Blog Archive MBA Career News Six Tips for Maximizing Your LinkedIn Profile

Blog Archive MBA Career News Six Tips for Maximizing Your LinkedIn Profile In this new blog series, our mbaMission Career Coaches offer invaluable advice and industry-related news to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. To schedule a free half-hour consultation with one of our mbaMission Career Coaches, click here. Over the past several years, LinkedIn has become increasingly important in the job search processâ€"whether for identifying target companies and/or contacts, researching skills required for specific jobs, promoting your brand, or applying to job postings. Today, we provide six tips for drafting/updating your LinkedIn profile to ensure maximum effectiveness: Focus on your target audience. Highlight your skills, attributes, and experiences that are relevant to your audience. Check out the profiles of people in your target roles to see how they have presented themselves on LinkedIn. Incorporate words from target job descriptions into your profile. Complete your basic facts (e.g., college and graduate education details, professional job titles, and dates). For each job, include a few lines of detail that emphasize the impact you had in that position rather than simply listing your responsibilities. Write a compelling headline. This is one of the most important aspects of your LinkedIn profile, because it is what recruiters see when they are initially reviewing names in a list. Think about including functional skills, not just your current job title. Upload a professional profile photo. Use a basic headshot that focuses on your face, with minimal distracting elements. Write a targeted summary. This is what you want your audience to remember about youâ€"essentially a version of your elevator pitch. You want it to be personal, authentic, and conversational, so you should write it in the first person and ensure that the style reflects your personality. Play to your strengths and show your passion. Minimize your use of buzzwords. Aim to include a minimum of ten skills in your profile. Two final reminders… First, consider turning off activity broadcasts so that each time you make an update to your profile, it does not trigger a notification to your network. Second, be sure to present a consistent brand image across all social media sites. Our next blog will highlight ways to use LinkedIn in your job search. Stay tuned! Have you been admitted to business school? If so, do you want to get a head start on defining your career goals? Do you need help preparing for job interviews or learning how to effectively network with your target employers? Or maybe you want to be a top performer in your current role but are unsure how to maximize your potential. Let an mbaMission Career Coach help via a free 30-minute consultation! Share ThisTweet Career Advice MBA Career News