How to create an awesome Linkedin profile?

There are millions of professionals and thousands of companies interacting daily on Linkedin but very few understand the importance to create an awesome Linkedin profile. I am going to provide very important points with which you can build your perfect online profile and start getting results you want. I have divided this article in four parts – Profile, Connections, Activity and Updation, I will be sharing key action items and insights from my experience with this platform.

If you do not wish to read then do watch this video I have created and talked about everything in detail.

Profile:

As I have highlighted in my earlier article that resume is good to have but now its online profile which gets you a job. This is very important to understand that your resume is the only formal entry to online presence and everyone looks at it, so keep it complete. Lets start with Identifying the main areas of your Linked in profile:

Your Career Snapshot:

No matter what you are doing at the moment or you have done in past, this box let you summarise to best of your knowledge and experience. It should always evolve as you grow in your career and always make it relevant for the job you wish to apply.

Your Skills:

Checkout if you have got the skills required to move to your next job or whatever you are doing is registered as a skill on Linkedin , Don’t miss this step, Research and find out what are the required skills in your area, for instance you may be a PHP-HTML developer but know about NodeJS, WordPress, Content management, google analytics etc

Your Past Experience:

Make sure you again summarise your past experience in a relevant fashion, very important– unless you specify your current organisation Linkedin does not pick up your profile in job search. Few important tips are: Write a crisp and impactful summary of your profile, highlight your most recent work, your past and your interest areas for future Mention your companies you have worked for, remember you got to highlight the new interest area of focus area in your past companies so that profile is relevant.

If you have switched from older technology to new then do mention and try highlight some keywords from current job in your past companies( this is tricky though)

Endorsements:

This includes you approaching your connections and asking for endorsements, just click on names and ask for it, Be Bold and people will turn out to be Beautiful. Consider this step as Mandatory.

Few tips would be:

Identify 3 key skills which you wish to highlight on your profile, tag them as primary skills and then arrange all other skills. After you have arranged the skills, ask for an endorsement from your connects. Ask for recommendations from previous or current connections.

Connections:

If you really want to find job on Linkedin ,Making the right connections is very important and keeping up with them is the key. Lets understand in terms of main points here:

Try to connect with 2 people(preferably from your area of interest) every day minimum, you may not be knowing them but request them to add you in their network. Another key is that when they do online activity your feeds will get benefits ( later you can unfollow if you don’t want too many feeds from one person).
Follow your dream companies or people you wish to work with.
Follow some of the influencers, when they publish something, people comment and you get new feed which in turn benefits you.
Try to follow some interest groups where people alike minded can share views with you.
Think about creating a page for your interest area or a group, people would connect and your feeds will grow and online presence will improve. Checkout top left dashboard on your profile every day.

Activity:

Very important part, to others this suggest our behaviour online and becomes important for us to act strategic if you are looking for a job here. Few points listed below:

Search the jobs matching to your key skills
Do write something if you know in form of an article( well that’s even more serious job than maintaining a profile but start somewhere if you can) your profiles views will get enhanced in the process
Take part in discussions related to your skills or interest areas.
Search companies and their profiles matching your preferences
Try to search a new company every day and follow it

Keep Updating & keep Applying in Linkedin to find a job :

When you will get your next job offer is not really known, so every time you have some role change, project completion, new certification, felicitation, award or any recognition just update it on Linkedin. Secondly applying for a job or at least reading its Job description would help you shape your profile better for future job. Linkedin is an ever-evolving platform and being active and making changes to your profile is the key to get a job. Here is the link to apply for jobs on Linkedin click here.

Conclusion:

When we answer question “How to create awsome linkedin profile”, we should also focus on understanding no of job openings, job description, job profile, day in life of job and perks associated with the job. You would notice you are getting ideas to go back and update your profile which is a fair activity that you should do.