Using LinkedIn to your advantage

gbublick

Jul 12, 2022

4 min read

Updated: Aug 3

LinkedIn Is NOT Facebook

LinkedIn is the most powerful networking tool you have — if you use it properly. Most people don't. They set up a profile, leave it half-finished, and wonder why nothing happens.

Here's how to fix that.

Your Profile

Profile picture

One of my biggest pet peeves is people with no profile picture. This is a social network — why are you hiding? 😂 You have a smartphone. Find good lighting and take a decent photo.

A friend of mine had an old photo where he looked completely shlumpy. I told him to swap it for something clean and professional. People started messaging him about opportunities the next day. Nothing about him had changed — he was just suddenly approachable.

And please: no photos from ten years ago, no blurry shots, no obvious crop where you've cut someone else out of the frame. Take twenty minutes and get a current picture.

Headline

This is the line under your name, and it's the single most-read piece of text on your profile — it follows you into search results, comments, and every connection request you send. LinkedIn defaults it to "Job Title at Company," which tells a recruiter almost nothing.

Use the space. Say what you do, what you're good at, and what you're looking for. Compare:

❌ Account Manager at Company Ltd.
✅ Account Manager | B2B SaaS | Building long-term client relationships | Open to new opportunities in Tel Aviv

Those words are also what recruiters search on, so the specific terms matter.

Location — set it to Israel

If you're job hunting here, your profile location must say Israel. Recruiters filter their searches by location, and if yours still says New York or London, you will not appear in the results, no matter how good your profile is. This is the most common and most costly mistake I see olim make.

Custom URL

On your profile page, click Edit public profile & URL (top right on desktop). You can personalize the URL rather than leaving the random string of numbers LinkedIn assigns you.

Aim for FirstnameLastname. If that's taken, try variations — but no numbers.

It looks far better on a CV, and it's much easier to give someone verbally.

Cover photo

Yes, do it. Pick something that says something about you professionally. This is your stage — use it.

The About section

Recruiters absolutely read this. Be creative. And note: this is about you, not about your employer. Talk about your experience, what you've done, what you care about, a fun fact or two.

One practical tip — only the first couple of lines show before the "see more" cut. Front-load the good part.

Skills and Featured

Recruiters search by skill, so fill in the skills section properly with the terms actually used in your field. And use the Featured section to pin your best work — a portfolio, a project, an article, a talk. It sits right near the top and most people leave it empty.

Open to Work

If you're looking, say so. Zero shame.

You get two options: a discreet setting visible only to recruiters, or the green banner everyone can see. The banner reaches more people; the quiet version matters if you're currently employed and don't want your manager finding out. Pick according to your situation, but pick one.

Network, Network, Network!!

There's a reason LinkedIn doesn't call them friends or followers. They're connections.

It's completely acceptable to connect with recruiters, talent acquisition people, and others in your industry. You don't need permission.
Don't fire off huge numbers of requests in one sitting — LinkedIn caps how many invitations you can send, and mass-adding gets you flagged.
Connect with your friends. Whether you've spoken in the last year is irrelevant. You're not doing this to rekindle a kindergarten friendship (though if that happens, also fine 😂).
Add a personal note. One line about why you're reaching out dramatically increases the odds of acceptance, and it starts an actual relationship rather than a silent number. Some people only accept requests from people they've met, which is fair enough.
Use company pages to find your way in. When you see a job you want, go to the company's LinkedIn page and click People. You'll see who works there, who you're connected to, and who used to work there. A former employee is often the most honest person you can talk to about a company.

Don't Want to Be Social on LinkedIn?

Tough noogies. Time to step out of your comfort zone 🔥

Here's why it's worth it.

I'm connected to a friend of my brother's from high school, now the CEO of a great startup. He comments on interesting things, so his activity shows up in my feed regularly.

One day he commented on a post — a story about a guy who met his wife at a stoplight. I loved it, so I commented too. The person who wrote the post saw my comment, looked at my profile, sent me a connection request, and messaged me directly about a job opportunity.

He had no obligation to do any of that. He did it because I showed up in a conversation.

That's the whole mechanism. You don't get opportunities from having a profile. You get them from being visible — commenting, replying, being a person other people notice. The stoplight story wasn't about jobs at all. That's rather the point: you can't predict which conversation turns into something.

See how that works? 😃

Gila Bublick