Your LinkedIn summary is the text box at the top of your LinkedIn Profile, placed just beneath your photo. This is one of the first things people see when they visit your LinkedIn profile.
The LinkedIn profile summary has a 2,600-character limit, meaning that in approximately 350 words, you have to make a good enough first impression on your profile visitors. This section is particularly important for job seekers, since many companies use LinkedIn for recruitment. Why is that? Imagine you’re reading someone’s summary on LinkedIn and getting bored after two sentences. You probably wouldn’t want to hire that person. This is how recruiters think as well.
A well-written summary is one of the most important sections of your LinkedIn profile. The reason is pretty obvious – this is where you summarize your entire professional experience and skill set. If you write it well, you’ll increase your chances of getting noticed by the recruiters and landing that job you’re dreaming of.
In what follows, we are providing you with examples of LinkedIn summaries that you can use to hook the recruiters, depending on the experience, skills, and the type of job you are applying for.
For the less experienced job seekers – The personality summary
This is a type of LinkedIn summary that emphasizes your soft skills and personality traits.
Since it doesn’t speak much about the professional experience you have, it is an excellent choice if you don’t have much of it. For example, let’s say you’re new to the industry – you want to demonstrate to your employer that you are the right fit for the job you’re applying for.
This is a suitable type of resume to choose if you’re a student as well and want to start developing for one of the top business careers nowadays. It will introduce you to the professional world as a dedicated individual with a great personality. You don’t have much experience to put here, so stay away from forcing your limited student experience into the summary section. Recruiters mostly hire for personality anyways when it comes to entry-level jobs.
Here’s an example:
I love long-distance running. So far, I have completed two marathons and three half marathons, and I’m planning to finish one more this year. How is this relevant to a LinkedIn summary? It is because it speaks about my dedication and perseverance.
It’s not easy to wake up early every morning and train in different weather conditions, but I’ve been doing it for five years already. Persevering through a marathon is even harder, but I haven’t given up on any.
When I put my mind to something, I make it happen. That perseverance is something I have when doing anything else. And I am bringing it to any job I start working on.
If you’re interested in having a chat about a job opening at your company or my running philosophy, please send a message or an email my way. I’d be happy to speak about both!
For high-caliber positions – the accomplishments summary
If you already have some experience under your belt and are searching for a job that is higher on a hierarchy scale, this is the type of summary you should use. By stating your accomplishments in the summary section of your profile, you directly show potential employers the kind of work they can expect if they hire you.
When they see all the great things you’ve achieved so far, they will be more prone to think you deserve a position in their company. Who wouldn’t want a skilled, high-achieving individual in their teams? Pick up to three things you are most proud of in your career and highlight them in the resume section.
Here’s how you can do it, let’s say you’re searching for a job in sales:
I’m a business development manager with five years of experience in sales, team management, and marketing in the hospitality industry.
So far, I have helped the international resort I’m working at to triple their sales through marketing campaigns and cold outreach to potential customers.
In 2017, the team I was managing was awarded as the best-performing team across the whole organization due to the progress we have achieved.
In 2018, I implemented a new virtual assistant system and a CRM on a company level, which together enabled us to track and retarget previous visitors and boost sales by an additional 15%.
If you have a business that prioritizes growth, I am the person that can help. Contact me here or send me an email, I’d love to have a chat.
Things you should include in every LinkedIn summary
Whichever option you choose, make sure that your LinkedIn summary covers the following:
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Show what you’ll do for an employer
The summary section on LinkedIn is short, so you want to communicate the value you’re bringing to a potential employer through just a few paragraphs. Don’t make it all about your need for a job. Instead, focus on the reasons why anyone would want you on their team. That’s what will make the recruiters reach out to you.
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Include numbers
One of the most effective ways to demonstrate your capabilities is through measurable results, data, and numbers.
Include amounts of money you helped generate, the growth you contributed to in percentages, the number of people you trained or managed, etc. This is how you’ll grab the attention of recruiters and convince them to invite you for an interview to find out more about what you can do in a workplace in terms of results.
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Use keywords for the job you are searching for
SEO skills matter in your LinkedIn resumes as well, believe it or not. Now that LinkedIn algorithms use keywords to show recruiters the employees that could match their needs, you have no choice but to include them in your summary. Of course, if you want to increase your chances of getting hired.
Take a look at the descriptions of jobs you’d like to have and identify the most common words that are used there. Use some of the tools such as AI content generators to help you create related phrases. Then, include them in your LinkedIn summary. That’s how you’ll start appearing in the search and suggestions section of your recruiters.
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Pay attention to the opening
The first part of your summary can make or break the impression you want to leave on your potential employers. That’s why you should make this part as interesting as possible to hook them. You should grab their attention with a good opening line and get them to stop scrolling. The goal is to make them click “see more” and keep on reading your full summary.
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Make your LinkedIn summary easy to read
We all know how short our attention spans have become. Recruiters are just people, so this works for them as well.
They will lose focus quickly if they see huge blocks of text and endless paragraphs.
That’s why you should keep your paragraphs short and include white space between them. Then, you’ll see how much more pleasant it is to read your summary and see the main points.
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Include a CTA at the end
Any salesperson will tell you that you won’t do much without interactive content with a “call to action” in your sales texts. And LinkedIn resume is just that – you’re trying to pitch yourself to a potential employer. Simply asking the recruiters to contact you will increase the chances of that happening.
That’s why (as we demonstrated throughout examples) you should end your summary by actually asking your potential employers to contact you if they think that your skills and background match the job openings in their company.
In conclusion
The type of summary you chose will help you reach your goals faster depending on your skills and previous experience, as well as the professional goals you are aiming for. However, in the end, it’s all about nuances – it’s important that you have a well-written, captivating summary section on your profile.
There are so many wonderful examples on LinkedIn that can inspire you. We suggest that you search for the profiles of the people you aspire to become like. They can help you decide if you want to go with one of the approaches above. Or create a new one – the choice is yours.
