Mastering LinkedIn: A Developer's Guide to Getting Hired

LinkedIn is the number one platform that employers and recruiters are using to find and vet candidates. In this article, we're going to share over 5+ basic profile setup tips and then three advanced tips to help you maximize your leverage of the LinkedIn platform as a developer searching for a job.

Learning the technical skills is just half the battle in getting your first developer job; learning how to sell yourself to an employer is just as important. A great salesperson is obsessed with understanding the motivations of a prospect and then tailors what they have to offer to those motivations. If you're searching for a job in a competitive market, it's a significant advantage if you understand what employers care about—which is a lot more than just your resume—and if you know what tools they're using on a daily basis. One big answer to those questions is LinkedIn.

The great thing here is that if you already have a resume put together, it won't take long at all to get a basic profile set up. Compared to the time and effort it takes to learn the technical skills and build a strong portfolio, this is very low-hanging fruit. If you're still not convinced that all this is worth doing, consider that many developers land their roles because a recruiter reached out to them on LinkedIn.

Let's get into the tips. If you already have a basic profile set up, you can skip ahead to the advanced tips. Otherwise, keep reading. We're going to cover several basic areas of a LinkedIn profile, with comments on each area. These are all just opinions and suggestions, so feel free to implement some but not others.

Essential Profile Setup Tips

1. Your Profile Picture

First off is your picture. It is a bad look if you don't have any sort of photo at all. Even a mediocre photo is way better than having no photo. Some might argue that you should spend money on a professional headshot, but it's better to be strategic with your time and money. For developers, the stance is to find a decent quality photo you already have, upload it, and move on. Software development isn't typically a suit-and-tie field, so something more informal is perfectly fine.

2. Your Title

Your title is critically important because it's the number one way recruiters find you in searches. Set it to 'iOS Developer' or whatever kind of developer you aim to be, even if you've never had a job yet. You should also consider putting a secondary keyword in there for searches. For example, you could have:

iOS Developer | Swift

In general, it's best to keep words like 'seeking' or 'aspiring' out of your title. Those belong in the 'Open to' section.

3. The 'Open to' Section

This is the one area where you do want to indicate that you're looking for a job. Where it says 'Open to,' click the dropdown and select 'Finding a new job.' You'll be able to filter by location and the type of work you're open to. Another dropdown lets you select whether this is shown only to recruiters or to your entire network. There isn't much of a downside to pushing this out to everyone. Once you do, a green stripe that says 'Open to Work' appears at the bottom of your profile photo. This is another important step to ensure you appear in recruiter searches, as they often filter based on who is open to work.

Note on Connections: The profile will show the exact number of people you're connected with up until you hit 500. Being under 500 isn't necessarily a bad thing, but having a very low number of connections, like 31, may not look very good. It's up to you to decide where you want to fall within that range, but it's recommended to start connecting with people you know personally or professionally. From there, you can move on to connecting with others in the software development field.

4. The About Section

This section is a bit subjective. One approach is to write a quick personal tidbit, highlight some technical skills, and include relevant links. Unfortunately, you can't make these links clickable, but it's still worth displaying them for anyone checking out your profile. Some people opt for a very long 'About' section, while others prefer a more minimalist approach. That's totally up to you. It's an area that can only help paint the picture of who you are, so it's recommended to spend a little time and thought pulling something together.

5. The Experience Section

A quick and easy thing to do is to copy and paste any bullets you have from your job history on your existing resume. It's definitely good to ensure the titles and dates match your resume to eliminate any potential mismatch concerns. Often on a resume, you might have to cut some bullets to make things fit nicely on the page. Here, you can add more bullets than your resume because you don't have the same spacing limitations. You can also link to different things, which looks nice and can make you appear more legitimate on projects or for companies that people may not have heard of before.

If you have personal projects that are a meaningful part of what you have to offer, one strategy is to create a section called 'Independent App Developer.' There, you can have a write-up about those projects and include links to them. The definition of 'independent developer' is pretty loose, but this can be an effective way to ensure your top projects are included on your profile.

6. The Featured Section

The final basic profile tip is to leverage the 'Featured' section. Here, you can pin significant posts or links that you want to remain on your profile. The thinking here is to consider what might elevate you as a candidate. Common things to feature include:

• Links to top portfolio projects (e.g., personal App Store apps).
• A Google Doc or PDF of your full resume.
• Anything else that reflects well on you and what you might want people to know.

Advanced Strategies to Stand Out

That wraps up the basic profile tips. Now, let's cover three advanced bonus tips.

1. Customize Your Profile URL

The first advanced tip is that you can customize your profile URL. By default, LinkedIn gives you a profile URL with your first and last name, followed by a string of random letters and numbers. However, you are able to set a custom URL. Similar to a Gmail account, minimal tends to be better. If you can cut out all the random characters after your name, it just looks cleaner. When applying for jobs, many applications will have a spot for your LinkedIn profile, and you can also put it on your resume. This is one of those minor things that probably won't get you a job on its own, but many small things can definitely add up.

2. Engage by Sharing Posts

If you already have a basic profile, one way to leverage it is to engage by sharing posts. This may seem basic, but less than five percent of people with a LinkedIn profile share a single post monthly, which makes it a great opportunity to show you're active in your field. This part of LinkedIn is a lot like other social media, and each platform has its own unwritten rules on what to post. A good approach is to provide a mix of general industry news (for example, a post on Apple's privacy nutrition labels with some comments) and share things you have built or worked on.

For instance, you could take a project that hit a milestone and share a lesson learned from it, explaining how that lesson could apply to areas outside of software development. Such posts can get thousands of views, providing exposure and positioning you as someone who is engaged and intelligent. Hiring managers may interact with your posts, and it's a good way to connect with other developers. This is more of a long-term benefit; networking and engaging with your community isn't something where you can expect a job offer after two posts, but it can only help you down the road. Don't prioritize this over higher-impact areas like building a solid portfolio or resume. But if you've already done those things, this is another way to show employers you're active and care about what you do.

3. Engage with Hiring Managers' Posts

The final advanced user tip is to like and comment on hiring managers' posts. It's common for hiring managers to post all kinds of things on LinkedIn, like company news, articles, and job openings—really anything moderately related to the company in a positive way. You will notice that these posts often get very little engagement. The one second it takes to like a post or the 15 seconds it takes to read and comment is a very easy way to stay on their radar before, during, and even after the interview process. Of course, this is all about balance; you don't want to overdo it or come across as desperate. This is a good practice even after landing a job, just to stay on companies' radars in case an opportunity arises down the road.

Hopefully, this article has convinced you of the value of at least having a profile set up and has also given you some ideas for increasing your engagement and exposure.