The Software Engineer’s Guide to Writing a LinkedIn Profile that Stands Out
So you’re a software engineer ready to look for a new job. You’ve already written a resume and linked it to your LinkedIn page. Now you realize you need to update your LinkedIn Page as well. But what makes a good LinkedIn page? How will you stand out to recruiters?
I’ve worked with lots of engineers who struggle to get interviews, and they often feel:
😫 Hopeless when they send in 100s of applications and get no response
😥 Discouraged from being rejected because they don’t meet the criteria
😡 Not in control of their job search and career
It can be frustrating to spend weeks or months job searching, especially for engineers who:
🎓 Are finishing school with no job lined up
🛂 Have a tight visa deadline they have to work with or leave the country
🤬 Hate their current jobs, especially if they have a terrible manager
💸 Need to pay bills!
The good news is that the tech sector will continue to grow in the next decade, and software engineering is one of the most in-demand jobs in the world. You can take control of your job search, find a job that’s a good fit, and continue building your career if you have the right approach.
In my 10+ years of software engineering and engineering management experience, I’ve reviewed thousands of resumes and LinkedIn profiles and worked with dozens of technical recruiters. So, I know what recruiters and hiring managers look for. I’ve also coached dozens of candidates on improving their resumes, GitHub, and LinkedIn profiles to stand out and get their foot in the door for interviews.
In this article, I’ll explain everything you need to know about updating your LinkedIn to help you get interviews and get recruiters reaching out to you!
First, let’s understand a bit more about how your LinkedIn profile fits into your job search strategy.
What is your LinkedIn Profile?
You probably think this is a stupid question, but software engineers often don’t understand their LinkedIn profile’s role in their job search.
Your LinkedIn profile is a sales page for your software engineering services.
Its purpose is to convince recruiters and engineering managers that you have the skills and experience necessary to solve their problems, create value for the business, and improve the lives of their customers.
Hiring managers have a roadmap of features they want to build and a backlog of problems they must solve for the business. To make progress toward their goals, they want to hire software engineers with specific skills they believe will be able to help them solve their problems. Sourcers and recruiters work with the managers to search for software engineers who will be good fits for their teams.
Your LinkedIn profile must show you are a good candidate for the role by showcasing your skills and accomplishments.
🏗️ What have you built? How big was the project?
🛠️ What problems did you solve? How complex were they?
🤑 How much money did that make for the company?
A great LinkedIn page converts visits from recruiters and hiring managers into emails and DMs asking if you’re interested in the role they’re hiring for.
Let’s dive in on how to improve your LinkedIn!
First Impressions Matter!
Whether on messages, connection requests, job applications, or search results, the person on the other side will see 3 main things–your name, profile picture, and headline.
Profile Picture
When you reach out to connect with people, respond to recruiters, or apply for jobs, you don’t want to appear as a gray dot, do you? Selecting a great profile photo is like wearing nice clothes for an interview.
Make sure you select a profile photo with a clear view of your smiling face and minimal background clutter, so the viewer doesn’t get distracted. When the recruiter thinks about you, this will be the mental image, so make it a good one.
Good Examples
Bad Example
Headline
After your profile picture, your headline is the first thing viewers will see. It should let people know what you’re about and draw the right people to click on your profile and view your page. Here’s what to include:
- Job title/function (frontend engineer, full-stack engineer, engineering manager)
- What areas do you specialize in
- Any well-known companies you’ve worked at in the past
Remember to ensure your headline is short and catchy since many people will view it on a mobile device.
Some formulas you can use are
- I do X for Y
- <Title>@<Company>
- <Function> focused on <Problem>
Profile Banner Photo
The banner photo on your profile takes up a quarter of your page and is a lost opportunity if you leave it blank.
Feel free to get creative with what you put as your profile photo. There’s no right or wrong, but here are a few routes you could take
- Billboard: Advertise yourself and your services immediately when they land on your page
- Hobbies and Interests: Show off some cool photos of your hobbies. A view of a hike, a gorgeous sunset, or a furry friend.
- Personality: Don’t be afraid to be creative and think outside the box
Whatever you choose, make sure to use a high-quality photo and check the dimensions. The LinkedIn banner photo size should be 1584x396 pixels.
Core Content
About Section
Keep your about section updated, but don’t waste it by repeating what’s already in your resume.
This is your opportunity to tell your story.
🗺 What was the journey that got you here today?
💪 What’s your superpower?
🔥 What unique interests or passions do you have?
Readers should walk away with a 3D impression of who you are, what it’d be like to work with you, and what unique qualities you bring to the table. It also makes it easier for a recruiter to reach out to you and strike up a conversation if they can get to know the human side of you.
There’s a fine line between a bio that neatly showcases the narrative of your career and one that overloads the reader with too much jargon and buzzwords. Don’t try to compress all your resume bullets into the “About” section.
