Why you need to fix your job titles urgently!

Your LinkedIn Profile is not a verbatim copy of your resume, or your business card for that matter. LinkedIn displays the job titles on your profile (under experience) in bold, this makes them one of the few items to stand out. After the introduction of the ‘New LinkedIn’ your profile has a cleaner look; that is nice. It also means less information is visible at once; this is not so nice. People actually need to click to see the description of your experience. With 58% of LinkedIn visits being conducted on mobile, the majority of visitors to your profile will ONLY see your job titles. Your visitors on desktop are treated to your most recent position in full, the rest of your experience is collapsed, into job title, company and dates. First impressions are made in seconds; the internet is a fast paced environment. When a recruiter -or potential client- visits your LinkedIn profile, they need to see at first glance if this profile is worth further scrutiny. Descriptive headlines give a preview of what to expect if you click through to see the full experience description.

★100 CHARACTERS AVAILABLE FOR YOUR JOB TITLES★

Now that we need to click to see your description, your titles need to be descriptive. Please say goodbye to: ✘owner ✘founder ✘director ✘manager ✘consultant ✘trainer. These ‘titles’ tell me nothing about you or your expertise! The tricky bit is: you’re dealing with search engines and human beings. You need to show up in the right searches and give additional information to the human reader. Start by using a very well-know, common job title such as “project manager”. Next elaborate on your expertise: “Project Manager: focused on global renewable energy projects and sustainable building innovations.” BOOM! 98 characters including spaces and the full stop at the end.  

HOW TO EDIT JOB TITLES ON LINKEDIN

1. Click your pretty little face top right
2. Scroll down to experience
3. Click the pencil
4. Fill in the blanks
5. Click save

For more help on brilliant job titles, read this clever little piece I wrote some years ago. Still pretty darn useful if I say so myself.

>>> TELL ME what titles have you got on your profile in the experience section? <<<