When I decided to get serious about my own LinkedIn profile, I did something slightly obsessive.
I watched how I check out other people’s profiles.
Turns out it goes like this: see someone interesting in the comments, maybe catch the first part of their headline, click their name, glance at the headshot, scan the banner, read the headline.
That’s it. That’s the whole audition.
If nothing grabs me in that first pass, I’m gone. I haven’t even gotten to your About section. I haven’t read a single word of your Experience. I don’t know yet if you’re brilliant or boring.
I just know you didn’t stop me. So I left.
Three sections. That’s what you get.
Your LinkedIn headshot: I need to see your face
Clearly. Not a logo, not a group photo, not whatever that Zoom screenshot was. And definitely not the whole-body yoga pose that makes you look like a hot pink frog.
(True story, BTW.)
A real face signals a real person. Everything else signals something went wrong.
Your LinkedIn banner: the most wasted space on your profile
It’s the most valuable and most underused piece of real estate you’ve got. It’s the first thing the eye hits, and most people leave it blank, blue, or loaded with a stock cityscape.
(Ugh to all of these.)
That space should immediately convey a promise: what you offer, and why I should care.
Your LinkedIn headline: not your job title
Definitely not the company you work for, either.
The role of your headline is to make you interesting enough that I want to keep exploring your profile. Lean into why your promise matters and who benefits from it. Tell me a weird fact about you. (Did you know I have a dent in my head?)
You don’t even get three seconds. You get less.
So how do you survive the first scan?
You make those three sections do the work of making you intriguing enough that the human who is checking you out wants to keep learning more.
That’s it. That is the job of those three sections.
And for the rest of your profile? Make sure it backs up those promises.
Want the specifics? The free Profile Cheat Sheets break down what actually works in your headshot, banner, and headline.