As a student or graduate, it can be difficult to know what to put on your LinkedIn profile to attract and impress potential employers. Especially when you haven’t had much opportunity to get out there and gain the experience and skills they’re looking for while at uni. 

But you know that having a strong LinkedIn presence is an essential part of securing your dream role after college, as this is one of the first places employers look to perform a background check. 

So, how do you write a good LinkedIn profile? What are the characteristics of a compelling LinkedIn presence for employers? If you’re not sure, keep reading, as you’ll find out everything you need to know about nailing your LinkedIn profile to attract employers in this blog. 

The LinkedIn basics for graduate job seekers

Okay, let’s start with some of the fundamental basics of setting up and optimising your linkedIn professional profile. 

Add a nice headshot

When your potential employer can put a face to the name, you no longer become a faceless piece of paper in a mountain of CVs. If you can, get professional headshots taken for your linkedIn profile picture. This is not the place for a badly-lit selfie with a beer in your hand. 

Update your experience

Don’t leave your experience section empty. Considering you probably don’t have as much relevant industry experience as you’d like, make sure you highlight the experience you do have, describing the skills you obtained and the responsibilities for each role.

Update skills, awards & certifications

Use the keyword tool to type in all the skills, awards, and certifications you’ve acquired and don’t be shy! These are the keywords potential employers are typing into LinkedIn to find you online, so make them relevant to the role you’re looking for, like “design software skills.”

Write a snappy headline

Make sure your LinkedIn profile headline contains a short description of the kind of job you’re seeking, your past experience, and an interesting or quirky fact about yourself (as a conversation starter). This headline should be no more than 220 characters long. 

Here’s an example:

Passionate About The Planet Engineering Graduate | 1.1 Honours | Seeking Role In Sustainable Engineering Firm In London | Wants To Create A Cleaner Future | Plays Guitar Badly & Loves Cats! | DM For My CV

Write an informative “about” summary

Your “about” summary is super important as this is where potential employers will get a real sense of who you are, your personality, experience, and goals. It’s crucial that you put the time and effort into this part of your LinkedIn profile and use up the full 2,000 characters. 

Make sure to include these key things:

• Your experience & qualifications

• Key project results you achieved

• The type of role you’re looking for

• What excites you about that role

• Your culture, values, and purpose

• The kind of company you’d fit in with

• List your soft and hard skills 

• Your contact details 

5 top tips to use LinkedIn effectively for job hunting

If you’re trying to attract more recruitment agencies to your LinkedIn profile or look impressive to future employers, here are some of our best LinkedIn profile tips.

Grow your network

LinkedIn is, after all, a social network - so get social! Add people you think might have connections to roles or companies you’d like to work in, and don’t be afraid to interact with their posts or even reach out to them and ask if they have any tips/ opportunities available.

Post regularly

Posting regularly on LinkedIn is a fantastic way to get noticed by future employers, especially if other LinkedIn users share your posts. You can add posts that include things employers like to see, such as:

• Projects at university

• Volunteer projects

• Extracurricular activities

• Portfolios/ essay snippets

• Results & achievements

• Previous work experience

• Goals for the future

• Thoughts on the industry

Ask for endorsements

LinkedIn has a cool feature where people you know or have worked with can “vouch” for the skills you list on your profile. So why not reach out to classmates, university lecturers, and previous employers to validate your skills? This will seriously increase credibility.

Search LinkedIn jobs

Many recruiters will post job adverts directly on LinkedIn. By searching for relevant jobs using their job search function, you’ll be able to apply for roles with the click of a button, and employers will immediately connect your CV to your LinkedIn profile. Easy peasy!

Stay in-the-know

When you’re looking for a new job, it’s important that you stay up to date with the latest news in both the industry and the companies you’re applying to for the interview stage. LinkedIn is a fantastic place to do so, as you can follow many industry leaders here to stay informed. 

Want to learn how to prepare for interviews? Get our top tips for acing your next interview in our previous blog.

Bonus LinkedIn profile tip: Ask a recruiter for help!

We hope you found this guide to optimising your LinkedIn profile so you can land your dream role helpful! Now it’s time to apply those tips to your own LinkedIn profile so you can put your best self out there for future employers.

You don't have to navigate your career alone. Our expert recruitment consultants are here to nurture you from job applications right through to interviews and onboarding. We can even tell you how to optimise your LinkedIn profile for better job search results!

At Buchanan Search, we help UK graduates, entry-level workers, and trainees navigate the next step in their professional journeys with helpful advice, attentive support, and ongoing access to the best job opportunities out there. 

Get in touch with us today to carve out your dream career path, step by step. 

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