How to use LinkedIn to change careers

We all know the power of LinkedIn for job hunting and networking. But how do we use the social media site to help change careers and make sure we're found by the right recruiters, hiring managers and colleagues – not ones from our past, but from our future careers?

It’s tempting to create a broad profile that makes you look qualified for both the job you have and the one you want, or for a variety of new functions, industries or roles. But that will just confuse your readers and send them running – to others’ LinkedIn pages. Focus your profile on your new career direction, just as you’ve tailored your résumés to specific jobs. In both cases, you highlight your most relevant experiences and minimise or omit the rest. Here’s how to do that on LinkedIn:

Headline

LinkedIn auto-populates this field with your current position, but don’t let it. Instead, use the 120 characters to write your own eye-catching headline.

Why is this so important? If I’m searching for someone like you on LinkedIn, my search results will reveal only your name and headline – and I could easily overlook you. But if you write an irresistible headline, I’ll take the time to click to your entire profile. Check to see how distinctive your headline is by searching LinkedIn for people doing your job.

Summary

Now that your headline has attracted the right people, keep them reading. Tell a compelling story and write it in the first person. Unlike the headline, your LinkedIn summary gives you much more space (up to 2,000 characters) to highlight past accomplishments and connect them to what you want to do next. This is especially important if you’ve changed careers before.

Craft a cohesive narrative that pulls together what might otherwise appear to be fragmented pieces of your professional past. This will avoid leaving your profile reader wondering what you’re trying to do now.

Experience

Tailor each of the positions in your experience section. Continue to write in the first person to provide continuity with your first-person summary.

Here are other suggestions:

Accomplishments

Focus on accomplishments not responsibilities, as you would in any résumé or profile. But highlight only the accomplishments most relevant to the new type of work you’re seeking.

Make those accomplishments concrete by noting the problems you’ve solved, how and the specific results you generated.

Recommendations

As with any LinkedIn profile, sparingly add recommendations to selected positions – the ones most relevant to the new type of work you’re seeking. Invite one or two people to recommend you. And don’t hesitate to direct their testimonials; you’ll make it easier and faster for them, and more effective for you. Tell them exactly the type of positions you’re now targeting and the skills you’d like them to highlight.

Images and media samples

Again, as with any LinkedIn profile, use images and media samples to draw attention to your most impressive accomplishments. Add them only to the positions you want your new profile readers to focus on.

When you’re trying to get into a new line of work, you have to prove that you have skills in a new area when you’ve always focused your career elsewhere. With a targeted profile that catches readers’ attention, you’ll position yourself well to make that change.

– (Copyright Harvard Business Review 2015) Jane Heifetz is the founder and principal of Right Résumés and a contributing editor to HBR.