4 Tips to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out to Recruiters

You could spend hours polishing your LinkedIn profile. As someone who has stared at several LinkedIn profiles to give recommendations, I know the hole you can fall into when you’re looking for a new job and need to “spruce up” your LinkedIn page.

Although you could take serious time to critically review, edit, and re-review each section of your profile, you probably shouldn’t. Your LinkedIn page is vital for landing a new role, with 87 percent of recruiters using LinkedIn to vet candidates, according to data from Jobvite. Luckily, it’s easy to optimize the elements recruiters are most likely to check first.

1 Make Sure Recruiters Can Find You

If recruiters can’t find you, they’re not going to reach out to you. It’s as simple as that. There are two ways recruiters can find you: through searches on LinkedIn or Google, and through their connections. Let’s start with search engines, since they’re easier to master.

Here are four simple steps to optimize your LinkedIn profile for search engines:

• First, think about the types of roles you want to pursue. Are you looking for something in a field you already work in? Are you just starting out in this field, or making a large career change? List out the companies and titles you’d like to pursue in a future job search.
• Next, take a look at people at your target companies who have the job titles you’d like, if you can. Can’t find anyone? Try a comparable company or a slightly tweaked job title.

Here’s a tip: Pro Tip: Want to stalk—I mean look—at someone’s LinkedIn profile without letting them know you “viewed” their profile? Search them in LinkedIn’s native search, then copy-paste their LinkedIn profile URL to a new incognito window.

After you’ve found some keywords in these profiles, make sure to add them to your tagline, summary, and skills (if they are skills you possess). Also, don’t forget to turn on the setting in LinkedIn that lets recruiters know you’re open to new opportunities! That way, recruiters will find you first when they’re looking for candidates.

2 Stand Out in Your LinkedIn Tagline and Summary

Once you’ve made yourself as discoverable as possible, it’s time to home in on the sections of your LinkedIn profile that matter. And that means getting back to basics.

When I asked Angela Ritter, a recruiter at Grammarly, what she looks for in a perfect LinkedIn profile, she called out three major features: job titles, taglines, and summaries. Let’s look at each of these individually.

• Job Titles: Job titles are the easiest on this list, since recruiters are simply looking for honesty here. As much as “padding your resume” has become a cliché, lying about your title at past companies is a bad idea. Your potential employer will double-check, so stay honest!
• Tagline: You can either use your current job title or an aspirational description of the role you’d like, based on the keywords you found above. This helps with your searchability, so feel free to pad it with two or three keywords to make yourself more discoverable.
• Summary: These don’t need to be long, but they should describe what you’re trying to accomplish in your career, as well as what skills and experience you’re bringing to the table. Need help writing one? Check out my guide to summaries here.

3 Connect, Connect, Connect

Now, let’s talk about connections. LinkedIn is designed to encourage the collection of connections from people in your address book, who went to your school, and even people you probably don’t know in real life. While you should connect with as many people as you know in real life, connecting with random professionals without a reason isn’t a good idea. At the end of the day, your connections represent people you (unconsciously) endorse, so try to connect only with professionals with whom you’ve shared some sort of experience.

That said, connections and recommendations are important to recruiters! Just hear what Alyssa Seidman, another Grammarly recruiter, had to say when I asked her about the value of LinkedIn to recruiters.

Often, before even looking at a candidate’s resume, I will go directly to their LinkedIn profile. This can provide social proof of how their past managers and colleagues felt about interacting with them. It also can give me a better sense of the candidate’s interests. In an instance where we have a mutual connection, it helps make the process more personal! –Alyssa Seidman, Recruiter at Grammarly

4 Proofread Your LinkedIn Profile, Then Proofread It Again

This isn’t the first time I’ve said this, but it bears repeating. The details of your LinkedIn profile are important! I have personally disqualified candidates because they had typos in their profiles, and pretty much every other hiring manager has done the same. Details matter!

