UYP
Updating Your Profile
Thank you for choosing area|Talent to optimize your LinkedIn profile. You received a document titled “Name.LIP” with your project delivery. This document contains all of the content for copy and paste into each profile section along with a list of skills to be added to your profile. The following provides step-by-step instructions on updating the content on your profile, setting up your skills section, utilizing the featured section, and optimizing your settings. It is important to know that LinkedIn is constantly making updates, and they roll these updates out over time, so these steps may not align with what you see. Please let me know if you see something different so I can update this page.
BEFORE MAKING UPDATES TO YOUR PROFILE MAKE SURE YOUR NETWORK IS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE UPDATES. Click on Me (top right) then Settings & Privacy, then Visibility (on the left) scroll down to “Visibility of your LinkedIn activity. Make sure “Share profile updates with your network,” shows OFF. If it doesn’t, click change and toggle to Off.
Updating the Content.
Each section of your profile is listed as a headline on your document titled “Name.LIP”. To update each section, follow these instructions. First, open LinkedIn and navigate to your profile page (click on your name at top left. This will take you to your personal page).
Headline
Click on the pencil icon to the right of your photo, just below the banner photo. Copy and paste the headline on your document into the Headline field.
Location
Scroll down to Country/Region. If you’ve already completed this with your postal code, you will see a city listed. Click on the arrow and if given the option of a larger metropolitan area, select the larger area. For example, if your postal code shows “Montebello” and you have the option for “Los Angeles Metropolitan Area” select LAMA. You will fall into a broader search.
Industry
Scroll through the list in the Industry section to choose the most closely aligned industry you are SEEKING employment. Click Save to return to your profile.
About Section
If you have an existing about section, scroll down and click the pencil in the top right of that section. Delete what is in there and copy and paste the new content from your .LIP doc. Make sure formatting comes over properly (spacing) and insert spaces between paragraphs if necessary. Then click Save to return to your profile.
If you do not have an About Section, click “Add section” at the top of your profile next to “Open to” and click on “About”. Follow the same steps above.
You will see a skill box under the content area where you add your top 5 skills. You can find the recommended skills to add under the skills section of your document.
Experience Section
To add NEW experience, click the “+” sign located to the right of Experience. This will open a new window where you add your Title, Employment Type, Company Name, Location, and Dates. If you are still in this role, make sure “I am currently working in this role” is checked. If you are no longer in this role, uncheck the box and add an end date. Copy and paste the experience for this position listed on your .LIP doc. Ensure spacing is correct and adjust if necessary. Click Save to return to your profile.
If you are updating EXISTING experience already listed, hover over the position and click the pencil icon to the right. This will open a new window with your current content. Update any missing fields. Delete the content in the “Description” box and paste the content for the applicable position listed on your .LIP doc.
If you have any media you want to add to a specific role (presentations, weblinks, etc., click “Add Media” and then choose the media type and enter URL or upload file. Click Save to return to your profile.
Education
If you do not have an Education section, click “Add section” at the top of your profile next to “Open to” and select “Education”. Enter all of the relevant details of your schooling. Leave off dates unless you are a recent (under 5 years) graduate. If you need to update your existing Education that is listed, click the pencil next to Education to make edits. Click Save to return to your profile.
Adding/Updating Licenses, Certifications, & Volunteer Experience
Click on “Add section” at the top of your profile next to “Open to” and select the applicable section. Enter all of the relevant details. Click Save to return to your profile.
Scroll Down for video walk through.
Turning off update sharing.
Updating each content section.
Building Your Skills Profile
Content changes help with SEO, including optimizing your skills section. LinkedIn recently added a tool called a resume builder, that shows you the skills recruiters search for based on specific job titles. If you purchased a LinkedIn service, other than a Career Lab, I have already done these steps and generated a list of skills for you. This is an FYI only if you ever need to know how to build out your skills profile going forward.
Pre-Built Skills Profile
I’ve included a skills profile to add to your skills section. Skills that are recommended for removal are indicated in red. You can have up to 100 skills on your profile. To further build out your skills section, I’ve left room to add new skills. You can find these in many job postings on LinkedIn (premium membership). You will see a list of skills the recruiter is looking for. If that skill is not in your profile, they will give you the option to add it.
