Your LinkedIn Profile is Unprofessional: 3 'Quick Wins' to Fix Your First Impression

When someone lands on your LinkedIn profile, what they see immediately will dictate how they think of you. It's that first impression.

It's just like when I jump on a Zoom or Teams meeting. Every single week, I can guarantee I'll meet somebody who, even after all these years, hasn't figured out how to use the microphone and camera controls. My first impression is them staring at the screen with this confused, dazed look on their face.

Now, I don't care, I'm a pretty laid-back person, so I just find it funny and we crack on. But in a recruitment environment, if that's the first impression people have, it's not good.

The same goes for your LinkedIn profile. A picture tells a thousand words, so you’ve got to look professional from the very start. Here are three quick wins to fix your profile right now.

Quick Win 1: Fix Your Photo and Banner (Stop Looking Unprofessional)

I’m not sure people have really thought about their personal brand. How do you want people to think about you?

I don't know about where you live, but where I live, you get people who buy the most powerful car possible, drill a hole in the exhaust, and drive around making a right racket. In their head, they're thinking, "Yeah, everybody thinks I'm really cool."

My experience is that when they drive past, the first thought in anyone's head is not "that person's really cool." It's indeed quite the opposite.

This is the same on LinkedIn. People read articles about "being your authentic self." That's a good thing, as long as your authentic self isn't going to rub everybody up the wrong way. That drilled-out exhaust might be "authentic," but it ain't going to help that person's brand.

So, let's be blunt about your photo:

• It shouldn't be a selfie in the mirror.

• It shouldn't be a "trout pout."

• It shouldn't be you downing a pint of lager in a pub, laying on the bonnet of a Ferrari, or halfway up a mountain with ski goggles on.

These things can be on Facebook. For LinkedIn, just have a nice, professional, head-and-shoulders photo. Have a smile. Look intelligent. Look engaging.

The same goes for your banner image (the bit behind your photo). LinkedIn wants you to have a personalised background image. But what many people have is a blank placeholder, and it doesn't look good. If you're an accountant, have an image of a calculator and a laptop. Just put something professional there.

Quick Win 2: Re-write Your 'Word Salad' Headline

The next thing we need to worry about is the headline. You've got about 240 characters.

Too many profiles default to just "Accountant at BP." That isn't going to help anybody. It's not insightful, it's not exciting, and it's not sane enough.

Others go for the "word salad approach." You’ve seen it: "Founder, Public Speaker, LinkedIn Expert, Personal Branding Leader" all separated by little lines.

If you're a job seeker, I would rather see a value proposition statement.

• What are you? Tell people what you are, and ideally, what your target audience is looking for. If they're looking for a "Senior Management Accountant," call yourself that, not a "Finance Professional."

• What value do you offer? This is the value you are proposing to offer your target audience.

If we get behind the LinkedIn Recruiter license, we understand what they see. When you're in their candidate list, they don't really see much else other than your photo and your headline. Those key things need to be in your headline, or you won't even get a click.

Quick Win 3: Customise Your LinkedIn URL

This is a simple one. Once you have more than 500 connections, you can customise your LinkedIn URL.

Go into your settings and change the last bit of your URL from that load of random characters to something more meaningful, like your name. It just looks more professional and joined-up.

Further Help

Look, it's a competitive job market. If you've read this today and thought, "Gosh, I really need to brush up my LinkedIn profile, but I don't have the time or energy to do it myself," then let us do it for you.

This is a proper personal branding exercise. We have a two-hour fact-finding session with you to understand your career objectives, your value proposition, and your strengths. We write the whole thing from scratch.

Email [email protected] for more details.