I pay attention to detail in candidate LinkedIn profiles. I double check that the job title in their intro matches the job they are currently in, if they took the time to outline what they’re doing in their role (at least slightly), etc. Profile bios and intros are always something I look for as well. – Angela Ritter, Recruiter at Grammarly

3 Ways to Save Time on Social Media

Your alarm rings. You roll over, grab your phone, turn off the alarm, and immediately start scrolling through Instagram. Then you move to Facebook. Then Twitter. Then your work chat and email. Next thing you know, you have to rush through your morning routine and head to work.

Sound familiar?

If you’re wondering how to save time on social media, you’re not alone. Multiple studies have linked high social media use and negative feelings like dissatisfaction, disconnection, and even loneliness.

1 Save Time by Protecting Your Time

When I asked myself “how do you save time on social media?” one answer immediately popped into my head. You save time by conquering the need to respond and instead taking control of your time and energy. The dopamine surge you get from responding to social messages right away is real, and the red badge of doom haunts us all. But you can conquer the need to respond in real time, every time.

As someone who does social media for a living, I know it can be hard to disconnect. Earlier in my career, I tried to respond to every message, every tweet, every time, on time. I watched every trend. I liked every meme. And at the end of the day, I was exhausted, demoralized, and unsure of whether I had actually made an impact.

via GIPHY

Over time, I’ve learned that disconnecting from social media is as important as following it. In my professional life, I check certain channels at certain times, and build in certain nights and weekends when I am truly offline.

2 Establish a Social Media Routine

Once you understand which times you don’t want to be online, you can optimize the time you do spend on social media. I’ve found it’s helpful to have a routine, where you check the same channels in the same way every time. That way, you can save time by slowly chipping away at inefficiencies in your routine.

Personally, I’ve found my commute on public transit a great time to check up on social channels in the morning. As an example of a possible routine, here’s my morning social media protocol:

• Quickly scan push notifications, which I only receive from my calendar, work email, Slack, and Asana. Respond to anything I deem urgent.
• Check Twitter for any urgent mentions or DMs.
• Check Facebook for similarly urgent issues or emergencies.
• Quickly check LinkedIn for messages.
• Scroll through Instagram and Snapchat for the rest of my commute, saving ideas for future memes.

3 Get Lazy, Copy Others’ Tricks

Sometimes saving time on social media is as easy as finding tactics that work for others and copying them. If you have someone in your professional or personal life who seems like they’re always tweeting or snapping, buy them coffee and ask them how they balance their real life with their social media mavendom. You can also build a list of accounts you love, to get a sense of the number of posts they send per day. Either way, find some heroes, borrow their tactics, and go forth to build your own social media empire.

Mistake of the Month—Unnecessary Modifiers

As Mark Twain once wrote, “Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Unnecessary modifiers make your writing weak and bloated, burying your message in a deluge of quites and rathers. These modifiers add no value to the sentences in which they appear. The first step to fixing the problem is identifying the filler words in your writing.

These words, also called intensifiers or qualifiers, are almost always adverbs. Here’s a list of the most commonly abused modifiers:

• Actually
• Really
• Basically
• Probably
• Very
• Definitely
• Somewhat
• Kind of
• Extremely
• Practically

So why are they so bad? We use these words constantly, peppering our everyday speech with them so often that they cease to have any meaning, becoming transparent. In written communication, these modifiers take up valuable space. In a world where readers’ attention spans are growing shorter by the day, getting to the point as quickly and concisely as possible is essential. For additional tips on making your writing more concise, check out the always-helpful Purdue Online Writing Lab.

Beyond trimming the fat from your writing, “weasel” words like somewhat andkind of dilute your message. That’s great if you’re trying to spare a friend’s feelings—“Your one-man mariachi band kind of needs some work, Steve”—but not if you’re trying to make a strong point in business or academic writing. Don’t equivocate; get straight to the point and make it without hedging.

The best and easiest way to get rid of unnecessary modifiers is not to use them in the first place. However, if your existing work needs to be pared down, read each line and evaluate it for wordiness. More often than not, your sentences will be just fine without these modifiers. Unfortunately, you’ll need to approach them on a case-by-case basis, since sometimes the modifiers do change the meaning of your sentence. Let’s take a look as some examples:

Example: It was a very hot day in Albuquerque.

