Career change is more complex now with online visibility required, particularly on the most important social network for professionals — LinkedIn. LinkedIn for career change is extra tricky because your resume and applications must align with your LinkedIn Profile because most employers and recruiters compare the two.
So when making that career change and applying for jobs a bit out of your current career path, your LinkedIn Profile needs to show that you didn’t accidentally apply for the wrong job.
For example, if you are an accountant who has decided to go into IT, your Profile must show that, while you have a background in accounting, you are poised to emerge as an IT professional.
If you need assistance navigating how to write your LinkedIn for career change, here’s a section by section of what should be included in your LinkedIn – starting from the top:
Headshot
I recommend including a full-face headshot that doesn’t have anyone else cropped out. Professionally taken is best but in a pinch having someone use an iPhone and using the photoshopping software will suffice.
Professional Headline
Your LinkedIn headline should include information and keywords related to your career target.
As an example, “Mary” had held roles as a Finance Project Manager, a UPS franchise owner, and an underwriter. She was Lean Six Sigma and PMP certified and was about to graduate with her MBA with a concentration in Change Management.
Her goal? A role as a change management consultant that leveraged her deep project and finance acumen. Here are 2 headline options for her:
Headline #1
- Change Management Consultant with PMP, Six Sigma & FP&A Expertise | Organizational Development & Transformation
Headline #2
- Change Management Consultant | Transformation thru Project Management, Financial Controls & Organizational Development
About
Whether you’ve been employed for 20 years and looking to get promoted or aiming for a career pivot using your new degree, the goal of the About section is the same – to show the reader how you are ideally suited to the roles you are targeting and provide insight into what makes you unique.
Include these elements in your About:
Intro Paragraphs
Begin by telling readers what you can do with your new degree, and how your unique background makes you a great fit for these roles.
Follow this up in paragraph 2 with some of the new skills you’ve acquired as a result of new (and, in this case, old credentials).
Paragraph 3 is where you reiterate how your old experience ties with the new.
I help companies solve complex challenges, adopt new systems, and replace chaos with order using Agile frameworks. My background in technology and project management allows me to drive impactful change, build infrastructure from the ground up, and achieve goals without compromising the budget.
I bring to the table best practices in change management, issue/risk management, project management, and needs analysis methodologies — acquired during my Change Management graduate studies and as a PMP and Certified Scrum Master.
As a trusted advisor to C-Suite and Senior Leadership, I partner across startups and Fortune 500s alike to share data analytics-based insights and recommendations, and drive change initiatives both lean and large from concept-to-implementation.
Contact Info
I always include contact information in the Summary section. In addition, add an email and a phone number in the contact info section at the top of your Profile.
Highlights
Lastly, I recommend pulling together 2-3 highlights from past roles or volunteer work that show the reader how your cumulative experience makes you ready to hit the ground running in this new arena.
Experience
If you have been in school and are hoping to use your new degree as the platform for your pivot, consider including details around internships, case studies, etc. If your volunteer efforts align with your new target, be sure to include these in the experience section. Another option is to look at your work experience and reference those achievements that resonate with the new industry/job target.
In Mary’s case, she was fortunate to have a paid part-time internship while at school. Here’s what we wrote as the first entry on her LinkedIn, above her full-time employment role (she worked full-time and held an internship while also going to school – amazing!
I supplemented tuition expenses during my MBA studies in this change management advisory role – where I supported a Fortune 500 Energy provider client in implementing several finance change initiatives per the directives of its Corporate Controller.
Education
Unlike the minimal information you would include if your degree was years in the past when you are poised to graduate and using this to catapult your career change, I recommend adding much more. In Mary’s case, we included a few projects for which she earned “A”s and a list of her relevant coursework.
Here’s what we added:
SPECIAL PROJECTS
✎ Key participant in consumer brand overhaul project. Contributed to development of a change management strategy and implementation roadmap including needs assessment, requirements gathering, vendor research and selection.
✎ Designed change management strategy to improve internal satisfaction within XXX nonprofit organization, and to elevate its image within the community. As part of a team effort, I disseminated an anonymous change management questionnaire used for data analysis and to make recommendations to leadership.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT COURSEWORK
Project Management | Organizational Leadership | Consulting | Conflict Resolution | Negotiations | Business Innovation | Coaching Technological Change Management | Data Management | Systems Design | IT Strategy & Architecture | Data Mining & Analytics
Skills & Endorsements
I recommend this section be a cut and paste of the skills outlined in your summary section. Be sure the Top 10 most closely aligned with your career target and start requesting others to endorse you for them!
Recommendations
Ask managers, peers, customers, or professors (if you returned to school) who have worked with you closely to write a recommendation. This gives extra credibility to your strengths and skills.
Originally published in Job-Hunt.org.
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