Linkedin has matured over the years to become an attractive medium for recruiters and job-seekers. In this post, which I target to job-seekers, I outline some tips on how to improve your LinkedIn profile to get recruited and snag that hot software testing job. While this post is written primarily with software testers in mind, others may also benefit as the some of tips are relevant to all
Look Professional In Your Profile Photo
One of the most important things is to get a professional profile photo. Have a head shot from the shoulders, with you smiling (and not grouchy), preferably in professional business attire. Your photo needs to convey an aura of professionalism and friendliness. You won’t get very far with a LinkedIn profile photo of you with a beer in hand, or your pet parrot on your shoulder. Or both.
To further enhance the impact of your profile photo, if you are wearing dark-colored clothes, then take your photo against a light-colored background. Similarly if wearing light-colored clothes, then take your photo against a dark-colored background.
You do not have to spend a lot of money to get a professional photo done. A well-taken selfie against a plain white wall, and some photo editing using free apps, may get the job done.
Alternatively, outsource the photo editing to a freelancer from fiverr for just $5. I’ve used Rahim Uddin from fiverr to polish up some of my profile photos and have been very satisfied with his work. Or you can choose from the many other freelancers on fiverr.
Concise Profile Summary
The Profile Summary is an important area where you should briefly and concisely summarize your skills and experience. And by concise, I do mean that you should use sharp, crisp and easy-to-read language.
This includes adding specific keywords that will be picked up by potential employers and recruiters. For example, if looking for software testing roles, you will want to include words like “software testing”, “test management”. Where applicable, even include the names of the test tools or test techniques you have experience with, for example, “Selenium”, “exploratory testing”, “TDD”.
Apart from keywords, elaborate your profile summary to showcase your software testing achievements and successes, such as:
- Successfully implemented a new software testing delivery model that reduced software testing costs by 20%.
- Integrated the automation software process within the DevOps and release management process for end-to-end testing in the project lifecycle.
- Implemented a defect management process for all test levels in the project, using Jira and other open-source plugins.
Showing such achievements will set you apart from other profiles.
I would also suggest that you avoid using descriptive adjectives that exaggerate yourself. By simply saying that you are “driven”, “responsible”, “creative”, “hard-working”, or “innovative”, without substantiating it with evidence, it will just be empty words. These words have been overused across profiles, resumes, and CVs that they become meaningless and do not carry any weight. Just avoid these empty buzzwords altogether.
Detailed Summary With Impact
When listing your roles and companies you worked for, it is acceptable that you list your responsibilities. However, for added impact, include a line or two explaining your achievements. For example, “Successfully created an automation test framework for an online banking application, using Selenium, TestNG and Java”.
Specify the location of your employment. Many technology professionals these days work overseas, so listing your roles with locations, “New York”, “Mumbai”, “Tokyo”, will impress recruiters with your global experience.
Even if you did not work overseas but interacted with colleagues across the world, you could mention things like “Based in the UK, and have a strong Asian cultural awareness having interacted remotely with colleagues in China and the Philippines, on a daily basis.”
Higher Level Education Only
Use this section wisely by listing down your latest education details. It’s not necessary to include all the schools you attended since kindergarten. However, I recommended that you list down your bachelor’s degree and any additional higher qualifications for that. You should also add any achievements like making it to the Dean’s List or getting First Class Honors.
Get Recommendations
This is an awesome feature on LinkedIn that few people take advantage of. Do make use of it. Get people in your professional working circle to write glowing testimonies of your work. Recommendations that will carry some weight will be those that are brief yet impactful, and from very senior managers. You may not need a recommendation from your primary school teacher, but a few good words from your Head of Software Testing will help.
Build your Connections
Build your LinkedIn connections actively. Connect to head-hunters you have met, networked, even if it was a brief chat on the phone. It’s easy for recruiters to reach out to people they are already connected to on LinkedIn to discuss potential job opportunities than those not connected to them.
Connect also to other testing professionals you meet in your courses of work, at seminars, training classes or even bloggers. We meet software testing professionals everywhere. Reach out and connect to them. Use LinkedIn to keep in touch. Be active, comment and like their LinkedIn posts.
Add Skills and Endorsements
Adding your software testing skills is an important aspect of a good profile, as your connections will have the ability to vouch for your skills with “endorsements”. The more endorsements you have for certain skills will allow potential recruiters to form an impression of your capabilities.
READ: 10 Tips for Better Leadership of Your Dev-Test Onshore-Offshore Teams
Show Off Your Certifications
Today, many job descriptions list down technical certifications as job requirements. As such, do not forget to list down all your software testing technical certifications, even non-testing related ones such as project management certifications.
In software testing, certifications such as the ISTQB Foundation will help open doors. If you’re planning to sit for the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level exam, do consider signing up for my online course.
Accomplishments For Books and Patents
“Accomplishments” is one of the last few sections in the profile, this section is hardly used by most people. If you have published any books, patents or courses, do use the “Accomplishments” section to list them down. Such accomplishments will demonstrate your passion for your career by going wider than your regular job demands.
Be Active on LinkedIn
Apart from creating an impressive LinkedIn profile, you should also be active on LinkedIn with related posts and comments. You can do this by posting your own software testing articles regularly. Alternatively, you can share software testing articles from other websites, but do preface it with your own comments and views. Some examples:
- I agree with this post from John Doe that exploratory testing is an important technique to be used in agile projects. I use it myself in all my projects.
- Apart from the 8 benefits of using JMeter for load testing mentioned in this post, I would like to add another two factors, ease-of-use, and low cost, having used JMeter for the past 5 years.
By creating article and posting comments, your profile will gain prominence in your connections’ LinkedIn home page and help reinforce your connections view of your talents and expertise in software testing.
Sometimes it is acceptable to disagree with posts or other people’s comments on LinkedIn, provided you do it in a polite, tactful and professional manner. Here are some examples:
- Unlike most comments here, I would not recommend software testers learning this programming language as it’s rather a niche to this test tool only and applicable to the logistics industry only. Look elsewhere if you are looking for employment outside the logistics industry.
- I respectfully disagree with the author of this post, as my experience with using this test tool has only brought about positive benefits for my projects. I believe the key is in the implementation of the tool for the unit testing phase of projects where defects can be found earlier in the lifecycle.
Use Referrals
When applying for jobs through LinkedIn, you may come across someone in your connection who works for that company. Reach out to that person for a referral for that role you are applying for. Many organizations have internal referral programs and incentives for those who make referrals. Also, HR and Talent Acquisition may likely put referred candidates on top of their list.
Use LinkedIn Messaging
Use LinkedIn Messaging to communicate with recruiters or interviewers.
While it’s common to see recruiters reaching out to you, you can also be the one initiating contact. This can be done when no role is being advertised in that company, but an open and polite message may reinforce your profile with the recruiter should a suitable role crop up in the future.
Use messaging after an interview to thank the interviewer for the opportunity and remind them that they can contact you for further questions if necessary.
LinkedIn Premium, perhaps?
LinkedIn also has Premium membership, where for a monthly fee, you become a Premium member with added features such as free limited InMail credits allowing you to contact people beyond your immediate network. This is very useful when communicating with recruiters and employers, not within your LinkedIn network.
Upskill with LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning has an awesome collection of online courses. This is optional. You don’t need to list this down in your profile. However subscribing to this platform and taking up some of their courses, will be an investment in yourself.
Summary
There are many ways to snag that software testing job. If going through LinkedIn, the tips in this post will help you improve your profile, get better connected and improve your chances in job applications. Wishing you success in your job search.