The LinkedIn “About” section is something employers use to get an idea of your professional background. Your LinkedIn profile might be the first impression an employer makes before interviewing you or considering you as a candidate, and you want it to be perfect!
The “About” section is where you’ll write your professional summary. This section is an extremely effective way to market yourself, showcase your writing skills, highlight industry specific skills, and demonstrate your passion for the field you are in.
To start writing in the “About” section, go to “Me” on the LinkedIn menu bar and click on “view profile.” Once you enter your profile page click on the blue pencil in the About section. It’s best to get rid of the auto-generated summary that LinkedIn creates for you. You might be able to polish your summary better than LinkedIn’s AI.
A few tips to remember:
- Write in first person. This makes it feel more personal
- Don’t make it too long. 2 to 5 short paragraphs should be good.
- Use white space. This makes it easy for viewers to read the summary on various devices like mobile phones, tablets, etc.
- Review. Proofread your summary to check for spellings and grammatical errors.
How to organize your summary? Here are a few ideas:
Career Story: What brings you to this field? Why do you want to work in this industry? What background story do you have? Think about these questions when you write about your motivations. This captures the readers attention and pulls them into your story.
Experience-Focused: Mention names of companies or organizations where you worked, and what you did there. While writing about your experiences try to use relevant keywords that recruiters will look for while selecting candidates. You could also share an example of something you did which is relevant to the field you hope to work in.
Skills-Focused: While describing your experience, you could strengthen your paragraph by mentioning the skills you used to do specific tasks that your job area demands. You can highlight technical skills or other soft skills that the job you are seaching for would desire.
Achievements: You can also mention the various achievements that you have received while working at a job or internship. If you increased company profits by a certain percentage (say 30%) then that is something you should highlight in your summary. If you streamlined a process through software or your organizational skills, this should be something to mention. You could also quantify using numbers (people you have worked with, age groups, product sold, etc.)
Remember, your LinkedIn summary is the first impression a recruiter may have. So be honest about your work, use professional language and shine your positive personality through your writing.
BU + Beyond 