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

7 Places Grammarly’s Mobile Keyboard Helps You the Most

Smartphone users, rejoice! Grammarly has finally made the long-awaited jump to mobile (both iOS and Android!), helping us improve our communication even when using our smartphones and tablets.

But how can the Grammarly keyboard really help your writing experience?

We’re glad you asked! Here are just a few of the important places Grammarly’s new keyboard can help you show up as your best self when you’re writing on mobile.

1Gmail

If you’re like me, you probably spend a lot of your time responding to email. And even if you’re tapping out a quick reply on the train, between meetings, or waiting in the airport, you still want your communication to come across as professional.

Having access to Grammarly on mobile is a huge relief. The new keyboard integrates seamlessly with Gmail’s mobile app and elevates your writing to the same quality standard you’re used to on non-mobile devices.

Now you won’t have to worry about emailing your boss that you’re “running large foe teh meeting.”

2Your Favorite Dating App

If you use a dating or networking app like Bumble or Match, making a great impression is the name of the game—and using bad grammar tends to have negative results.

Research by dating sites Match.com and Zoosk found that the majority of their users (both women and men) consider bad grammar a significant turn off. (Yikes!)

Having Grammarly for mobile frees up your creative energy for crafting witty profiles and creative messages, so you can stop worrying about simple errors and start reeling in those high-quality matches.

3SMS

These days we use our smartphones for writing more often than we use them for phone calls, and texting is by far the most prevalent form of mobile communication.

For years, texting has been plagued with over-zealous autocorrect features that transform our innocuous messages into hilarious and often cringe-worthy results.

So if you’re ready to drastically reduce the number of embarrassing texts you send to your crush, your boss, and your mom, Grammarly’s mobile keyboard is a must-have. It’s your personal editor for clear, effective, mistake-free writing on mobile!

4Instagram

Let’s face it, Instagram is all about the perfect presentation. From the photo to the caption to the hashtags, you’re telling a story or sharing an idealized moment.

So whether you’re captioning the perfect vacation shot or commenting on your friend’s latest quotivational post, the last thing you want is a slew of glaring grammar errors distracting from the message you’re trying to convey.

Grammarly’s mobile keyboard ensures your Instagram game is always on point—at least when it comes to grammar. (Sorry folks. If your feed is mostly grainy photos of your lunch. . . that’s on you).

5Facebook

For many of us, Facebook is that go-to app for “in-between” times, like your morning commute, the five minute break between meetings, your mid-morning bathroom break, or waiting for your friend to show up at dinner.

So much of our posting and commenting happens on mobile, it’s great to finally have Grammarly double-checking your writing, just like it does on your non-mobile browser.

Plus, grammar trolls love to lurk on Facebook, so it’s nice to avoid that unwanted scrutiny whenever you roll out your next Facebook missive on something you truly care about.

6Evernote

Do you use Evernote? This app may be one of the best ways ever invented to keep track of everything in your life, and it automatically syncs between all your devices—desktop, tablet, and mobile.

Having Grammarly for mobile helps you keep your notes in great shape, so you won’t have to waste time editing them later. And with corrected spelling, you’ll always be able to find what you’re looking for when you use the search feature.

Go ahead—dash off a list of project ideas, edit your novel outline, organize your family’s vacation, all on your smartphone, without worrying about rampant errors.

7Twitter

It’s the platform of up-to-the-second social commentary that’s sparked countless cultural phenomena, political coups, and gems like “covfefe.”

Twitter may only allow 140 characters per tweet (or 280 if you’re feeling adventurous), but good grammar should still be a priority if you want to be taken seriously.

And if you need to fudge things a little for brevity’s sake, it’s always better to choose where you’re cutting corners (i.e., substituting “&” for “and”) than to make errors you weren’t aware of.

Are you using Grammarly’s mobile keyboard? You can now download it for your iOS or Android device.

Is It OK to Make Typos in Work Emails?

9 Things to Avoid on Social Media While Looking for a New Job

To share or not to share? That’s the twenty-first-century Hamlet’s dilemma. With good reason: if you post those pictures of the weekend’s booze cruise, will a potential employer pass you over?

Here’s the answer: set the privacy on those pics to friends-only. More and more employers are scoping candidates on social media, so the image you present could affect your prospects. To maintain a professional profile while job hunting, make sure you avoid these nine dangerous don’ts on social media.