Experience
Of course, you have to fill in your experience section, but remember that your LinkedIn profile is open to a broader audience than just software engineers. Make sure to fill in your job title, location, and dates of employment. And try to link it to the organization’s LinkedIn page as well so you can connect with the alumni network of your school or company.
DO
- Share wins and accomplishments in your work. Highlight your value-add to the business with key metrics like “increased revenue by 20%” or “improved customer satisfaction from 4 to 4.5 stars”
- Explain it simply and clearly so it can be understood by non-technical readers
- Include multimedia and links: Use multimedia, such as images, videos, and presentations, to showcase your work and accomplishments. You can also include links to relevant websites, projects, or publications.
DON’T
- Overload your experience with technical jargon
- Dive too deep into the minute details of your work
- Write novels. Stick to just a few sentences or bullet points.
Ask a coworker or mentor to help you review the content in your experience section. Be patient, and keep revising. I usually work through a few iterations of writing and editing with my clients to make it shine. ✨
Featured Articles/Posts
The “Featured Posts” section lets you showcase the projects and accomplishments you’re most proud of.
Sharing blog posts, product pages, and other materials allows you to highlight your work for recruiters and other viewers easily.
Sharing case studies, white papers, and other content helps you show what you are all about. Besides, it helps people understand your passion and commitment to a particular field as well. To feature content on your profile, head over to the specific post and click the three dots on the right side. Then, you choose the first option to pin it to your profile.
Additional Content
Your profile picture, headline, about section, and experience are all high-priority areas to thoughtfully write out on your LinkedIn profile. The following sections are lower priority and should be filled out more on a case-by-case basis.
Education
If you left school a while ago and already have more than 10 years of working experience in software engineering, your education section is not as significant anymore.
On the other extreme, if you’re currently a student and are applying for a summer internship, your education section is probably the bulk of your resume and LinkedIn profile. If that’s the case, you want to include your GPA, classes, and any relevant extracurricular activities.
Most people are somewhere in the middle where you want to highlight your academic achievements and any certifications you’ve earned. Include your degree, major, and any honors or awards you received. If you have a computer science degree or went to a coding boot camp, even better!
Projects
If you’ve worked on any interesting or noteworthy projects, be sure to highlight them on your profile.
For students, class projects might be the only thing you have to showcase. When you link to your project, you want your readers to easily understand what the goal of the project is and how you accomplished it. Your readers, especially recruiters, will NOT read the code of your project.
Include a brief description of the project and your role in it. To make it even easier for a reader to understand, link out to any resources you have on the project. A live site is always best, but you can also link to a case study, screenshots, or a demo video if you don’t have a working version ready.
Publications or Patents
If you’ve published any articles, papers, or patents, be sure to include them on your profile. You can write a quick 2–3 sentence summary of what the paper was about and provide a link to the publication if they want to read more. Patents are also a great way to showcase your work, as it likely has direct value to the business.
Recommendations
Just like positive reviews give buyers more confidence in their purchases, positive social proof gives recruiters and hiring managers more confidence that you will be a good fit for their company.
Recommendations from your coworkers give visitors an idea of what it’s like to work with you and what qualities they found especially valuable. Personal testimonials can be a great way to build trust with your potential hiring manager.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to previous contacts and request recommendations, but make sure it is someone you worked closely with that can write a good, genuine review. And make sure to pay it forwards when other people ask you for recommendations!
Certifications and Skills Assessments
Certifications and skills assessments can be good third-party validations of your skills.
It shows that you have a certain level of expertise and have been evaluated by a reputable organization or platform. Employers may look for these types of credentials as evidence that you have the necessary skills to perform a specific job or expertise in a particular technology.
The act of obtaining certifications demonstrates that you are continuously learning and improving, which is a valuable trait. Employers want employees who are constantly seeking to improve their skills and knowledge.
Make your Profile Public
Now that you’ve spent all this time sprucing up your LinkedIn profile, you want to make it visible to the public. If you have it on private, you’ll still show up as an anonymous profile to the person you’re trying to connect with until you’ve established a connection.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to find and adjust your visibility settings.
- Click on your Profile Picture in the Top Right Corner
2. Click on “Settings and Privacy” in the dropdown
3. Click on “Visibility” in the left-side menu
4. Click on the setting you want to adjust
5. Make sure it’s set to the most visible option
Launch!
When you’re ready, slap on that #OpentoWork banner on your profile. LinkedIn will prompt you if you want to share that with a post. This is a great way to announce to your network that you’re looking for new opportunities and get your profile in front of recruiters and potential employers.
Make sure to share information, including the type of job you’re looking for, location, other criteria, and what you bring to the table. Once you make the post, ask your friends and colleagues to help you out by liking, commenting, and reposting it to their networks.
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If you want hands-on coaching with your resume and LinkedIn, acing your interviews, and landing your dream job, fill out this form to work with me.
