommendations for a variety of reasons? Nobody seems to have the answer to this.
Rachel: thanks for your comments. In regard to recommendations, most people are happy to do this when someone does truly great work. Make sure you make it easy for people to endorse you by giving them some ideas on what you are looking for. My book goes into more detail on how to seek and leverage recommendations.
In regard to having trouble finding work, remember that you just need 1 job. Too many people are fixated on the economy and using that as an excuse for not being able to find work. Make sure you are spending the bulk of your time during your job search on networking and NOT on applying to advertised jobs online. Most jobs are filled behind-the-scenes through personal contacts and networking. My book covers this topic in great detail as well.
Disagree on the number of connections. I have seen people who have 500+ connections and that (to me) is indicative of someone who is a recruiter – or – they don’t care about their profile. Admittedly, I have low numbers on mine (40) LOL – but I am trying to stick with people who are very strong in their field or who have titles of “Partner”, “Senior Manager”, “VP”, “Director”, etc. I saw one profile for one industry where they accepted the profile of another. For example, someone in the medical industry accepting the profile of a nail technician. The two don’t have anything in common – but – the “connection number” would be high.
Excellent post, Pete! I have learned a lot from reading your blog. Thanks for providing such a valuable resource on personal branding.