Why your LinkedIn profile can be like a fantastic burger

Why your LinkedIn profile can be like a fantastic burger

As a recruiter, I love LinkedIn. Not all the roles I work would be advertised on websites such as Seek so a large proportion of my time can be spent headhunting.Your LinkedIn profile is a great way to advertise yourself. To show off what you do, what make you – you, and also what your wanting to do next. To me your LinkedIn profile can really attract me to want to get I touch and think this is the person I want for this role or it can really put me off if you invest no time in it.———————————————————————————————–This is how I came up with Your LinkedIn profile can be a burger – the more it has in it the better it will taste, and the better it will make you look and stand out to potential recruiters?Bun – Your Basic profile – Name and Photo.Humans are a visual species- if I see a LinkedIn profile with a picture I am more inclined to click on it and think “can I see this person working for this company?” or even “Have we met before?”. No photo sends a message that your LinkedIn account is not active or you have something to hide?Also don’t forget to include your full name. You would be amazed how many people only have their first name and random letters after it; keep it professional with your first name and surname.American Cheese – Awards / AchievementsAwards and achievements are always great to read about- they are what set you apart from the rest and show you are passionate about what you do. Have you done something exceptional in your career that you been noticed for? Were you employee of the month? Did you deliver an exceptional project in record time?When I talk to people in an interview situation, I always ask them what are their personal achievements and if they are on their resume. Why? A potential hiring manager may see that you have done something which could help them out in the future, so may be interested in talking to you.Tomato – Tertiary LearningA specific degree or higher education are critical to some roles. Personally, I see this as a bit short sighted of companies when a potential candidate may have years of experience doing X but does not have a formal qualification. Even if you have a qualification which you think may be unrelated to your current field, it is always worth including it on your profile.Within the field that I recruit, there are a lot of post qualification courses or certification that can be achieved. This can obtain anything from Microsoft Certifications, ITIL, Prince2, and the list goes on. If you have any, put them on your profile. A potential recruiter could do a key word search and if they are not listed on your profile you won’t show up despite having them, therefore limiting your opportunities.Lettuce – LanguagesKannst du Deutsch sprechen? English not your only language? You would be surprised, but it can actually make a difference. With the job market being more fluid now than ever before – especially with remote working, it is always good to note down if you can speak another language. However it is important to note that you should only put this down if you are proficient in a language- if you are not fantastic at English please do not put that you have ‘native proficiency’. I know for example Mandarin, among others, is becoming quite popular given our geographic proximity to China.Sautéed OnionSkillsSautéed Onions are the Crème de la crème, the topping that just finishes off your profile if you like. Illustrating you best traits, or alternatively what people think are your best traits. People can endorse you if they think you are good at certain things, for example a business analyst who is strong in stakeholder engagement. You can set up what people can endorse you for, so you can tailor it specifically for your profile. I would strongly suggest looking at your job function and then design your skills around this. The more endorsements you have act as a quick reference… Which follows onto my next point.Rashes of Bacon – OK I struggled with the R… RecommendationsBeing an English man, I love bacon… I love bacon almost as much as I love recommendation. Why are recommendations good? It’s simple: recommendations aresocial proof that you are actually good at what you do. If someonerecommends you, it is basically similar to a referral.  It shows social proof that someone would back you. If you are searching for a new role, ask past co-workers if they would write one for you. Too often I read in resumes “I’m a great commutator, hard worker, self-motivated” etc but honestly this means nothing if you write it yourself, however if someone else wrote it on your profile, it means a bit more. Let’s face it, no one on their resume is going to write ‘I’m lazy and read Facebook 4 hours a day’ at work as some of their skills. That is why social proof is always better to let people know about your work ethic.Sauce – What makes you Special? SummaryThe sauce is the special bit. What makes you, you? How are you different? What are your aspirations? Are you wanting to work or gain exposure to certain industry types? Would you love to work in a start-up? It’s great to read about this and more in your summary.A role that I could be working on might be in the industry you are interested in, but looking at your profile you could be stuck in another type of industry, so your work experience may silo you when you are really just looking for a break into something new. A great current example is the mining industry, the number of people who have a mining background that are looking to break into something new without talking to all of them it is very hard to know.The Meat (or veggie burger)The main content (Experience)What are your roles, past and present? What are your ingredients? What else do you contain? What have you been through, and how have you matured? What experience do you have in certain areas? This means you cannot simply be a copy paste of your company profile. If a recruiter looks at your profile, they are not wanting to know about your company, they want to know about you, and your working career.If you copy and paste your companies profile, its similar to only reading the packaging of the meat without really tasting and experiencing it. That is not what you are wanting- I want to know the process that has made you a highly-sought-after-gourmet-grain-fed -28-day aged piece of meat, or show you have been marinated.A real world example would be:Project Manager I project managed a data centre move, and it was successful because there was no downtime. The data centre move needed to be done as our business was growing. This meant moving numerous blade servers based on Windows and Linux, as well as ensuring the network was stable and had redundancy. – Instantly this has helped if I am looking the key words of project manager, data centre move and I can see a bit about the role to get me interested.Business Analyst I worked on a health and clinical applications project for a new hospital drawing up the business requirements documents after engaging all the stakeholders and subject matter experts to ensure the project we created would get the best results going forward. – Again the same thing, I can see two key things that show you understand the role, stakeholder engagement and BRD’s and I know the industry you are working in. And finally – Plate (Personal Details)What’s the whole package? How are you presenting yourself? Are you easy to get in touch with, like a delicious burger sitting on a plate just ready and poised to go, or are you more tightly wrapped up and a bit harder to access? What do I mean? How can I get in-touch with you?  This probably applies more to people who are currently seeking a new job however if you are interested what opportunities may be around the corner then make sure you consider this too.If you want to be contacted straight away, like I said before about being ready on the plate – there is a little tab where you can add your contact details – don’t be afraid to put them here! It means if I do have an opportunity for you I can ring you. Now I know some people can be hesitant of this- if you are, and prefer to be more like a carefully packaged burger where you would open up for the right person, you can choose your visibility.Alternatively download the application or have it so LinkedIn sends you an email when you get a message. Recruiting is a lot about speed, and sometimes we need to get in touch with people yesterday. Sometimes this is very hard to do, and you could potentially miss out on an opportunity that is perfect for you if your contact details are not easily accessible. If you are hard to get in touch with, you are similar to a burger in a very annoying wrapper!———————————————————————————————So take a look at your profile and see how you would stack up in burger terms; do you have a detailed profile that would shows you are delicious, well stacked juicy burger, or does your profile make you look like a basic the bun with no real contents? Some food for thought.I hope reading this blog post hasn’t made you hungry!Disclaimer: Please note I do not work for LinkedIn nor is this what I have been told by them. I do not guarantee this will get you a job if you are looking but just think these things may assist you in being found for a role. Also my burger taste might slightly differ to yours. Please don’t be offended by the meat or vegetables used.

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