Leave the right impression– Optimize your LinkedIn profile with Josie

Last week we told you all about the essence of having a LinkedIn profile in 2021, and why you can’t go without one to advance your career. This week we’re going to kick it up a notch and share the best ways to optimize your profile to make you really stand out from the crowd. With Josie you’ll find many ways to improve while maintaining a crystal-clear overview of your progress.

Now that you’ve decided to create or finetune your LinkedIn profile, Let’s go through all the required actions step by step to help you create a top profile that will truly help you stand out from the crowd. Let’s start with the visual aspect.

• Use a captivating profile picture

We can’t stress enough how important having a good profile picture is on your profile. It’s the first thing recruiters look at because it leaves a first impression of what energy you radiate. Also, the stats don’t lie. Your LinkedIn profile is 40% more likely to be clicked on when it contains a picture of your face. Make sure you use a recent picture, and it’s a picture where you actually look like yourself. Another important aspect is that you need a picture in which your face takes up at least 60% since full-body shots tend to be skipped or overlooked. Also, facial expressions matter, so it won’t harm you if you smile a bit or use your eyes to impress the audience. Choose a picture you’re confident about and one that’s a true representation of how you see yourself. If you’re not the type of person who likes to rock a suit and tie, then don’t!

• Write a solid introduction

The introduction part of LinkedIn is extremely important because it’s the perfect chance for you to show the world who you are. The emphasis here lies on the ‘showing’ aspect, so don’t just ‘tell’. You don’t have to be the new Hemingway and write a complete novel, but you need to do a little more than listing your personality traits and capabilities. Now let’s have a look at some other pointers. The first tip is to always write in the first person because it sounds a lot more personal than introducing yourself from a third-person perspective. Then, always double-check your spelling, because mistakes in your profile will make you look unprofessional and sloppy. If you’re unsure of your spelling, you can download the free Grammarly extension, a tool that will trace all errors and point them out to you right away.

• Add the right skills

The second tip is to mention some of your top skills. Don’t overdo it though, mentioning five is plenty. If you want to check what skills are most in-demand for your desired position, you can go to Josie to get a clear overview of the top skills required for the position you want. Aside from these skills, you can also leave a great impression by mentioning some (about two or three) of your greatest achievements in your career. You can end your summary by mentioning you’re open to new opportunities and leave your email address so you’re easy to approach. The last thing you need to do is mention a few buzzwords related to your field because recruiters mostly search for these to find potential candidates.

• Get endorsements for your skills

Once you’ve created a list of all the important skills you possess, you will need proof of your qualities. Stating your capabilities is one thing, but what better way to support your claims than to have others back your statement? Especially recruiters think the endorsements section is really important because it holds evidence of your skillset. Besides, the more endorsements you have, the higher you will rank in the search results of LinkedIn when recruiters are searching for a specific skill. To get endorsements, the simplest way is to just approach former colleagues to back you up. To get advice on how to approach them, you could check out Josie for a great template that will save you loads of time and effort.

• Don’t forget to add your languages

It may sound like stating the obvious, but the language aspect of LinkedIn is often overlooked. Showing off your language skills can be done underneath the header on your profile. You can choose your level of proficiency on a five-point scale, so even if you’re not fluent, it still helps to add a second or third language. Your ability to speak a language can be seen as a very important skill in some fields, but remember to always be honest about it. The reason is that faking this skill will have you get caught in no time. Even if you do manage the job by faking, your future employer will eventually find out, leading to a sticky situation you don’t want to end up in!

• Check for gaps in your resume

Always check for gaps in your resume. Could it be that during this gap you actually did engage in activities that are worth mentioning? Maybe you spent this time doing volunteer work or took some extra courses to work on your skillset. If this is the case, these are definitely activities worth mentioning, so try to establish if there were no other activities at all that helped you in your personal development. If you had a gap year or took a break in general, well, they call it a gap year for a reason. Soul-searching in Thailand is definitely not worth mentioning, though.  

• Expand your network on LinkedIn

The more connections you have on LinkedIn, the easier you are to find. You can check out the suggested connection list first, and you might want to add some old co-workers. If you have done so yet and have no idea how to expand your network further, there is a very easy trick to establish more connections. Just search for your people with the same job title as you, and try to connect with the first people you see. If you add at least 10 people a week, you will have a large network packed with relevant connections in no time. You can find a very useful template to send to potential references with the Josie assistant.

• Keep track of your progress with Josie

If you want to ensure making the most out of your LinkedIn profile, you should definitely upload your profile to Josie. When you sign up for this insightful career advancement platform, you will be asked to upload your profile alongside your resume and get a Career Score afterward. This score will give you an indication of how strong your current professional profile is based on the competition, some AI, and all the data you provide. With the Josie Assistant, you will boost your Career Score by following some recommended steps that will instantly improve your profile. You can, for example, keep track of your LinkedIn profile and adjust step-by-step, and save your progress if you don’t have time to pimp your entire profile in one session. Your progress will be stored, making sure you won’t miss a single step and will get a top professional profile in no time and find new career opportunities in no time.