How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Landing a Design Job

How to boost your LinkedIn profile for job searching and receive interviews and design job offers

Mohammad Adineh

Published in

DesignFrens

5 min readJan 30, 2024

Unsplash (Bastian Riccardi)

Define your goals

It might sound too nerdy to define a goal for your LinkedIn profile. But believe me, a successful job search should start with a strategy.

You don’t know what you get if you don’t know what you’re looking for. 🥲

First, you need to sit down and specify: ✍️

The ideal role you’re looking for
In what kind of company
In what industry
The culture and team size

Research the relevant keyword

Now you need to find some of your targeted companies that recently posted a job you’re looking to get.

Grab a copy of those job descriptions (at least 5) and paste them into a WordCloud generator to see the most common words across them.

Make a list of all of those keywords and save them.

The most commonly used keywords and industry relevant = More important.

Design your LinkedIn profile like a Landing page

Think of yourself as a product, and your targeted companies (recruiters) as the users.

Your mission is to design a landing page (your LinkedIn profile) that sells. 🪴

A successful landing page:

Introduce the product well (Yourself)
Clearly articulate the products’ values (Your skills + impacts)
Convince users to convert (Job offer/interview)

1. Deliver a good first impression

Recruiters rely on their guts to decide if they want to dig into the LinkedIn profile they just opened or not.

To make sure you grab their attention and their willingness to read more of your profile, you need to make yourself stand out as a professional.

Professional headshot photo

Use recently captured Hi-res photo
Make sure your face takes 40–60% of the frame
Blurred background
Make sure you smile in the picture (that’ll make you more likable and influential)

Add a profile cover

You can use some cool images from Unsplash
Design a good one on Canva
Make sure it’s clean, not cluttered, and resonates well with your expertise

2. Optimize your profile headline

Your headline is your one-liner resume. You should tell who you are, and what you’re good at.

Why does LinkedIn Headline matter?

It appears when you comment
Shows up in the “Similar profiles” section
Shows up in LinkedIn search result
Appears in Google search results
And it affects how recruiters perceive you

A perfect LinkedIn headline helps you:

Make people curious to click and see your profile
Boost your profile discoverability (SEO)
Position you well for the recruiters of your targeted companies

🪴 3 frameworks to follow for writing a great one:

[Job title]: Helping [Target audience] achieve [Specific goal/Outcome] with [Unique method/Service]
[Industry Expertise] Specialist | [Specific Skill/Service] | Driving [Key outcome] for [Target market or client type]
[Niche/Field] Enthusiast & [Job title] | Empowering [Target audience] through [Service/Skill] | [Notable achievement]

Make sure to use those relevant keywords as much as possible. Keep it specific, clear, and jargon-free.

3. Tell your story in the “About” section

The “About” section is where recruiters go next after reading your headline. They’re looking for clues that tell them if you could be a great potential fit for the role or not.

Think of the “About” section as an expanded version of your “Headline”.

Tell your unique story of why and how you choose to be a designer.
Show a bit of your personality and character (your superpower)
Show your key skills in a bulleted point list.
Add your relevant non-design skills.
Add your soft skills (make sure you choose the right keyword)

Use those keywords as much as possible when writing your “About” to improve your profile SEO.💡

Some great keywords:

Design skills

User Research
User interface design (UI)
Prototyping
Accessibility
Usability Testing
Design Thinking
Design system
…

Non-design skills

Front-end development
No-code
Marketing

Industry relevant

Fintech
Financial
Digital Payments
B2B

Soft skills

Team player (Teamwork)
Problem-solving
Leadership
Critical thinking

4. Show your impact in the “Experiences” section

What’s the best way you can prove you’re capable of being impactful in that new role you’re looking for?

👉🏼 Show the relevant impact you’d created in your past experiences

List down all of your impacts in the role description (bullet point)
Sort by relevancy/Importance
Make it short and easy to scan
Select relevant skills for each role
Add media to add credit (if you have)

5. Take advantage of the “Featured” section

Recruiters are busy, so they fast-forward any of their processes.

When your profile looks great but they don’t seem to find your portfolio link or projects, they’re more likely to skip you.

The best way to put your portfolio in front of recruiters’ eyes is by using the “Featured” section.

Add your portfolio by adding a link
Write a title and description
Create a visual to bring a good impression (1200px width & 627px height recommended)
Put it in the first place

You can add your CV as well there but either uploading directly or adding a link to it.

I recommend adding a link so you can create a consistent-looking visual for that as well.

6. Add credit and social proof

Social proof can add a lot of value and credit to your profile.

Ask for “recommendations”

Ask your recent clients/stakeholders to write you a recommendation
You can also ask a colleague you used to work with to write you one

Add licenses and certifications

Add all of your most relevant licenses or certifications
It could be a workshop or online course

7. Boost your profile discoverability (SEO)

All of those keywords that you’d included in your Headline and About section are really effective on your profile SEO.