1 Looking Like a Bad Worker

Make sure you represent your best self on any social network. On LinkedIn, that means crafting a professional persona. On Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter, even if you’re mainly interacting with friends, don’t forget that posts may still be public.

According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, 60 percent of employers research job candidates on social media, and over half are reluctant to hire candidates with no online presence. They’re mainly looking for professionalism, whether you’re a fit for the company, and proof of your qualifications. If your social media profiles show you in that light, you’re golden.

2 Turning Off Social Media

Whether to hide those college party photos or just to force yourself to focus, it’s tempting to shut down your networks when you’re on the job hunt.

But here’s a hint: don’t. Instead, follow or “like” companies you’re interested in to get updates on open positions and other developments. Join conversations, answer questions, and provide useful links. And join LinkedIn’s Groups to get to know people in your industry. These things are called “networks” for a reason.

For good measure, here are some tips for working that network like a pro.

3 Forgetting to Proofread

No one’s going to hire someone whose resume says they’re a “contsientious wroker.” (It’s conscientious, folks. Yeah, it’s a toughie).

Especially on LinkedIn, common writing mistakes can damage your professional image. But even on the more social social networks, you can demonstrate that you’re a conscientious worker by taking time to proofread. Yes, even for cat videos. Getting your grammar right can be the fine line between “goofy cat lover” and “weirdo who doesn’t pay attention to human conventions.”

4 Having a Split Personality

Your LinkedIn persona is going to be a bit stiffer than your Facebook persona, and your llama-dedicated Instagram might be separate from your tech-focused Twitter. It’s fine to differentiate—as long you don’t look like a totally different person on your different networks.

That also includes what you name yourself on social media. If your AIM username was glitterprincess79 back in the day, it might be time for an update. A few rules of thumb in picking social media handles: keep it simple, don’t necessarily define yourself by your job, and be wary of puns.

5 Inconsistency

If your LinkedIn says “three years in finance” but your Facebook feed’s got a picture of you in a Starbucks uniform from last year, that’s a pretty big red flag. Lying about your experience or qualifications is never a good idea, especially with the Internet there to give evidence one way or another. Tell the truth on your resume, and make sure your networks reflect that truth, too.

6 Poor Communication

There are typos, and then there’s just bad writing. That can mean lack of clarity, wordiness, or a mish-mash of styles. On Facebook you want to be casual and simple but still make sense, while on LinkedIn you want a higher dose of formality.

Not specific enough? Check out our articles on how to write well on social media, ways to be a conscientious social media user, and profile tips for LinkedIn.

7 Complaints About Your Current Job

If you want to let off steam about how your boss doesn’t give you enough credit, that dumb task you have to do, or the lame office snacks, social networks are not the place to do it.

Just in case, be careful posting about your job in general. What you say about your coworkers or projects could be interpreted as you having a bad attitude or being uncommitted, or might just rub a potential future employer the wrong way.

8 Being a Bad Person

Even folks who mainly post puppies and inspirational quotes can slip sometimes. Complaining can make you look bad, and comments that can be construed as discriminatory are even worse. Most companies have policies against discrimination based on race, gender, religion, sexuality, and more. If you break that policy before you even apply, chances are you won’t get an interview.

9 Not Being Yourself

A professional version of yourself can still be yourself. Being careful what you post isn’t the same as deleting every shred of your personality.

After all, you have to interact with the people you work with, and they want to know that you’re fun, smart, and easy to talk to, as well as a conscientious worker.

How to Best Prioritize Your Work Tasks

When the first task lands on your desk, you think: “No problem, I can handle it.” The second and third requests cause a little self-doubt. Soon, you don’t even know how many projects you have on your to-do list.

Does this scenario sound familiar? How can you cope when the projects pile up and the time is short? Learn today how to prioritize your work assignments efficiently and keep your cool.

In a typical day, hundreds of responsibilities vie for your attention. However, not all work tasks are equally significant. You need to prioritize them, ASAP. Priorities take precedence because they are the worthiest pursuits among many competing tasks. To give priorities the special attention they deserve, you must first decide what they are. Finishing a project is a goal. Priorities are more all-encompassing than a single undertaking; they are life values that influence your actions and decisions as you strive toward them.

For example, if your priority is punctuality, you will avoid distractions and finish projects on time in pursuit of that value. Before you read on, ask yourself: “What is my true priority for my career?”