Assigning Skills to Your Experience
As you add skills to your profile, you will see the option to indicate where throughout your career you used that skill. You want to add 5-10 skills per job in the experience section. Simply click the check box next to the role you want to add it to before adding the skill to your profile.
No Skills Section. No Problem
If you have skills listed in your profile, you will see a skills section towards the bottom of the page. Click “+” to add new skills, included in the .LIP document.
If you do not have any skills listed on your profile, you will need to click on “Add section” at the top of your profile next to “Open to” and select Skills.
Pro Tip.
If you type in a skill that is not listed in the database, the first word in the skill (some may be phrases) will not be capitalized, which means it’s not a searchable term. It is also possible you already have the skill listed in your profile. If that happens, the skill may not show up when you type it in. There may be a skill that I list that doesn’t populate, look for a “like” skill and choose that.
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Settings
Your settings affect searchability. So make sure you follow these settings to maximize your profile’s visibility
Profile Viewing Options
Click on Visibility found in the left menu. Make sure Profile viewing options show “Full profile”. If not, click on Change and switch to “Your name and headline”. If you don’t have this clicked, recruiters and others on the platform can’t see who you are if not connected, greatly diminishing the chances of them reaching out.
Public Profile
Click on Edit your public profile (2 down from Profile viewing options). The first thing you will do here is to make sure your URL is optimized. If you are a resume client, this step will have already been done. If not, click on the pencil under “Edit your custom URL” on the top right and remove all dashes and extra characters after your name (including the dash between your first and last name). If your name is already taken, you will get a message when trying to update. You will need to pick a new URL. Adding an initial is usually the best option. Another option would be to put the abbreviation of your state (donpippinca).
Visibility
On the right you will see “Your profile’s public visibility”. Make sure that is “On” then make sure where it says “Profile Photo” the radio button next to Public is GREEN. This is how you are found in a Google search. Scroll through the rest of the list and make sure everything is marked “Show” and is GREEN. (Groups is optional and can be hidden if desired). Click the BACK ARROW in your browser to return the main settings screen. All changes are saved. You will now be back on the Setting page.
Job Seeking Preferences
Navigate to Data Privacy and then Job Application Preferences. Make sure “Sharing your profile when you click Apply and Signal your interest to recruiters at companies you’ve created job alerts for” is “Yes”. If not, click on Change for each and update to Yes. Also, upload a copy of your resume under “Job application settings”.
Make sure in the job-seeking preferences tab Share your resume data with all recruiters is turned ON! This new update allows content in your resume to be searchable by recruiters.
Active Status
This is an optional setting, but I recommend choosing who can see when you are on LinkedIn as “Noone”. That way you don’t have to worry about colleagues seeing you online during the day. This can be found in the Visibility section (we are already in there) by scrolling down to the section labeled “Visibility of your LinkedIn activity.”
Other Settings
The video below will also walk through signing up for a premium account and turning off permissions for Microsoft.
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Open to Work
This is an optional feature, but I highly recommend doing this so recruiters know you are open to new opportunities. Go back to your main profile page and click on “Open to” just under your headline. You can select up to 5 job titles. Complete the information here and then select “Recruiters Only” where it says “Choose who sees you’re open”. LinkedIn does not guarantee that your company won’t see this but takes steps to hide this from recruiters within your organization.
Setting your Open to work status Public is recommended if you are unemployed. The downside though, is you open yourself up to a lot of scammers. So beware!
Other Optional Settings & Sections
Turn off Data for Generative AI Improvement. Go to Settings and Data Privacy and toggle off “Data for Generative AI Improvement.”
Adding items to your Featured section. If you have media, presentations, websites, or projects that you want to highlight at the top of your profile, adding them to your Featured section is a great way to draw attention to what matters to you. Click on Add section and then Featured to add content. Pro Tip: If you are an entrepreneur or sales professional, this is a great place to add a one-click link to your scheduling tool!
Record the pronunciation of your name (can only be done from the app). You will see a speaker icon next to your name. Click on that to record your name.
Add your pronouns. Completely optional, but recommended.
Add contact information. Click on Contact below your headline and then click the pencil to add your phone number, email address, or any information you want people to have access to.
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