How to Use the Summary Section in LinkedIn and Describe Your Experiences

The summary section in Linkedin is little critical section. It is different than that of a resume summary. To quickly distinguish between the two, it can be explained that Resume summary is a professional gist of the profile, whereas a Linkedin summary is a blend of personal and professional front both. It is required to let people know who you are as a professional. Roles and responsibilities can be similar, and your resume would not talk much about you. It will only talk about the responsibilities that you took care of.

Linkedin summary can be very crucial in providing you a distinguishing edge over others by presenting your professional and personal accomplishments as a package by using an interactive language. A Summary can be used as a branding tool by highlighting all your unique qualities and exposures which set you apart from others.

Take the opportunity: Linkedin summary is an excellent opportunity to let people know about your strengths, the challenges that you might have faced and the learning outcomes. Linkedin summary is a snapshot of your USPs that is your unique selling point. This opening section is a make or mar segment.

The Impact: In the first segment that is summary, you need to put in all the cream. But you need to do that with succinctness. Talk about the impact that you can make for your prospective employer. Make the summary achievement oriented. Do not just describe your role but go beyond it. Think about how your work and experience can help others?

Express: Hiring managers and recruiters want to see the zeal and enthusiasm in jobseeker. Talk about the positives for your past employers. Even if you did not have very good experience in your previous company, still do not let the shadow of negativity overpower. Talk about the things you liked about your previous job which helped you grow and learn new things.

Similar to “Tell me about Yourself”: Most of the interview opens with a very well-known question, “So, tell me something about yourself”. So, think on those lines only. What would you answer if someone asks you to speak about your self ? Try to structure the summary thinking on the similar ways. While talking about your self, think of those things that are significant enough.

Know your audience: Before writing your Linkedin summary, first understand the objective and accordingly mould your summary. Know your audience and set your summary as per that. Ask yourself these questions, “Who is your ideal audience?” For whom you are writing? What do you expect them to know? What skills should be highlighted through your summary? Once you get the answers to all these questions, start penning them down.

Rough Sketch: Before making the most important section of your Linkedin, make a rough list of all your significant accomplishments, things which motivate you, that pushes you to put in all your efforts. Once you start listing down all your roles and accomplishments, you will automatically come to a conclusion which ones to highlight and those which can be little subdued. This will help you in drafting a short, precise and an effective Linkedin summary.

Merge them all: After you are done with noting down the laundry list of roles, responsibilities, and achievements, start combining them in a way which highlights your competencies, skills and your potential. Whether the Linkedin summary would be in first and third person, the choice is all yours. Both the ways, it is acceptable. Think creatively, how you want to portray yourself.

Punch Line: This is the tag line through which you will open your summary statement. I have read a headline in Linkedin which is like, “Cut me, and I bleed content”. This will hit any viewers who will read through the profile. But remember while being compelling, a summary or headline should be meaningful and relevant as well. This should summarize your profile.

Character Limitations: This is an important aspect to keep in mind while writing a Linkedin summary. Your summary should be 2000 character or less than that. There is an option to upload your resume as well in Linkedin. So it is better to remain within the character limitations and then if there are additional projects which are exceeding the limit, attach the resume for detailed review.

Describing your experience: While talking about your experience, it is not a necessary to give a bulleted list of your role just like your resume. Again it is suggested to intertwine them in a way which demonstrates your learning, your knowledge, experience, your skills and how you have utilized them for the organizational benefit. Show your personal and professional growth.

Link up: Whatever you are writing in your profile, either it is a summary section or work experience, link it up with other sections as well. It should not be cluttered. There should be symmetry between each section that you are writing in your profile. Balance should be maintained throughout the profile.

Spell Check/Grammar Check: This element is generally ignored. While writing a summary or even work experience, we tend to miss out on spellings, which become a huge mistake on our part. After writing summary and work experience part, review it as many times as you can. This will eliminate the scope of mistakes in a document.

Closing Sentence: The way you start your summary, it is important to close it on a proper note. End the summary by saying what your objective is? What interests you and how you can be of help for the potential company? Along with this, also give your contact details and a call to action.

Remain Focused: Weave story, but remain focused. Do not deviate while weaving a story about your work experience and skills. Stepwise details will give the entire thing a purposeful meaning and logic. Do not just copy and paste your resume summary to your Linkedin profile, keep it customized.

Crucial Points to Remember

• Never leave the Linkedin summary blank as this is the main section which is given a lot of attention by the recruiters. In the absence of a powerful summary, the employers will be able to directly go through your experiences, which will sound like a resume description. A summary establishes the perspective and provides direction to the employers in terms of understanding your career expectations, overall professional journey, and demonstrated strengths and abilities. In the absence of a summary, your profile will appear like a term paper without having a meaningful introduction in it.

• Take the opportunity of using up the entire imitation of 2, 000 characters, since Linkedin profile is a Keyword optimization platform. Describe your significant accomplishments by narrating your success stories in an interactive language by following the format of Problem, Action and Outcome. A summary can be used for grabbing the attention of the employers by describing your unique selling propositions or your key strengths or proven competencies.

• Break the summary into several sub-paragraphs for gaining attention and emphasizing on crucial issues which you might wish the recruiters must consider while reading your Linkedin profile.