How to Decide What You Should Do First

Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles explains the principle of priority: “(A) You must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (B) you must do what’s important first. Urgent tasks appear on your task list to address a pressing issue or because they require immediate attention or response. For example, imagine a group of IT technicians have a list of five tasks on their agenda for the day—install current anti-virus software on all the computers, find a funny tech meme for the lunchroom bulletin board contest, set up an account for a new employee starting today, order a replacement part for a broken computer, and stop by the office of someone who requested support. To be most efficient, they should first determine whether each item is urgent or important.

You might think that all the tasks are urgent and important.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who used the priority principle throughout his military and political career, challenged this belief, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” The main difference is that important tasks support our long-term purpose, values, and objectives.

Urgent tasks are extremely time-sensitive, but they may not do anything to help us accomplish our goals. For example, the lunchroom contest poster urges the IT team to “Enter before Friday at noon!” but whether they do or not won’t affect their professional mission. They should eliminate the chore or begin it only when they have done everything else on their to-do list. What urgent tasks can you postpone or scratch off your daily schedule?

Let’s return to the IT team’s other four tasks. If their overall purpose is to keep the office network up and running, they will mark the new employee account and the support request as “important.” The affected employees won’t be able to continue their work which, in turn, could slow down the whole operation. The technicians need to order the part and update the software as soon as possible, but these assignments are of a lower priority than the new account and support request.

You might be looking at your agenda thinking, “I have too many important tasks!” In Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you will find a matrix to help you sort your crucial duties. First, tackle tasks that are important and urgent. Next, prioritize tasks that are important, but not urgent. After you completed everything important, you can work on some of the urgent but non-essential concerns.

How to Reduce Your Volume of Tasks

Is it possible to limit the urgency of an important task? Absolutely, you can lessen the pressure of a deadline if you plan intelligently. Often, you receive notice of deadlines weeks or months in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to start working. Chunk your task into its components and schedule them in a logical order.

Things break unexpectedly, but sometimes you can prevent important fixes from becoming urgent by scheduling regular maintenance. For instance, if our imaginary IT team performed weekly checks and educated employees about fixing minor repairs, support requests and broken computers would be less frequent. Can you arrange your schedule to accommodate planning and maintenance?

You have the potential to be extremely efficient. Reading this article proves that you have an interest. The next step is putting its advice into practice.

Decide what your priorities are, and allow them to influence how you act. Focus on important tasks, and put urgent ones in their place. Your stress will decrease in proportion to the pile of work on your desk. And who knows, you might even finish ahead of deadline!

How Can Power Words Help You Land Your Dream Job?

There’s no silver bullet to get you the job you want, but power words might be the closest thing.

What are power words, you ask? Power words are buzzwords and special phrases that signal to a company that you’re on their wavelength. Use them to tailor your application to a specific company and show that you know their mission, their approach, and their values—and that you’ve done your homework. These are the words that they’re watching for to find out which applicants are best suited to join the team.

Why Power Words Are Your Friends

Power words are like hypnosis. Use the words your potential employers want to hear and they’ll come knocking at your door.

Okay, it’s a bit more complicated than that. But the right power words can help your resume stand out, and that can give you the edge you need to get the job.

Here’s why. Some companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which searches resumes for certain keywords and forwards only the resumes of candidates who jam-packed their applications with the power words companies are looking for.

And for companies that do have a human reading applications, that human is often trying to get through a lot of resumes in a short time. They may not be a computer, but they will have superbly trained eyes that speedily scan for buzzwords and phrases.

So, the better you train yourself to use those words and phrases, the more your resume will stand out.

How do you find the right power words to make your resume pop? Try these tips to find and use power words in any job application.

Get Power Word Gems from the Job Description

A big, juicy job description is like a math textbook with the answers in the back. It lists the requirements, skills, and daily tasks of the job you’re applying for, so all you need to do is say that you meet those requirements, have those skills, and are up to that set of daily tasks. Piece of cake, right?

Of course, you don’t want to copy the job description word for word. Instead, imagine which words and phrases would be highlighted. Those are your power words. As you write your resume and your cover letter, work the words from the job description into your description of who you are and what you do.

For example, if the job description says you’ll “influence strategic decisions by working with cross-functional partners,” you might include phrases like “guided strategy,” “engaged in cross-functional collaboration,” or “coordinated decision-making with multiple teams.” By using some of the same words and some synonyms, you demonstrate that you can do what they’re asking, and you have the smarts to phrase it in a different way.

Select Company-Specific Power Words

You’re not just applying to do a job; you’re applying to work at a company. While applying, make sure you familiarize yourself with the company and what makes it unique, and incorporate some of that information in your application materials.