In this example, the word very does indicate an increased degree of heat, but is the sentence “It was a hot day in Albuquerque,” truly have a significantly different meaning? It can safely be cut.

Example: She was actually a robot.

In the sentence above, actually indicates that her identity as a robot is something of a surprise. Keep it.

Example: We’re really going to regret this in the morning.

Here, really is used as an intensifier, showing the degree to which they’re going to regret whatever it is. However, “We’re going to regret this in the morning” means the same thing. Cut it.

Example: I am definitely going to take a vacation this Christmas.

The word definitely adds nothing of value to this sentence—“I am definitely going” and “I am going” mean the same thing—but depending on the tone of the piece, it may be appropriate to leave in.

When trying to capture a character’s voice in fiction or in writing a casual email, feel free to modify away. However, more formal settings require more precise language. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Writing Center has a great primer on how to tighten up your writing.

Which of these unnecessary modifiers to you use most often in your writing? Get out your red pen and be ruthless!

Future Perfect

The future perfect is a verb tense used for actions that will be completed before some other point in the future.

The parade will have ended by the time Chester gets out of bed. At eight o’clock I will have left.

Key words: Verb, past participle, tense, preposition

The future perfect tense is for talking about an action that will be completed between now and some point in the future. Imagine that your friend Linda asks you to take care of her cat for a few days while she goes on a trip. She wants you to come over today at noon so she can show you where to find the cat food and how to mash it up in the bowl just right so that Fluffy will deign to eat it. But you’re busy this afternoon, so you ask Linda if you can come at eight o’clock tonight instead.

“No, that won’t work! At eight o’clock I will have left already,” she says.

What does the future perfect tell us here? It tells us that Linda is going to leave for her trip some time after right now, but before a certain point in the future (eight o’clock tonight). She probably shouldn’t have waited until the last minute to find a cat sitter.

The Future Perfect Formula

The formula for the future perfect tense is pretty simple: will have + [past participle]. It doesn’t matter if the subject of your sentence is singular or plural. The formula doesn’t change.

When to Use the Future Perfect Tense

Sometimes, you can use the future perfect tense and the simple future tense interchangeably. In these two sentences, there is no real difference in meaning because the word before makes the sequence of events clear:

Linda will leave before you get there. Linda will have left before you get there.

But without prepositions such as before or by the time that make the sequence of events clear, you need to use the future perfect to show what happened first.

At eight o’clock Linda will leave. (This means that Linda will wait until 8 o’clock to leave.) At eight o’clock Linda will have left. (This means Linda will leave before 8 o’clock.)

When Not to Use the Future Perfect Tense

The future perfect tense is only for actions that will be complete before a specified point in the future. In other words, the action you’re talking about must have a deadline. If you don’t mention a deadline, use the simple future tense instead of the future perfect tense.

Linda will leave.

Linda will have left.

The deadline can be very specific (eight o’clock) or it can be vague (next week). It can even depend on when something else happens (after the parade ends). It just has to be some time in the future.

How to make the Future Perfect Negative

Making a negative future perfect construction is easy! Just insert not between will and have.

We will not have eaten breakfast before we get to the airport tomorrow morning. They will not have finished decorating the float before the parade.

You can also use the contraction won’t in the place of will not. They won’t have finished decorating the float before the parade.

How to Ask a Question

The formula for asking a question in the future perfect tense is will + [subject] + have + [past participle]:

Will you have eaten lunch already when we arrive? Will they have finished decorating the float before the parade?

Prepositional Phrases that Often Go With the Future Perfect

By this time next week, Linda will have left for her trip. Three days from now, we will have finished our project. At midnight, the party will have ended. Will you have eaten already? Chester will not have arrived by the time the parade is over. When I travel to France, I will have been to ten countries. My sister will have cleaned the bathroom before the party. As soon as someone buys this chair, I will have sold all the furniture I wanted to get rid of.

Common Regular Verbs in the Future Perfect Tense

Common Irregular Verbs in the Future Perfect Tense

*Be careful when using the verb “to be” in the future perfect tense. The construction is easy to confuse with the future perfect continuous tense.

