Creativity comes from noticing patterns, without being constrained, and showing them to your advantage.
There is an incorrect expectation that you must be dull on LinkedIn to provide your information uncreatively, while being concise and organized.
Not so.
Think how you come across to the casual, attention-deficit reader. You want them to be struck by your story. Tell it well:
Refer to yourself with the pronoun “I” throughout your LinkedIn profile, addressing the reader as if you are actually speaking to him/her. This is especially crucial in each subsection of your Experience, preventing you from being accused of copying-and-pasting your resume there. Ban the resume talk on LinkedIn!
And never “Mr. Halpert did this”…and “Mr. Halpert did that.”
Don’t speak about “we” in your personal LinkedIn profile. It’s about you, not your company.
Use appropriate business language and syntax, as if this were a professional presentation. Because it is.
Deflect the need to invoke too many acronyms; only use those that people in all industries will be aware of.
You want to keep the length of the narrative description of your accomplishments in each career position relative to the time you spend there:
- 24 years’ experience in the job same job HAS TO offer more about your growth from that period than 3 lines!
- if the previous position was 8 months’ duration, then 2-3 lines might be sufficient for that job.
Tell us what you accomplished with your growth over time. A pattern of sorts, right?
Use the right verb tense for the situation: past tense for the history of you, present for your current situation, and future for what you seek to accomplish next. Use the right action verbs too.
No typos, grammar errors, or factual errors. Be sure one date rolls into another, with no gaps unless you explain them.
Patterns provide the structure; your creative touch with how you say the why you do what you do makes a house a home, a meal a dining experience, a dress a gown.
Be real. Be organized and smart as you portray yourself. You only get one chance.
