LinkedIn basics: optimize your profile

By the time you apply for a role, a recruiter has often already looked you up. LinkedIn is frequently the first place they check, sometimes before they open your resume, sometimes instead of it if you were found rather than applied. A profile that reads like a resume pasted into a web form does nothing with that moment. A profile built to be searched, skimmed and believed does real work before a conversation ever starts.

This is not about chasing an algorithm. It is about the same principle behind a strong resume: specific, evidence-based writing beats generic self-description, wherever it appears.

Is a LinkedIn profile the same as a resume?

A resume is written for one application. A LinkedIn profile is a standing asset, read by recruiters searching for a specific skill set, by former colleagues deciding whether to recommend you, and by hiring managers checking you out before an interview. It needs to work for all three readers at once, which means it needs more context and more voice than a resume ever should.

What makes a good LinkedIn headline?

LinkedIn shows your headline everywhere: in search results, next to every comment you leave, at the top of every message you send. Left on the default setting, it just repeats your current job title, which tells a recruiter searching for a specific skill set nothing they could not get from your title alone.

A stronger headline states your role, names a core skill or specialty a recruiter might actually search for, and adds a result or focus that makes you memorable. It does not need to be clever, it needs to be specific.

What should a LinkedIn About section say?

Many profiles either leave this section empty or fill it with the same duty-focused language as a weak resume. Both waste the most flexible space on the page. The About section is the one place on your profile where you can write in full sentences, explain the throughline in your career, and say directly what kind of role you are looking for next.

Open with what you do and who you do it for, move into two or three specific results, and close with what you are looking for now. Write it in first person. It should sound like you talking, not a summary written about you.

How should you write LinkedIn experience entries?

The principle from your resume carries over directly: results, not duties. What changes on LinkedIn is the reading pattern. People scroll through profiles faster and more casually than they read a resume they have already decided matters, so keep each role to three or four tight bullets built around a clear, specific outcome, and put the most impressive one first in every role.

A recruiter scrolling your profile decides in seconds whether to keep reading. The first line under each role is doing almost all of the work.

Which skills, recommendations and keywords matter on LinkedIn?

List skills that are genuinely central to the roles you want, not a long, generic list added for the sake of it. Recruiters frequently search LinkedIn the way they would search a database, by typing the specific skill or title they need, so the exact words that appear in your headline, About section and skills list matter more here than almost anywhere else on your profile.

A handful of specific, recent recommendations from people who worked closely with you carry more weight than a long list of generic endorsements. When you ask, make it easy: remind the person of a specific project you worked on together and ask them to speak to that, rather than leaving the request open-ended.

What belongs in the LinkedIn Featured section?

Most profiles leave the Featured section empty, which wastes one of the few places on LinkedIn where you can show evidence instead of describing it. A case study, a press mention, a deck from a talk you gave, a link to a portfolio site, each one lets a recruiter verify your claims in a click instead of taking your word for them. If you do not have a polished piece of work to feature yet, a well-written post about a project or a lesson from your field does the same job: it shows you thinking, not just claiming.

If you are searching openly, LinkedIn's Open to Work setting can be shown either publicly or only to recruiters using LinkedIn's hiring tools. The recruiter-only option keeps the signal working for your search without broadcasting it to your current employer, which matters if you would rather have that conversation on your own terms.

Which settings and details keep your profile working?

A clear, professional photo and a filled-in profile matter enough that LinkedIn itself flags an incomplete one as a weaker profile through its own All-Star strength indicator. Add a custom URL using your name instead of the default string of numbers, since it looks more credible on a resume or email signature and is easier for someone to find again. And profiles that show some recent activity, a comment, a share, a short post about your field, read as current and engaged rather than dormant, which matters to anyone deciding whether to reach out.

How often should you update your LinkedIn profile?

The biggest mistake with LinkedIn is not a weak headline or a thin About section, it is building the profile once during a job search and never returning to it. Update it when you finish a project worth mentioning, not only when you need it again. A profile that stays current is doing quiet work for you even when you are not looking, which is the whole advantage it has over a resume in the first place.

None of this needs to happen in one sitting. Rewrite the headline this week, the About section next week, and the experience bullets after that. Small, steady edits, made with the same evidence-first standard you would apply to a resume, add up to a profile that actually represents the career you have built, and keeps working for you long after any single application is decided.