Join me for Part III of my 4-Part LinkedIn Profile Workshop. In this episode, I tell you everything you need to know to create a powerful Experience Section. I break down the process into simple, bite-sized steps that take the stress out of optimizing your LinkedIn profile. You’ll learn time-saving shortcuts, as well as secrets to make your Experience section logarithm-friendly.
By the end of the Workshop, you’ll have a LinkedIn profile that helps you achieve what’s next in your career.
Part 1 of the Workshop was all about getting your best profile photo. In Part II you developed a powerful Headline. Now, in Part III, you’re going to learn about how to put together an amazing Experience section.
Again, I’m keeping this episode short, sweet and value-packed. I’m going to get straight to the point with all the information you need. Then, I’m going to release you to implement these strategies, take action and complete this next step of your LinkedIn profile.
Are you ready? Let’s do this.
Your LinkedIn Experience section is a piece of cake if you have your resume. When I work with my clients, we get their resume all set and complete before we work on their LinkedIn Experience section.
If you don’t have a resume yet, I recommend that you put one together. I tell you exactly how to do this in Episode 7: How to Create a Winning Resume.
Once you have your resume, you’re going to use it to build your LinkedIn Experience section. Keep this in mind: Your Experience section and resume aren’t the same thing. You’re not going to be dumping your entire resume into your LinkedIn profile.
You ARE going to look to your resume to find the experiences that are relevant to the work you want to do in the future.
So, you don’t need your whole work and volunteer history represented. - And, yes, I’m referring to paid and unpaid experience in the same breath. If you have unpaid work experience that is relevant to your current job or the job you’re aiming for, go ahead and put this in the Experience section. I use the Volunteer section to document things that aren’t career related.
There’s no magic number of entries in the Experience section, though you don’t need to travel way back in time to distant Experiences.
For each experience, take your resume, copy between 2-5 of your accomplishment bullets and paste them into LinkedIn. When I say, “accomplishment bullet”, I’m talking about the resume bullet structure that describes a problem you faced, the action you took and the result. Accomplishment statements should be chock full of key words applicable to your industry and also include data to reflect your impact.
Those key words and phrases are going to help your profile rise to the top for the LinkedIn algorithm and recruiters.
Be selective when you choose these bullets from your resume. Choose the accomplishment statements that relate to what you want to do in your next job.
The Experience section is as simple as that! See, I told you this would be short and sweet! Now you can go forth and copy and paste those accomplishment statements into your LinkedIn Experience section. You’ll be finished before you know it!
Next week I’ll be back with Part IV of my 4-part LinkedIn Profile Workshop Series. Until then, take good care and know that I’m cheering you on!