Your LinkedIn Professional Headline is unbelievably valuable real estate. It’s the first line people see when they view your profile. It’s also the first line people see when they do a LinkedIn search.
That includes thousands of recruiters who are on LinkedIn daily trying to fill open positions. Make sure it’s working for you.
In this session, Headlines from actual LinkedIn profiles are used to explain:
— Why using LinkedIn’s default Headline (your job title / company) is not a good idea
— 2 Reasons using an inspirational quote in your headline works against you
— 3 Reasons using Looking for New Opportunities, or similarly worded Headlines, hurts you
— Why it’s not a good idea to try and appeal to everyone who sees your profile
— Why being too vague about what you do in your Headline works against you
— What makes a solid LinkedIn profile Headline, that’s conveys your value
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(Previously recorded, Live Show)
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Annette (00:10):
[Inaudible]
Annette (00:11):
Hi. Welcome to the smarter career moves podcast. I'm an at Richmond executive resume writer and principal of career intelligence, resume writing services.
Annette (00:27):
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Annette (00:31):
Hi, I'm in at Richmond. Thanks for joining me today in today's session, I'm going to talk to you about using your LinkedIn profile headline to find a job. Your LinkedIn profile should be an essential tool in your job search toolbox. I talk about how to make your overall LinkedIn profile work better for you in episode 3, 5 ways to make your LinkedIn profile more effective today. I want to talk to you specifically about your LinkedIn headline. When it comes to LinkedIn, the headline is very valuable real estate. It's the first line people see when they view your profile. It's the first line people see when they do a LinkedIn search. That includes the thousands of recruiters who are online, searching for candidates to fill open positions every day. So you want to make sure that it's working for you. If you don't change your LinkedIn headline, it will be in the default mode.
Annette (01:29):
The default mode is when LinkedIn puts in the title of your current position, this may or may not work to your advantage. If you're a marketing manager who wants to remain a marketing manager and you're working for a nationally known company, allowing your LinkedIn profile to default to your current position may not hurt you. Providing you have a robust optimized profile recruiters looking for a marketing manager to fill a position, may find you, but the default won't necessarily help you. Either. A marketing manager at ABC company doesn't give any clues to what you bring to the table. So in addition to the default headline, I want to talk to you about four poor headline choices. The first one is having quotes in your headline. I see a lot of people often there are younger new careerists or recent grad grads who have quotes in their headline.
Annette (02:32):
Inspirational quotes, like be the change you want to see in the world. Now I love this quote myself. I have it hanging over my desk, but having a quote like this in your headline is not going to help you find a job. The first reason is that recruiters who searched LinkedIn, they search based on jobs and skills, things like digital marketing or business development or project management. They're not going to be searching for the words in your quote. The second thing is recruiters want to know if you're qualified for the job they're trying to fill. If you do happen to come up in a recruiter search, but your headlight doesn't indicate any of your qualifications, they may just go on to the next profile in their search. If you feel that a quote really expresses your career philosophy or your management style or whatever yes, please by all means use it, but use it in the about section another really bad LinkedIn headline that I see is looking for new opportunities.
Annette (03:43):
You know, a lot of people change their profile headline to looking for opportunities in the hopes of attracting a recruiter. Here are three real headlines that I found on LinkedIn profiles. The first one is currently seeking new opportunities. The second one is looking for a new full time and freelance opportunities. The third headline is seeking new opportunities in New York city USA as relocating from XYZ country. Great. What type of opportunity are they looking for a little bit better? Open to new opportunities in digital / marketing / new business development /sales. At least this gives your audience an idea of what type of position you're looking for, but still the space could have been used much more effectively. Here are three reasons why looking for opportunities doesn't work for you first. It doesn't tell anyone, looking at your profile in a search, anything about you, what do you do?
Annette (04:57):
What kind of opportunity you're looking for and most important, what do you have to offer? Second? It wastes valuable LinkedIn real estate that might be used to sell you to recruiters and hiring managers who may stumble across your LinkedIn profile. Third, probably the worst as I mentioned earlier, is that most recruiters who are sourcing on LinkedIn are not including looking for new opportunities in their search criteria. Yes, some do, but not that many to make better use of your LinkedIn headline include your title. If you're unemployed, this can be your target title. You can follow this with a few of your top skills. Another poor LinkedIn headline is someone who's sort of a Jack of all trades. They want to appeal to everyone. So it's not a good idea to use your headline to try to be everything to everyone. Here's an example taken from a real life, a LinkedIn profile, senior project manager / marketing strategists / business strategists / SEM strategists / public relations.
Annette (06:10):
So, okay, what does this person do? A stringing unrelated job skills or titles together will only confuse your audience. So stick to one thing at a time on your LinkedIn profile. Another headline that I don't recommend is someone who is completely vague. You know, being unclear is as bad as trying to be everything to everyone. You need to give the reader more than a vague idea of what type of position you're looking for, or you're qualified for again, here are three more headlines taken from LinkedIn communication / marketing, another one project manager, the third one, accounting professional. So while none of these headlines work to give any idea of the person's qualification, the worst in my mind may be accounting professional. That could be anyone from an accounts receivable clerk to a certified public accountant. So you really want to use the headline as effectively as you can.
Annette (07:22):
One thing to always remember about LinkedIn is you are limited by the character count that you can use in each section. So you really need to make sure that each character counts. So what can you do? Your LinkedIn profile can be enormously helpful in your job search. If you're using your headline to help you not hurt your chances of being contacted for an interview. So a headline that you might use if you're in sales is VP, Sales / Business Development / New Market Development, et cetera. You might want to include a brief blurb about what you do, maybe something like developing new markets to drive business growth. This tells someone, you are a VP of sales. You have these skills, and this is what you do develop new markets to drive business growth. So again, remember to make your headline work for you, include skills that a recruiter may be searching for.
Annette (08:33):
One thing you always have to remember is that the headline character allowance on your LinkedIn profile is 120 characters. So you don't want to waste them. I will give you one little tip. If you do update your LinkedIn headline on your, on the LinkedIn app on using iPhone, you can get in a few more characters. I'm not sure exactly how many, I don't know that anyone is. So you have to just test yours to see how many, so again, remember that your LinkedIn profile is what represents you on the world stage the business stage. So make sure to use it to your best advantage, create a headline that will sell you to recruiters and potential employers. As I mentioned in the beginning, if you want to learn more ways to improve your LinkedIn profile overall, listen to episode three, five ways to make your LinkedIn profile more effective. Thanks for joining me today and good luck with your job search
Annette (09:49):
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Annette (09:49):
Thank you for joining us for the smarter career moves podcast. We hope you enjoy today's show. If you did, please subscribe. Thank you.
Annette (10:09):
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