Krista Canfield, the Senior Manager at LinkedIn was on San Francisco’s 7Live yesterday with Brian Copeland and Lizzie Bermudez with a few good tips on making your profile stand out. As LinkedIn is my favorite professional networking site out there, felt it necessary to share that information with my readers.
Canfield started by discussing this year’s top over-used “buzz” words. The top five that you and I have been guilty of over-using on our profiles and resumes are:
- Creative
- Organizational
- Effective
- Extensive Experience
- Track Record
Other overused words were problem-solving, communication skills and interpersonal skills as detailed further on Digital Journal. My advice would be to really look at what your skill is rather then sugar coating it with smart sounding words. Let’s go a bit into detail of what we actually did, using simple English words. For example, what in fact have we created to be creative?
Canfield also stated that users shouldn’t simply say they have a lot of experience but actually list their experience. The more information you have posted on your profile from your resume, the more you are to stand out. Keeping it simple could be keeping you out of reach from many employers looking at your profile. I would also suggest that once you have perfected both your resume and profile, make sure to link your profile when you send out your resume. Why not have it below your name at the bottom of your cover letter?
Curious what my profile looks like? Here it is!
If you are going to have a profile, you need to make yourself approachable. LinkedIn asks asks for one small picture to add personality to your profile. When Bermudez asked what’s the worst profile picture Canfield had seen, she replied, “not having a picture at all is worse then a bad picture.” Of course, she noted, that one should have a simple, professional head shot for their profile picture. My rule of thumb is, if you’d post it on Facebook, maybe you shouldn’t use it on LinkedIn.
As I noted earlier, I too am guilty of some of these mishaps and am fixing up my LinkedIn profile as you read this! If you’d like me to look over your profile, all you have to do is ask.
Once an excerpt video of yesterday’s interview is made available, with permission I’ll be sure to post it right here!
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