LinkedIn.com is the swiss army Knife of job search platforms. In Chapter 2, you learned that LinkedIn is a job board, a personal branding site, a message board, and a place to upgrade your skills (LinkedIn Learning). But its core purpose is for business and professional networking, a place where professionals can connect and communicate with one another for mutual benefit.  

LinkedIn is the most important place for you to establish your personal brand--who you are and what you can do. Your profile will create a first impression. It’s vitally important that it be professional, communicate your brand and your passion, and that it be devoid of grammatical and spelling errors.

Creating a LinkedIn profile is amazingly easy considering the benefit it provides. 

To create a Linkedin profile, you can follow these 4 steps:

1. Go to www.Linkedin.com and click on the “Join Now” option displayed towards the bottom of your screen.

2. You will then be asked to create an account using your preferred email address and  password. Choose a professional email to use. 

3. Click “Agree & Join”. 

Note: You will be asked to confirm your email address by accessing a link sent to your preferred email address. You should always complete this step immediately after signing up to make it active.

4. Once you have confirmed your email address, you will be asked to log into your account using your email address and password. This will complete your basic account set-up.

• Headshot: For years it was recommended that you have a headshot by a professional photographer. That’s fine, but cell phone cameras are so good, those photos also work well. Make sure your face is well lit and that you are smiling, preferably a natural smile with teeth showing. Your photo must be current. Submit several photos to photofeeler.com if you want crowdsourced opinions as to which is best.

• Background picture: Choosing a picture behind your headshot is a great way to promote your brand. Instead of having just pretty scenery, choose an image that supports you professionally. Google “free LinkedIn background images;“ see what appeals to you. 

• Headline: This is the area right below your name. All the words in the headline are weighted. It must include your job title(s) and primary keywords (areas of expertise) separated by vertical lines or pipes with space before and after.  Example:  Computer Programmer | Software Engineer | Java | Python | SQL | C, C++ | Remote

• Vanity URL: When you first register on LinkedIn, you are assigned a URL that includes your name followed by a series of numbers. You will want to create a “vanity URL,” one that is just your name. Pull up your profile. In the top right corner, you will see Edit public profile and URL Click on it and it will say Personalize the URL for your profile.  Click on the pencil that is next to your current URL, and you can edit it. 

• About:  There is some debate as to whether the About section should only summarize your professional life or explain more about who you are personally, or a combination of the  two.  In any case, the first three lines need to be sufficiently compelling to make the reader click on “. . . see More.”  You have many options: you can tell your personal story, always in the first person, and how you chose your career, or explain the passion or interest that defines you or makes your life meaningful. 

In one virally successful About section, the writer expressed gratitude to her former companies for the experience, the relationships, and the mistakes-lessons that gave her the skills she now had to offer her next company. Ultimately, LinkedIn is for business and professional networking, so include your personal branding statement (a variation on the elevator pitch) that explains what you do professionally and/or the kinds of problems you solve. 

Some people like to include one or two of their major accomplishments in the About section. Include a keyword-filled list of your top ten soft skills and your technical skills in a single column on the left side of the page at the bottom of the About section. 

• Experience: There is differing advice as to whether you should include all your work history or only your last 10-15 years. Some experts believe you should include only the experience that is relevant to the job you currently want. Include keywords throughout your job descriptions and accomplishments. Note: your LinkedIn work experience must be exactly the same (job title(s), responsibilities, and especially dates) as that which is on your resume. One exception is with job titles. On a resume, you should list only one job title for each job, your official position title. Since LinkedIn is largely a matching system, you can list synonymous titles, e.g., Software Developer, Computer Programmer for the same position title.

• Featured: In this section you can showcase white papers, presentations, portfolio items, videos, letters of recommendation, certifications, PowerPoints, or examples of your work. 

• Skills: You can list up to 50 skills. It’s perfectly fine and encouraged that you reach out to people who know you and ask them to endorse your skills. Getting endorsements, especially from people who are considered expert in a given area will help promote your brand and your expertise. To help you build affiliations, endorse the skills of the people in your network as well.

• Recommendations: Be generous in recommending others. Not only do recommendations demonstrate your writing ability, they indicate a generosity of spirit, kindness and selflessness. It’s also acceptable and even encouraged that you ask other people to recommend you. To request or to give a recommendation, pull up the profile of the person in question and click on “More” to the right of the headline. One of the options will be to request a recommendation and another will be to recommend that person. 

• Education, Licenses, and Certifications and Badges: These days, professional certifications are sometimes more valuable than advanced degrees because they’re more timely. If you are a paid member of LinkedIn, you have access to LinkedIn Learning. By completing courses through that site, you can earn badges which will enhance your matchability with jobs in a recruiter search. 

• Volunteering: Many companies view community activities and volunteering favorably. Volunteering is also a great way to network.