**The past participle of “to get” is gotten in American English. In British English, the past participle is got.

The Basics on Subject and Object Pronouns

Odds are good that the words “subjective and objective cases” mean nothing to you. “Case” is grammarian and linguistic jargon for categories of nouns based on the function of the noun in relation to the verbs and prepositions in a sentence.

It is even more confusing in English language because many cases have disappeared. Modern Ukrainian language has seven cases. Finnish has fifteen cases. Even German, from the same language family, has four. English has three, which is about as simple as it gets linguistically. Presently, English cases are rarely taught because most native speakers are expected to develop intuitively a “feel” for the correct case usage.

However, many people still make mistakes, and the lack of educational reinforcement ends up making the confusion worse. This article will be focusing on two cases—subject (nominative) and object, in particular with first-person pronouns. If you’ve ever wondered about I vs. me, he vs. him, she vs. her, we vs. us, or they vs. them, read on.

The first thing that must be understood is that I and me are not the same. They are not synonyms. They are not interchangeable. Why? They are different cases.

Subject Pronouns, like I

Subject pronouns are those pronouns that perform the action in a sentence. They are I, you, he, she, we, they, and who. Any noun performing the main action in the sentence, like these pronouns, is a subject and is categorized as subjective case (nominative case). English grammar requires that the subject come before the verb in a sentence (except in questions).

I make cookies every Sunday for my co-workers.

In this sentence, “I” is the actor (subject pronoun) performing the action of making (verb). To check for correct case, you should be able to replace I with any other subject pronoun, modify the verb according to person and number, and have a clear sentence. In a simple declarative sentence like this, it may seem unnecessary, but checking case this way is a good habit for when you are checking more complicated sentences. Remember that subject nouns absolutely always are the actors in sentences. If action is implied, you should use subject nouns.

Object Pronouns, like Me

Object pronouns are those pronouns that receive the action in a sentence. They are me, you, him, her, us, them, and whom. Any noun receiving an action in the sentence, like these pronouns, is an object and is categorized as objective case.* An object pronoun can also be used after prepositions, i.e. “I will go with him.” In this article, we will only focus on nouns as recipients as these are the most frequently confused. With few exceptions, English grammar requires that objects follow the verb in a sentence.

I give them cookies every week.

In this sentence, “I” is the actor (subject pronoun) performing the action of making (verb). “Them” is the noun receiving the giving; it is the object. You wouldn’t ever use a subject noun after “give” here. To most native speakers and even English learners, the following incorrect sentence should grate on the ears:

I give they cookies every week.

Eek. Now consider the following example:

She gave Jim and I extra cookies.

Can you spot the problem? “I”—just like “they”—is a subject noun living in an object noun’s place. The correct sentence should have “me” (the object pronoun) following the verb:

She gave Jim and me extra cookies.

To check for correct case, you should be able to replace me with any other object pronoun and have a clear sentence. Remember that object nouns always are the recipients in sentences. If an action is happening to a noun, you should use object nouns.

She and I? Me and Her? She and Me?

Sometimes, things get tricky when you’re dealing with two pronouns at once. Should people speak to she and I? Should they speak to me and her? Or should they speak to she and me?

But there are a couple of ways to make this easy.

First, don’t mix cases. Both of the pronouns will be in either the subjective or objective case.

She and I went to the movies.

If you have any questions, you can ask either her or me.

She and me are old friends.

Second, to decide whether to use subjective or objective case, try removing one of the pronouns from the sentence.

I went to the movies.

Me went to the movies.

She and I went to the movies.

Her and me went to the movies.

Test Sentences Mark the following sentences as correct or incorrect. If the sentence is incorrect, write the correct form. Check your answers here.

1) Martha and Jim are in the office. 2) She is telling him a joke. 3) Jim made a copy of the report for Lucy and I. 4) I have to go. Mark is calling for Lucy and me. 5) Our co-workers love Martha’s cookies. 6) Jim and me are planning a surprise for Sue’s birthday. 7) We will give them extra cookies next week. 8) Who did you give the money to?

How do you remember to use subject and object pronouns correctly? How did you do on the test sentences?

*There are two degrees of objective case that receive actions—direct and indirect, which correspond to accusative and dative cases roughly.

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