Polish Your LinkedIn Profile - Self Evaluation

	A	B	C	D	E	F
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2	LinkedIn Profile Section	Why does it matter?	Best Practices	Completion Checklist	Complete? Yes/No	If no, what are next steps?
3	Photo	Linkedin profiles with professional-looking headshots receive roughly 14 times more profile views and are 36 times more likely to receive a message on Linkedin.	Use the checklist to the right to evaluate the photo in your LinkedIn profile. If you find that your photo isn't meeting these standards, check out this helpful article to learn how to take a do-it-yourself LinkedIn headshot using just a smartphone camera and a friend. For some great banner photo options, check out www.splash.com.	Friendly, approachable, smiling, eye contact
4				Neutral and/or solid color background
5				Professional and industry-appropriate clothing
6				Headshot (taken from the elbow up)
7				No distracting props or accessories
8				Good lighting, clear photo
9				Background is professional, clear, and does not distract
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11	Headline	Your headline is the first thing people see after your name, and it appears wherever your name does on LinkedIn. By choosing a headline that best describes your profession or your professional aspirations in just a few words, you make the most of this quick first impression.	For people who are working, a discriptive title and company name work great (e.g. "Marketing Analyst at GrubHub"). If your job title is more general, add a little additional info to help visitors understand what you do (e.g. if you have the generic title "Analyst" you may want to provide a little more information "Analyst at Yahoo providing marketing insights for data-driven decisions") If you are not working or are changing career tracks, incorporate keywords and/or the title of the position and generic discription of the companies you are targeting with your job search ("Marketing Analyst providing insights for high-growth startups").	Common search keyword(s) for your title/industry
12				No mention of candidate looking for work (to avoid potential recruiter bias for hiring employed people)
13				Provides some idea of your career level (this is often accomplished by the job title alone, but you may add specific language (e.g. "with 5+ years' experience") if necessary
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15	Introduction	The Introduction section is the one place you define yourself in your own words, free of start dates and titles. It should contain a brief summary of the skills, experience, quantifiable achievements, most related to your career goals.	Here's a basic template to help guide you: I'm a seasoned [title/career name] with [#] years' experience [What you do] in the [Name of industry]. I'm passionate about [What results you achieve - be specific!] for [Companies, partners, or clients, etc.], and I've spent the last [#] years helping growing [Company's] [KPI] by [% growth or $$, or improved a process for time savings, etc.] through dedicated efforts [Skill], [Another Skill], and [Skill]. I've been [Published, recognized, or awarded] by [Outlet or organization] for my [Research, work, achievements]. I'm currently seeking [Opportunities you're pursuing on LinkedIn], so if you'd like to work together, contact me by [Method of contact].	Contains keywords relevant to the position you are seeking
16	Introduction			Summarizes your skills and experience, beginning with your most recent position and achievements
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18	Experience	The experience section of your LinkedIn profile should list the same positions, companies, dates, and locations as your resume.	Compare the experience section of your resume to your LinkedIn profile and ensure that all of the information is accurate. Copy/paste the bullet points for each position from your resume for each position.	Companies/positions/dates/locations are all accurate
19	Experience			Bullets from resume
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21	Skills & Endorsements	In this section, select the keywords that describe your professional skills and job titles that represent you best. Once you've developed a list, you can ask your connections to endorse you for these skills, which will help boost your ranking when a recruiter searches for these specific terms.	Use the keywords that relate to the positions and desired skills that you see in job descriptions (e.g. a Software Engineer might select "Software Engineer", "Software Development", and "Programmer", because they are all titles that apply to this job. They would also select important skill keywords, such as "Java" "Ruby On Rails", "SQL" and "Project Management".	Title and skills keywords
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