I need your help.
LinkedIn announced on August 9, 2011 that they have rolled out yet another new feature on their site: the “Improve Your Profile Tool.” According to the LinkedIn blog, this tool “analyzes your profile and offers you personalized profile recommendations to help you put your best foot forward.”
Clichés aside, this tool could be extremely useful to you if your profile is not 100% complete, or if you have failed to include key information.
Here’s my problem: 
I ran the Profile Makeover on my own profile, and all it told me was that I didn’t advertise my date of graduation from high school (I left it out by choice, as some of you might as well); I didn’t list the degree I got from high school (pretty obvious isn’t it?); and I didn’t specify the concentration of my J.D. (there wasn’t one – a J.D. is a J.D.).
Where I’m left, as a LinkedIn profile writer and editor, is that I have no idea what other types of suggestions LinkedIn might make to its users who have not optimized their profiles.
That’s where you come in.
I would love for you to put your profile through the Improve Your Profile process and report back on this blog what the tool tells you is missing or incorrect in your profile.
I will then know what advice I should be giving to people about LinkedIn, and what information LinkedIn will take care of. I don’t want to be duplicating things unnecessarily! The data you provide will greatly inform the content I choose to convey in my e-book and LinkedIn webinars.
To use the tool, start at LinkedIn’s article, LinkedIn Profile Makeovers just got easier, and then click in “Improve your LinkedIn Profile today!”
Are you game? I look forward to learning from the community what improvements LinkedIn thinks you should make to your profile.
I promise to make good use of your comments. And I don’t really think I am out of a job… I just won’t be doing the things a computer can do quite well on its own. Just in case, though, maybe I should make sure my LinkedIn profile is updated.
Any ideas on how I can do that?
Well I tried it as well & the only things I got back were it wanted my attendance dates at university (left out on purpose) & wanted to know if there were any other schools I attended. Nothing else, so not much help.
Thanks Elaine. I suppose there’s only so much feedback a computer can provide.
I received feedback similar to yours (dates of attendance for both undergrad and graduate studies) and one asking for more details for a very short-term consultancy, the title of which was very comprehensive: Proposal and Report Preparation.
I was surprised/disappointed that there was nothing concerning keywords. You may not be out of a job after all!
I’m surprised and disappointed too Mark, though of course pleased that I still have work to do 🙂
Ran the ‘improver’ on my profile (previously rated as ‘complete’) and it suggested:
1. fill in current position (haven’t updated my latest (temping) position)
2. add another school (deliberately left off schools)
3. add more skills
That was all – an extremely simple “you haven’t filled in this field, therefore you need to fill in this field”. Hardly a detailed algorithm, and not particularly helpful.
Thanks Steve. Pretty basic! I’m feeling pretty confident there is still work for me to do!
Well it seems we have a definite pattern here, and that I can keep my “day job.” Thank you Michelle! It’s true that it’s a good idea to add the Skills section to your profile. You can just enter your specialties there in addition to putting them in the Specialties section. Do what you can to fill them in — they are searchable as their own section and some recruiters and other power LinkedIn users will be looking there!
Thanks Larry. I am particularly interested in your response since you have a public profile URL that still has extra symbols at the end (https://www.linkedin.com/pub/larry-sochrin/0/351/7b2). I’m surprised LinkedIn didn’t catch that and prompt you to create a “vanity” URL! BTW, I would recommend adding skills like Business School Admissions, MBA Admissions Consulting, etc.
The false sense of security could be a problem. I hope the rest of the LinkedIn community realizes there is so much more that can be done with a LinkedIn profile! You’re very welcome for bringing the ‘Makeover” to your attention!
Thank you everyone. This is the most comments I’ve gotten on a blog article EVER! I’ll have to ask for your help more often 🙂
Guiding light… I like it! I think I might use that in my marketing materials 🙂
Thank you Kevin for the report. Who is Elaine? Did you mean Brenda?
LOL thanks Jan. I can sleep easy now!
Strange… the one thing I expect from computer programs is consistency!
So it looks like maybe my own webinars are putting me out of a job 🙂
Not true. There’s always going people new to LI that will need the knowledge your webinars have to offer.
Thank you Judi. I didn’t really think I was out of a job… though I did want to know how thorough LinkedIn’s tool would be!
I’m glad to hear LinkedIn recommends that you fill in a Summary section. It’s a key section of your profile! If you want assistance with making sure the summary is written effectively, let me know!
Thanks Avi. I wonder what it meant by “Appear in keyword searches.” I suppose you need a human to tell you how to do that!
Thanks Leigh! I do recommend adding the Skills section in ADDITION to the Specialties section. The two sections are searched differently so it is worth duplicating efforts!
The only improvement it suggested was to add the dates of my education. That’s not really much of an improvement. I think the value you add is that you are actually reading the profiles. LI is just scanning for blank fields.
Thank you Judi. I do indeed read every word when I work with someone on a profile.