Your LinkedIn tagline in a mess...
Your LinkedIn tagline is a mess! (Well, it could be improved at the very least.)
Your LinkedIn tagline automatically defaults to your current title. This finds many making an entry for their job search as if it were an employment position. This is not necessary. (A separate entry for search is effective in rare cases where the text box is used to highlight or condense skills because the summary cannot otherwise by used in this way. That’s a subject for another post.)
You can update your tagline right from your profile page. Do it today! But first read these five discussion points to help get your tagline where it needs to be, whether employed or unemployed.
1) Your LinkedIn tagline says you’re unemployed or looking for work. Choose the word seeking instead and weave it into the tagline: “Supply Chain Manager Seeking Maritime Opportunities.”
2) All caps gets great attention, but this is a personal choice.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER SEEKING MARITIME OPPORTUNITIES
(Yes, you can drop the o word if it makes sense to others in your field.)
3) Still employed? Is your title IT Manager, but you want to kick around in peer groups designed for or secretly search for -- shhhh! -- new things in IT Security and IT Infrastructure? Do this to highlight your specialties:
IT Manager at Oracle | IT Security | IT Infrastructure
4) Mentioning company names that characterize your candidacy, emit brand power or suggest expertise is a must (as above). Here are two examples from my clients:
Senior IT Analyst at Johnson & Johnson
TECHNICAL PM at APPLE | Project Manager
5) Here are some taglines I have made for my happily employed and / or passively seeking clients. Notice that certain terms like loan officer or SCM are included even though they may be implied. This is for reasons of SEO.
Same with Project Manager in the second example given in point four above. Always consider that you are found via searches. In some cases, as with Mr. Hurley, the professional introduction is all that must be in the tagline.
Principal Geochemist | Environmental Consulting | Supreme Court Expert Witness
PROJECT ENGINEER | OFFSHORE PIPELINE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
CFO | Chief Financial Officer | Life Sciences
Facilities Director | Construction Manager | Project Manager
President at W.F. Hurley Group, Ltd.
CHANNEL MARKETING MANAGER | LUXURY | WHOLESALE
AVP Seeking Vice President Level Asset Based Finance Loan Officer Opportunity
NVOCC CEO | Chief Executive Officer | Supply Chain Management | SCM
LOGISTICS MANAGER | 3PL Expert Speaker
Executive Assistant | Formal Training in Japanese Business Etiquette | Technical Writer
Resume Writer | Sales Professionals Only | 15 years of sales management | M.A. in English
Central Africa Director | Raw Materials Procurement | Regular CCTV Commentator
Seeking Personal Assistant position in Kuala Lumpur| 5+ Years of Singapore Experience
IT Recruiter with European Union Expertise | Fluent in German and French
Corporate Tax and Bankruptcy Attorney | Georgetown Accounting and Law | Ex-IRS
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Pediatric Oncology | Trauma One Pedi
Sales Manager | Medical Device | Operating Room
Registered Nurse | Seeking CVOR | Teaching Facility Preferred
NOTE: You can make the separator bar as shown above -- | -- by tapping the backslash key " \" and the "Shift" key at once. (\ + Shift = |).
Good Luck, Everybody!
Brian Brandt is a resume writer, career expert, and job search strategist.