9 Things Employers Look For in a LinkedIn Profile

Your summary has a prominent spot on your profile so it’s vital to get it right. The point of the summary is to explain to recruiters and employers a little bit about who you are and what you do.

“Your summary should encapsulate your experience, your strengths, your skills and your vision for your career,” explained Wilkinson. “Ideally you want the writing style to be really conversational and friendly and certainly try to avoid being technical,” he added.

Your summary can be as many as 2000 words, but most people use less than half of this. The summary should just sum up your profile and should be straightforward and easy to read. 

To gain an All-Star LinkedIn status, you’ll need to add a minimum of five skills to the skills section of your LinkedIn profile. These should be relevant skills that you believe you possess. By doing this, you’ll increase your visibility on LinkedIn, appearing in many more searches.

“Be quite strategic when you're listing skills,” said Wilkinson. “List the ones that are important in your industry or profession over other things and try to keep them relevant to your current career goals.”

You can then get endorsements on these skills. This is done by your contacts on the site, which may be your work colleagues, managers, friends and peers from university or other professional contacts. 

On gaining endorsements, Wilkinson advised: “if you endorse the skills of other people, they're far more far more likely to lend their support and endorse yours too. You can also ask people that you've worked for previously to provide endorsements.”

It sounds obvious but filling in the details of your education is a vital part of building your LinkedIn profile and, as a fresh graduate, may be one of the first parts of your profile that an employer will look at. 

On top of the basic details of your degree you should include any honors or awards you received, any relevant extracurricular activities, as well as any relevant modules.

“So, for example, if you're looking for a marketing job, tie in relevant details from your time at university such as writing for a university group, or publication or association,” said Wilkinson.

You’re allocated a maximum of 120 characters for this section and it’s a great way to stand out from other university graduates. 

“Use the headline as an opportunity to highlight your expertise and your individuality instead of just listing your university or your job title and the company you’re currently working for,” advised Wilkinson. 

To earn the all-important All-Star status on LinkedIn, you’ll need to have at least 50 connections.

Where can you find these connections? They could be former co-workers, lecturers, people you volunteered with, managers, colleagues, university friends or school friends.

“Find some useful connections will endorse your skills and background and remember it’s quality over quantity,” said Wilkinson. “Look at organizations that frequently recruit graduates and look at well-known industry influences. Keep track of what they're posting, connect with them when posting insightful comments about their content.”

There are 20 million companies on LinkedIn, with 14 million jobs posted at any given time. This makes LinkedIn an excellent tool to help you find a graduate job, but you have to make sure you use it!

A good way to get the attention of these companies is to actively use the website. “Post updates, articles, share news, comment on other people’s content, join industry groups and give and receive recommendations frequently,” said Wilkinson.

LinkedIn is not meant to be used like a CV, updated infrequently and forgotten about it most of the time.

“Use it as a living breathing tool to continue to develop your business network,” Wilkinson recommended, adding: “Try to make it, if not a daily habit, then something you visit two or three times a week.”