Deb Dib, one of my career expert partners, showed me a recent change on her LinkedIn profile. I had seen Macy’s as one of her companies before, and really had no idea how she made the change to get from a buyer at Macy’s to a career coach. Check out the explanation now:
Two things I love:
1. She is bridging one role to another… which is something I had wondered about (just how did she get into coaching??).
2. She has her personality and her brand all over this. You get a her brand in her summary, and she carries it through to here. This is normally a boring “did this, did that” section, but she spices it up.
Do you have gaps on your LinkedIn profile? If you can help people understand the transitions that are not so obvious, you’ll probably create more interest in who you are and what you bring to the table.
What a fantastic idea! This question is so frequently asked – and most suggestions you get aren’t really that good. It’s hard to put any personality in your resume, but LinkedIn is a perfect place to do that. I’m sure many other people will benefit from this idea.
Gee Jason, thanks for this!
You know how much I believe in projecting authenticity and passion on LinkedIn. As I was working with a couple of current clients on their profiles (I’d LOVE to say who they are ’cause I think they are SO great — because of their personality, passion and goals — and SO branded, but confidentiality prohibits me ) I realized I needed to insert more of myself into mine.
I thought I had done so already but realized it didn’t go far enough. I love when coaching my clients to be courageous about their brand presence hits ME in the head with an “ah ha! moment” 🙂
But I have to say that more than anyone, YOUR authentic voice has been my inspiration. So thanks!
BTW, once my clients and I are finished with our work, I’ll see if I can get permission to share their profiles (I think you know one of them). I just love them.
Deb Dib, of the Jason Alba fan club
That *is* a great idea. I recently interviewed someone who did not know how to effectively create transitions between jobs, and the result was a seeming mish-mash of hops. (There were other reasons I didn’t hire this person, but this certainly was a consideration as well).
This is a clever way to, like you and Jason Alba say, inject your personality in a LinkedIn profile. My summary is fairly explanatory, but maybe I should take your above advice and further explain why a particular job was so short, or why there’s a period of about two years after college graduation where no jobs are listed.
But how much is too much… my early career was a product more of my heart than my actual work. How else do you get from Tennessee to California to New Jersey to Connecticut in 3 years and not be in the military?
I have gotten pretty good at explaining how a poker dealing chemist winds up at Microsoft during in person interviews… but explaining it to the LinkedIn audience has eluded me.