How do you find that information? Most job descriptions include some information about the company, and sometimes explain why that job is important to that company’s development. Use that information to explain why you’re not just a good fit for the daily work; you’re a good fit for the company culture, too.

RELATED: 4 Ways to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

You can expand on that by looking at the “about” information on the company website and its mission statement, if it has one. For example, if the mission involves “introducing our product to a global market,” you can mention how your abilities will suit you to developing the product, and also how reaching an international audience is something you value.

Double benefit: you show that your skills suit the work you’ll be doing, and that your personality is in line with what the company is trying to accomplish overall.

Use Industry Jargon (Appropriately)

A/B testing. Malfeasance. Amortization. Socratic method. SEO, UX, UI.

Doesn’t matter if you’re a marketer, lawyer, teacher, or techie: every industry has its jargon. Get a handle on the specific words people in your line of business use to describe the work they do, because guess what: those are power words. In your resume and cover letter, include jargon that shows that you not only know how the industry works but also how it talks.

But strike a balance: show what you know, but don’t make your writing so chock-full of jargon that there’s no sign of a human in there.

Pick Verbs with Verve

Verbs will help you express yourself, convey your skills, and win at life. See how great verbs are?

Most resumes are essentially souped-up lists of stuff you did. And it sounds a lot better to say you orchestrated, designed, spearheaded, or led instead of just did. That’s right: most power words are power verbs.

Now you know why power words can help you land a job, where to look for the right power words in the job and company descriptions, and how to show what you can do with the right set of vivacious verbs. But which verbs in particular, you might ask?

If you need more tips on seeking superb synonyms to power up your resume, we’ve got a handy list of 65 powerful words to take your resume to the next level. So now that you know how power words work, find your favorites and get them working for you.

Understanding the American National Anthem for English Language Learners

National Anthem History

On the morning of September 14, 1814, the sun rose to reveal a surprising sight to Francis Scott Key.

Just a month after the British had burned the White House during the height of the War of 1812, Key was aboard a British vessel negotiating the release of a friend who was being held prisoner. During Key’s time aboard the vessel, the British commenced an attack on Fort McHenry and the pair was not allowed to leave. So Key and his friend watched from the ship as the British bombarded Fort McHenry.

After a day and a long night in which Key thought for certain that the American fort was doomed, he was shocked when the early morning light revealed that the American flag was still there. Still aboard the British vessel, Key began to pen the words that would later become the American national anthem.

Some time later, Key’s brother-in-law paired the poem with the tune of the English drinking song “To Anacreon in Heaven” by John Stafford Smith and began distributing the song as “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” Eventually, the song was published in the Baltimore Patriot newspaper and soon after spread across the country as “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It was played at official events across the nation, officially becoming the national anthem in 1931.

National Anthem Lyrics

While Key penned three more verses in addition to the well-known first verse, these are the only words that most Americans know:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there. O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

What Does the National Anthem Mean?

This is the first verse of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Breaking it down line-by-line reveals some words and phrases that, despite being sung so often, may not make sense to most people.

“O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?”

• dawn: early morning, just as the sun begins to rise
• hail’d (hailed): to honor something (in this case the flag)
• gleaming: a gleam is a flash of light, likely referring to the last bits of light hitting the flag as the sun set
• twilight: the last bit of light from the sun fading as it sets

These lines ask listeners if they can see the American flag waving over Fort McHenry as the sun begins to rise. The flag is a symbol of how the Americans held the fort against all odds, so if the flag hadn’t been there, Key would have known the fort was defeated. Key held onto the flag as a symbol of hope as he watched from the British vessel, catching sight of it as the sun set, twelve hours after the British bombardment began.

“Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?”

• broad: wide, referring to the stripes that run across the American flag
• perilous: dangerous
• ramparts: the embankments that were part of the fort’s defense
• gallantly: in a heroic or brave manner
• streaming: this describes the flag waving in the wind
• O’er (over): above

This bit describes the American flag flying throughout the battle.

“And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.”

There aren’t that many challenging words in this part, where Key describes how the British bombs occasionally lit up the American flag that was flying throughout the night.

“O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

• spangled: decorated
• banner: a long strip of cloth or paper (in this case, a flag)

In this final verse, Key asks one last time if the flag is still there, waving over a country born from revolution and still fighting to maintain its hard-won freedom.

Cool Fact: March 3 is recognized in the United States as National Anthem Day.