How To Write A Stellar LinkedIn Summary

Leadership | Career advice | Social Media | Personal Branding

William Arruda July 09, 2017

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Photo credit: Shutterstock

Several years ago, I posted an article on the three steps to writing the perfect LinkedIn summary. A lot has changed since then. LinkedIn has made many updates and revisions, and they recently launched an entirely new interface. In addition, the world of work has evolved even more into a place where the free-agent mindset is essential for prosperity. So it’s time for a major update to my last post on this topic.

Before we get into the mechanics of crafting a brilliant summary, let’s start with why your LinkedIn summary is so essential to your success:

• LinkedIn is often the first place people go when they are looking to evaluate you in a professional capacity.

• If people Google your name to learn about you, your LinkedIn profile is likely to show up in one of the top spots in the search results. Since 62% of Google clicks go to the top three search results, those who start at Google will end up at LinkedIn.

• For many of us, a LinkedIn profile is the most comprehensive bio we have on the web. Your LinkedIn summary (all 2,000 or fewer characters) will likely be read by more people than any other version of your bio . This added exposure gives you a great opportunity to capture the attention of decision makers — but only if you have a summary that connects.

An effective LinkedIn summary does three things: Read more…

Stop Answering “What’s Your Greatest Weakness” with Badly-Spun Positives

Career Advice | Interviews | Employment

by Alan Henry 1-20-2015

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The idea that you should answer “what’s your biggest weakness” in a job interview with something that’s really just a positive trait (“I’m a workaholic!” or “I’m a perfectionist!”) is something you’ll hear often from career coaches. The truth is, just stop. Every interviewer everywhere has heard it before, and would rather you just be honest.

This is one of those job hunting tips that’s often repeated. We’ve discussed how to best answer this question before, among other tricky interview questions, but if you catch yourself about to spin a positive into something that could appear negative just to get through the question without looking like you actually have any weaknesses, you’ve probably revealed your real issue then and there—a lack of clarity, honesty, and capacity for self-introspection. Ultimately, your answer to the question should be well considered and relevant to the job and the interview, and it should be an actual point you’d like to work on and improve—not something designed to just make you look good. Read more…

How to market yourself with a winning résumé

by Dennis McCafferty | 12-08-2016

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Are you one of the many executives who haven’t looked at their résumé in months … or years? Do you think it’s not necessary because you’re secure and happy with your current company and feel that revising your résumé would be a waste of time? Well, you may want to reassess your thinking, because career experts recommend that you review your résumé at least once a year. After all, résumés are often submitted as part of consideration for award nominations, guest bylines, speaking events at industry conference and partnership opportunities. It would also help to have a strong résumé in case your organization gets involved in a merger or acquisition. To this end, we’ve come up with the following best practices for résumés, which is adapted from an article by Lisa Rangel, titled “9 Executive Résumé Trends for 2017.” Founder of ResumeCheatSheet.com, Rangel is an executive résumé writer and official LinkedIn moderator at Chameleonresumes.com. Career Toolkit recently named her as one of the top 28 résumé writers. – See more at: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-management/careers/slideshows/how-to-market-yourself-with-a-winning-resume.html#sthash.pcWgX3Gw.dpuf

Ten Things I Couldn’t Care Less About When I’m Hiring

Hiring people is such an organic and human activity, it kills me to see how many companies do it badly. They try to make recruiting a linear, data-driven and analytical process, but that’s impossible, because recruiting is all about the energy that flows between and among people.

It has nothing to do with data. It has nothing to do with particles — like all human activities, it is all about waves!

Recruiting has nothing to do with keyword-searching algorithms. How sad it is to see how my HR profession has devolved!   Read more…

 

The LinkedIn Profile Checklist Every Job Seeker Needs Don Goodman November 12, 2015

Job searching has taken a new direction. It’s not about going to the job boards, finding the job opening you like, and then applying to it. That method will only have you waiting by the phone for a call that’s likely not going to happen. Today’s job seekers need to take a more proactive and interactive approach called job networking – and LinkedIn is a resource to help you do it.

Related: 6 Things Recruiters Want To See On Your LinkedIn Profile

When you’ve created an effective LinkedIn profile, it’ll help you get in front of the right contacts (recruiters, hiring managers, professionals in the field, etc.) who can lead you to the path of the next job opportunity. However, in order for it all to happen you do need a LinkedIn profile that communicates and displays the right information. Take a run through the LinkedIn Profile checklist below:

Present a Headline that talks to your target audience. Read more….