Your chance to make a strong first impression and score an interview may rest solely on one thing: your LinkedIn profile. Therefore, it is worthwhile to spend some time crafting your account.
We’re an executive recruitment agency; we can admit that LinkedIn is one of our favorite talent-searching tools. Even if you choose not to spend a lot of time on LinkedIn (or any time at all), it’s worth optimizing. You never know when you may want to expand your network, connect with a colleague or apply for a new role. Unfortunately, when you forget to fix your profile, things can fall through the cracks.
Here are a few things you should omit from your profile.
High school jobs
Unless you just graduated high school or are fresh out of college, you don’t need to include the part-time gigs of your teen years.
An unprofessional profile picture
Prospective connections are going to see your picture first. Ideally, you already have a professional headshot as your profile photo. If you don’t have a headshot, don’t fret. You don’t need a professional photographer, a fancy backdrop or a ring light. An iPhone in portrait mode can do wonders for you.
If you don’t have a picture, they’ll assume it’s an inactive profile, so add one.
Politics and polarizing commentary
Are you a politician or activist? Do you work for a company with a strong and affluent political affiliation? With a few exceptions, LinkedIn is solely a platform for establishing connections with professionals and it’s better to save the rest for Twitter.
Your connections need to be able to view you without bias. You aren’t always going to work with people that align with your beliefs. Political LinkedIn posts are just going to alienate prospective connections.
Lackluster phrases
If you aren’t putting it on your resume, don’t put it on your LinkedIn. Infamous buzzwords are infamous for a reason. In your summary, you can delete anything along the vein of:
- Self-motivated
- Team player
- Experienced
- Accomplished professional
- Results-driven
They’re clichés. Whatever advice you apply to your resume, incorporate it into your profile.
Personal information
If you post on LinkedIn, it can be nice to give people a small glimpse into your life every once in a while, especially if you’re in an executive role. Outside of the more occasional post, things like your date of birth, address, ethnicity, and any other personal information don’t need to be listed on your profile.
Paragraphs
Avoid the paragraphs and go with some bullet points. Just like your resume, you don’t want your audience getting blurry-eyed reading your content.
Age identifiers
The truth is, people don’t necessarily need to know what year you graduated from. The positions you had back in the 80s can distract from the most valuable information. The goal is to get your foot in the door and prove yourself to be the best candidate regardless of age.