If you ask most executives what part of their LinkedIn profile matters the most, many will point to their experience, education, or the longer About section.
I disagree. I repeat: I disagree and here is why.
I’m a headhunter in Thailand for over 20 years and study LinkedIn profiles every day. This is personal practical experience and the following will help you get more interest in your LinkedIn profile.
The two most important lines on your LinkedIn
As an executive search headhunter, I spend a large part of my day searching LinkedIn for senior leaders. In addition to our own and our network NPAworldwide tracking system as well as the Internet of Things.
I may review hundreds of profiles every week. I simply do not have the time to study every profile in detail. Same for most recruiters.
The two most important parts of your profile are your Headline, the lines immediately below your name, and the opening two lines of your About section.
The first question is always the same. I ask myself this:
“Does this person appear to be relevant for my assignment?”
Within a few seconds, I am looking for the person’s function, industry, seniority, and area of expertise. If I cannot quickly find that information, I move on within seconds to the next profile.
That is why your Headline deserves much more attention than most people give it.
Your Headline is your professional introduction
LinkedIn allows a generous number of characters in your Headline. You can use the entire space if you wish. Personally, I recommend using around half of it.
On most laptop screens, that normally creates a clean Headline of approximately two lines instead of four. It is easier to read and allows the important information to stand out immediately.
Think of your Headline as a short summary of who you are professionally.
Instead of trying to sound impressive, focus on being clear.
A recruiter searching for an Accounting & Finance Manager wants to know one thing before anything else.
“Is this person actually an Accounting and Finance Manager?”
If the answer is not immediately obvious, your profile has already become harder to find and more difficult to evaluate.
10 Headline examples
Think like the recruiter who is searching for someone exactly like you.
The order matters. I recommend starting with your current or target function. Follow that with your industry. Then add your specialist knowledge.
Finally, include your geographical scope and unique expertise (selling point) if it strengthens your profile.
Here are 10 examples across different industries.
Chief Financial Officer | Manufacturing | Business Partner | Mergers and Acquisitions | SAP Super User| Southeast Asia
Accounting and Finance Manager | FMCG | Financial Control | MS Dynamics ERP | Business Partner
Human Resources Director | Retail | Talent Acquisition | Learning & Development | Regional ASEAN
General Manager | Food Manufacturing | Operations | Continuous Improvement | Lean | Six Sigma |Thailand
Sales Director | Medical Devices | Hospital Network | Commercial Strategy | Salesforce.com |Southeast Asia
Supply Chain Director | Consumer Goods | Sourcing & Procurement | Regional Distribution
Engineering Director | Automotive | Plant Management | Lean Manufacturing | Eastern Seaboard EEC
Government Affairs Director | Telecommunications | Regulatory Affairs | Public Policy | Thailand
Information Technology Director | Microsoft Dynamics 365 | IT & ERP | Digital Transformation | Jewelry Manufacturing
Country Manager | Logistics | Contract Logistics | Freight Forwarding Air & Sea | Thailand
Notice that none of these Headlines try to be clever. They simply communicate exactly what the person does.
The About section starts long before anyone clicks “More”
The biggest mistake I see is not actually in the Headline. It is in the About section.
Many professionals write one enormous paragraph of six, eight, or even ten lines without a single line break.
- Very few recruiters are going to read that.
- Your mother probably would.
- Recruiters probably will not.
When scrolling through LinkedIn and down to About, on a laptop we only see the first couple of lines before LinkedIn hides the rest behind the “More” button.
That means those first two lines carry almost as much weight as your Headline.
For example:
“I have spent more than fifteen years leading regional supply chain operations within multinational FMCG companies across Thailand and Southeast Asia. My experience includes procurement, S&OP, logistics, inventory optimization, and manufacturing support.”
Those two sentences already tell me whether I should continue reading.
Instead of one large block of text, break your About section into four paragraphs, each with only two or three short sentences. Leave a blank line between each paragraph.
Hard skills on your profile. Soft skills at the interview
One of the biggest mistakes I see on LinkedIn is executives filling their Headline and About section with soft skills.
Team player. Empathetic leader. Results driven. Strategic thinker. Excellent communicator. Passionate professional.
There is nothing wrong with any of those qualities. In fact, they may all be true. The problem is that recruiters do not search LinkedIn using those words.
When a client asks me to find candidates, they do not say, “Please find me an empathetic leader.”
They ask for a Human Resources Director from the retail industry. A Chief Financial Officer with manufacturing experience. A Supply Chain Director who has implemented S&OP. A Microsoft Dynamics specialist. A Government Affairs Director with strong regulatory experience.
Your LinkedIn profile should therefore help you appear in those searches. Your function, industry, technical expertise, certifications, systems, products, markets, and regional experience should be immediately visible.
Your soft skills become important later.
That is where interviews, personality assessments, cognitive assessments, reference checks, and leadership discussions come into play. That is where employers determine whether you are collaborative, resilient, influential, trustworthy, or an inspiring leader.
Think of it this way.
Your hard skills help you get found. Your soft skills help you get hired.
Your LinkedIn profile should first make recruiters stop scrolling. The interview should then convince them that you are the right person for the job.
Remember who your audience is
Your LinkedIn profile is not written for family and friends.
It is written for recruiters, hiring managers, customers, business partners, and potential employers.
When my clients ask me to identify a new executive, they almost always want someone from their own industry.
- They want someone who understands the business from day one.
- They want someone who already knows the suppliers.
- They want someone who already knows the customers.
- They want someone who already understands the regulators and government agencies that influence the industry.
That is why your industry should be immediately visible. The same applies to your function.
If I am searching for an Accounting and Finance Manager, I want to see Accounting and Finance Manager.
If I am searching for a Human Resources Director, I want to see Human Resources Director.
Do not make recruiters guess.
