7 Ways To Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile As A Techie

Did you know that up to 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates? It's the place to go when recruiters and hiring managers are looking for candidates to headhunt...yet only 36% of job seekers are active on LinkedIn. This disparity means that when you're looking for a new position, being on LinkedIn—and having an active, polished profile—can give you a huge advantage.

Here are 7 things you can do as a techie to make your profile more attractive to potential recruiters.

Make your tech skills stand out - immediately.

Recruiters are busy people; don't make them waste time hunting for your skills and specialties. Right off the bat, use your headline to immediately summarize who you are as a professional: "Ruby on Rails developer." "Web designer specializing in WordPress." The more specific you can be with this limited space, the better. You want to stand out from everyone who goes with the vague/general "web developer," etc.

Once you've nailed down the headline, go into more depth in your summary. Particularly, talk about the specific languages you know and what practical purposes you've used them for.

Avoid inconsistencies with your resume.

Submitting a resume with a job application? It raises eyebrows when a hiring manager visits your LinkedIn profile to gain more context and your skills and/or experience misalign with your resume. In practical terms, this means updating both of them regularly—ideally at the same time.

Choose your profile photo wisely.

No potato-quality selfies allowed: use a clear, crisp photo that makes you look professional and accessible. Humans tend to make snap judgments, so how you present yourself does matter. But leave the photo off your resume; you may see templates where photos are included, but unless you're an actor or model, it will likely be considered strange. (However, feel free to include your LinkedIn profile URL there!)

Curate your information: don’t include *everything*.

Many people fall into the trap of assuming that more is better...that a huge info dump will make you look more experienced and versatile. However, this is not the case. Most hiring professionals don't want to spend 10 minutes poring over a 5000-word profile that includes your life history and a list of every computer course you've ever taken. They want to see concise, curated details where everything you've chosen to include serves a purpose and reflects your professional goals.

Design your LinkedIn profile in a way that it hits the highlights and leaves recruiters wanting to know more. Whet their appetite and make them want to send you a message. (And unless you built an app for the ice cream shop you worked at junior year, leave that one off.)

Use keywords wisely.

What's even more important than making your profile impress the recruiters who find you? Making it possible for them to find you. Think about and research some of the terms related to your specialties, and make sure to include those throughout your profile so you'll turn up in the results.

Hide the “People Also Viewed” box on your sidebar

Have you ever been looking at someone's profile on LinkedIn and noticed the "People Also Viewed" box on the sidebar? That box is essentially an invitation to leave your profile and go check out some of your competitors that your other profile visitors have been looking at.

Luckily, this is a distraction that's easy to eliminate. Navigate to the "Privacy & Settings" area of your profile, choose the Privacy tab, and set the "Viewer of this profile also viewed" toggle to "No."

Set your profile as visible to recruiters.

While you're in the Privacy tab—and once you're done setting up your profile to your liking—make sure the "Let recruiters know you're open to opportunities" toggle is on as well. This will give you a boost in showing up in recruiter searches. Generally, you'll have to re-activate this toggle every 90 days.

Lastly, of course, the most foolproof way to make your LinkedIn profile better is to make yourself better by continuously pursuing new skills and experience (and improving current skills). Take courses, put yourself out there as a freelancer, and work to make yourself the best candidate you can be.

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