“You Had Me at ‘Hello’”

Another version of making a good first impression

In journalism, each article has a headline and the purpose of that headline is to entice the reader to continue reading. And the purpose of the lead paragraph is to entice the reader to read the entire article.

But job seeking is not journalism and your LinkedIn profile is not an article – although in many respects it is a story. But that’s splitting hairs and a discussion for another day.

Your LinkedIn Headline

A very common mistake people make (job seekers as well as non-job seekers) is to simply insert their job titles as their LinkedIn headline. Some use their most recent (or current, if still working) job title or the title to which they are aspiring. Either way, that’s not how to use a LinkedIn headline.

The purposes of the LinkedIn headline are to enhance your chances of being found by a recruiter or hiring manager (or their digital representatives), and to tell the person searching something pertinent about you as briefly as possible. And a job title will not do that.

Your LinkedIn headline should be simple: what you do and possibly who you do it for. You have a very few characters so you need to make as big an impact as possible in a relatively short space. Rather than simply being a “vice president of sales”; maybe yours should read: “proven sales professional with a track record of generating revenue and adding new customers” (only 92 characters; but even that’s long.)

That statement not only says what you do, it states what you excel at and it includes some positive keywords such as “proven” and “track record.” These are very desirable keywords that should spark interest among any recruiter or hiring manager or their keyword-ravenous digital reviewer.

What else could you emphasize? “Saving money.” “Cutting expenses.” “New product development.” “Turnaround specialist.” “Team player.” Just to name a few non-job title examples.

Having said all that, here is a major caveat. LinkedIn released a list of the most overused buzzwords on its site. These terms are so innocuous that they most likely will not help you stand out in your search at all. This is not to say that they should never be used, but rather use them judiciously. You don’t want to overuse them from your headline through your summary.

According to one LinkedIn career expert, “it must vividly demonstrate who you are to a potential employer.” Digital or human.

More tips.