You’re in IT, you want to advance your career, you’re working on your skills, should you be on Linkedin?
Yes!
You’re in IT, you’ve just been let go from your job, should you update your Linkedin profile?
Yes!
Here’s a few quick tips to get you started on making sure your Linkedin profile is up to date and presenting the best version of you.
Get the headline right
Firstly the headline, this is perhaps the most important part of your profile to get right. Write a headline that makes you standout and shows your uniqueness that isn’t simply a brag book of accomplishments or a job title.
Feel free to use “I” to start it off and be specific in what you achieved and what your specialty is. For example, let’s say you’re an IT person that specializes in working in MSPs, you might say something like “A growth minded systems engineer with a passion for automation and dangerously loyal”.
Try to be a little bit quirky in order to stand out as well as be specific about what you do. You can even add in there a technology that you’re most comfortable with. For example, if you’re a Microsoft person you can say “A growth minded Microsoft Systems Engineer…”.
Summary matters too
Next, we come down to the summary. This again is an incredibly important part of your profile. And, what you want to do here is give more detail into exactly what you do but also what you achieved in your career.
Don’t just list the technologies you use but show to what level you have experience with said technologies. So again, if you’re a Microsoft Systems Engineer, are you someone that administers Windows Server 2016, or do you install it from scratch? Do you only install it from scratch, or do you also migrate it from previous versions? In the migration, are you doing migrations for custom environments or multi domain environments? Be specific about the technical skill sets that you have, based on your experience and include that in your summary.
Also include what you’re really interested in, what skills you’re currently developing and how you’re doing that. Again, this will help add proof to the tagline that you’ve already used which is “A growth minded Systems Engineer”. This is so important!
Link what you do in your headline to what you have in your summary. This will help you get approached by the right employers and recruiters and help you stand out from the crowd. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.
Outline better opportunities
If you’re currently in a job now but you are open to better opportunities, then make sure you outline in your summary what those better opportunities look like. And if you’re specifically interested in hearing from people about those opportunities then you can say that.
Bear in mind though it’s very possible that your own boss will see what you’ve written there as well. So, if that will be a problem for you in your current employment then be more discreet about the way that you word that in your summary.
“Open to new opportunities”
Likewise, if you’re a passive job seeker, that is you’re in a role but interested in better roles, then there is a flag you can turn on in your Linkedin profile called “open to new opportunities”. This will discreetly show those outside of your Employer that use Linkedin Recruiter Pro (a very expensive paid version of Linkedin) that you are open to other job opportunities.
That’s it for now, I want it to keep it brief and just to let you know that I’m here to help – all you need to do is book your appointment here. You may also check our job portal if you looking for IT jobs in Western Australia.
