In today’s competitive job market, your online professional profiles are often the first impression you make on a potential employer. They’re far more than just digital CVs; they’re dynamic showcases of your skills, achievements, and unique personal brand. Optimising these platforms, especially LinkedIn and Glassdoor, is crucial for catching the eye of recruiters and landing that interview.
Here’s how to ensure your public profiles truly stand out:
1. The Power of Keywords: Speak the Recruiter’s Language
Recruiters use keywords to find candidates. If your profile doesn’t contain the right terms, you simply won’t show up in their searches.
- Analyse Job Descriptions: Look at 5-10 job descriptions for roles you aspire to. What specific skills, tools, certifications, and responsibilities are repeatedly mentioned? These are your keywords.
- Strategic Placement: Integrate these keywords naturally throughout your profile:
- Headline: Beyond your job title, include 2-3 key skills or your desired role (e.g., “Senior Marketing Manager | Digital Strategy | SEO & Content Marketing”).
- About Section/Summary: Weave keywords into your professional story, highlighting your value proposition.
- Experience Section: Use them when describing your responsibilities and achievements in past roles.
- Skills Section: This is explicitly for keywords! List both hard skills (e.g., “Python”, “CRM software”, “project management”) and relevant soft skills (e.g., “communication”, “leadership”, “problem-solving”).
- Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Don’t just list words. Integrate them into coherent sentences that demonstrate your abilities.
2. Craft a Compelling Personal Brand
Your brand is your unique professional identity – what makes you, you. It’s how you want to be perceived.
- Define Your Brand: What are your core strengths, values, and professional passions? How do you want employers to remember you?
- Consistent Messaging: Ensure your brand message is consistent across all your online platforms (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, personal website, etc.). Use a similar tone, profile picture, and key messages.
- Professional Headshot: A high-quality, professional, and approachable headshot is non-negotiable. Profiles with photos get significantly more views.
- Custom URL (LinkedIn): Personalise your LinkedIn URL (e.g., linkedin.com/in/yourname). It looks cleaner and is easier to share.
- Tell Your Story (About Section): Use your “About” or “Summary” section to tell your professional narrative. What drives you? What problems do you solve? What are your career aspirations? Make it engaging and reflective of your personality while remaining professional.
3. Showcase Your Achievements (Quantify Everything!)
Don’t just list duties; highlight accomplishments. Employers want to see the impact you’ve made.
- Quantify, Quantify, Quantify: Whenever possible, use numbers, percentages, and metrics to demonstrate your impact. Instead of “Managed social media”, say “Increased social media engagement by 30% in 6 months.”
- Action Verbs: Start bullet points in your experience section with strong action verbs (e.g., “Led”, “Developed”, “Implemented”, “Optimised”, “Achieved”).
- Featured Section (LinkedIn): Use this space to highlight portfolios, presentations, articles you’ve written, projects you’ve worked on, or even relevant media mentions. This adds rich context beyond text.
- Glassdoor’s Impact: While Glassdoor focuses on company reviews, your profile (if you create one to apply) should still mirror your LinkedIn, emphasising achievements to show your value.
4. Maximising Endorsements & Recommendations
Social proof is powerful. Endorsements and recommendations add credibility to your stated skills.
- Strategic Endorsements (LinkedIn):
- Prioritise: Ensure your top 3-5 most relevant skills are at the top of your “Skills & Endorsements” section. These are the ones recruiters see first.
- Give to Get: Endorse colleagues and connections for skills you genuinely know they possess. This often prompts them to reciprocate.
- Politely Ask: Don’t be afraid to politely message a former manager, colleague, or client and ask for an endorsement for a specific skill you collaborated on. (e.g., “Hi [Name], I valued our work on [Project] where we utilised [Skill]. If you feel comfortable, would you mind endorsing me for [Skill] on LinkedIn?”).
- Recommendations (LinkedIn): These are far more impactful than simple endorsements.
- Request Thoughtfully: Ask people who can speak to your work ethic, skills, and character. Provide them with specific projects or qualities you’d like them to highlight.
- Give Recommendations: Offer to write recommendations for others. This strengthens your network and often leads to reciprocity.
5. Be Active and Engaged
A static profile is a dead profile. Regular activity boosts your visibility and demonstrates your engagement with your industry.
- Share Relevant Content: Share articles, industry news, and insights.
- Comment Thoughtfully: Engage with posts from your connections, industry leaders, and target companies. Thoughtful comments showcase your expertise and critical thinking.
- Follow Companies & Influencers: Stay updated on industry trends and company news, which can inform your content and networking.
- Update Regularly: Add new skills, certifications, projects, and achievements as they happen.
By putting in the effort to meticulously optimise your public professional profiles, you transform them from mere resumes into dynamic, keyword-rich, and brand-consistent showcases that truly stand out to recruiters and open doors to exciting new opportunities.