Hi, I’m Holly and I’m a HUGE fan of LinkedIn. Whether you’re job hunting or not, you’ve been in your career for years or you’re just starting out - the benefits of this platform are endless.
There are so many things you can do to make LinkedIn work hard for you, like one of these 16 things, or just updating your profile. But today, I wanted to focus on one thing in particular:
Descriptions.
So what do I even mean by these?
LinkedIn descriptions are the boxes of text that appear directly underneath each job title you include in your experience. I see so many people who add all their roles to their LinkedIn profile - but without actually explaining what they did in those roles, it’s meaningless.
Looking at the screenshot above from my own LinkedIn profile, you can that this is where I briefly describe everything I was responsible for in each of these roles.
They key thing you’ve got to remember is brief. Your descriptions aren’t a place for you to tell your life story. You’ve got to summarise what you did, but include all the most important information.
Just from a quick glance at mine above, you can see that I’ve not even written in full sentences like an essay, or even what I put on my CV. I’ve listed them in bullet points and also made the phrases include lots of relevant keywords too.
A job title doesn’t tell the full story of what you do. Think about how many people are Marketing Managers or Web Designers. What makes you stand out? Your LinkedIn description is what will set you apart from the rest.
What approach should you take for your LinkedIn descriptions?
Less is more when it comes to LinkedIn. So when you’re writing your descriptions, instead of writing in full sentences, you want to use bullet point lists. You could say:
Part of my role involves brainstorming ideas for future marketing materials and promotional events and I’m also responsible for creating compelling website content including course pages and various other landing pages.
Or, you could put:
Brainstorm ideas for future marketing materials and promotional events
Create compelling website content including course pages and various other landing pages
Basically, the approach I advise people to take is bullet points and lists rather than full sentences you’d just copy and paste from your CV. These are a few reasons why:
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