In-House Counsel

About To Job Search? Don’t Overlook These Areas Of Your LinkedIn Profile

Make sure you're fully optimized, robust, and ripe for a legal job search in the digital age.

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As we enter the fall season, pumpkin spiced lattes and cooler weather aren’t the only things on your mind. You may be considering a job search before year’s end. However, before you step on the gas, send out your resume, and go full throttle on your job search, I recommend doing a quick audit of your LinkedIn profile to make sure it’s fully optimized, robust, and ripe for a legal job search in the digital age.

The Headline: The Title Of Your Book
When you create your LinkedIn profile, it naturally defaults to your job title. If your job title is “Associate Attorney at XYZ Law Firm” it doesn’t tell a reader anything about your areas of practice or the industry sectors you represent. Think of your LinkedIn profile as the title of your novel — make it sizzle with interest that captivates a reader’s attention. One of the best practices of writing a LinkedIn profile headline is to think about keywords that a recruiter or hiring firm partner would look for when researching someone with your experience. If you’re an expert at mergers and acquisitions, structured deals, or litigation, include those keywords in your headline.

The About/Summary Section: Your Career Story
Most professionals skip over the about/summary section of their LinkedIn profile, but it’s one of the most important areas to convey your career story, discuss your career experience, share your best leadership assets, and truly market your unique value to your readers. It should be keyword optimized to drive the right amount of traffic to your profile. Think about the clients you serve, the problems you solve. What are your key functions and responsibilities? What are you passionate about? What value do you bring to an organization?

Review job postings that interest you and where you meet at least 80 to 90 percent of qualifications. Analyze the keywords in the profile — you will begin to see a lot of repetition in the keywords used. This will also aid you in selecting focused keywords for your LinkedIn headline.

Most importantly, make sure your profile summary is written in first-person so that the tone remains human. You are connecting person to person on the platform. Your summary should not feel or read like a bio on a website.

The Skills Section: Powerful Keywords
LinkedIn gives you the ability to leverage 50 skills in the skills and endorsements section of your profile while pinning the top three skills. One of the biggest mistakes I see lawyers make in their LinkedIn profile is that they fail to update their skills to be consistent with their current career level and focus. If you’ve been practicing for 10 to even 20-plus years, pinning “legal research” or “legal writing” to your top three skills on your profile will be irrelevant. Instead, you will want to pin skills such as “legal compliance,” “corporate governance,” and “board support” which adequately frame your current career focus and aptitude. Go wide — try to maximize usage of the 50 allotted skills.

Professional Headshot And Cover Photo: Get Noticed
Whether you’re looking for remote work as an attorney or seeking an in-person general counsel role at a Fortune 100 company, invest in a professional headshot. Drop the selfie or the casual photo. Statistics show that LinkedIn profiles with professional headshots receive 14 times more profile views and are 36 times more likely to receive a message. I recommend using a database directory of qualified headshot photographers such as the Headshot Crew, which was founded by Peter Hurley, one of the most well-regarded headshot photographers. If you do public speaking, this is an investment that will pay off in dividends. In addition to having a high-resolution professional headshot, give yourself a branded cover photo. It can be simple, such as a city skyline, or a picture of a courthouse, or even a photo of a boardroom.

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One last tip: make sure the job titles in your LinkedIn profile match the job titles and dates of employment listed in your resume.

Don’t overlook these key areas of your profile that will rank you higher in search results, thus fast-tracking you to being seen and noticed by hiring partners and legal recruiters. Have a question about LinkedIn strategies? Feel free to connect with me on there and ask away.

Wendi Weiner is an attorney, career expert, and founder of The Writing Guru, an award-winning executive resume writing services company. Wendi creates powerful career and personal brands for attorneys, executives, and C-suite/Board leaders for their job search and digital footprint. She also writes for major publications about alternative careers for lawyers, personal branding, LinkedIn storytelling, career strategy, and the job search process. You can reach her by email at wendi@writingguru.net, connect with her on LinkedIn, and follow her on Twitter @thewritingguru.  

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