Linkedin

LinkedIn feels like one of those things everyone has… but few people really use well. Especially in tech. We’ve seen a lot of folks with decades of experience underselling themselves - or worse, going completely invisible.

If you’re doing the work of building your personal brand, then LinkedIn shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s not just a place to connect with former coworkers, it’s your living resume, your credibility checker, and your inbound opportunity magnet.

Let’s walk through the basics, what to include, and a few tricks to make LinkedIn actually work for you.

What LinkedIn Is (And Isn’t)

LinkedIn is the default professional network. Recruiters live on it. Founders use it to find partners. Clients check it to see if you’re legit.

It’s not Facebook with neckties. You don’t need to post daily or rack up 10,000 followers. But you do need to have a solid, up-to-date profile that makes it easy for someone to understand what you do, how good you are, and how to get in touch.

What To Include In Your Profile

You don’t need to overthink it, but you do need to finish it. A complete profile is more likely to show up in searches, and it sends the signal that you’re active and open to new things.

1. Profile Photo

• Use a recent, clear, professional-ish photo.
• It doesn’t need to be a studio shot. Just avoid blurry, weirdly cropped, or outdated pics.
• Smile, or at least look approachable.

2. Banner / Background Image

• Don’t leave it blank.
• Use a background that reflects your work - something tech-related, clean, or even branded if you have your own .com.

3. Headline

This is the line under your name. Don’t let it default to your job title.

Make it human. Make it scan-friendly.

4. About Section

This is your elevator pitch. Who are you? What are you great at? What are you interested in doing more of?

Write in first person. Keep it tight. A few short paragraphs is enough.

5. Experience

This is the core of your work history.

• Focus on impact, not just duties.
• Use bullet points.
• Include keywords people might search for (cloud, security, automation, CI/CD, etc).
• Don’t skip older jobs, summarize them in-brief if needed.

If you’ve freelanced, built a product, or worked on a side project - include it! That stuff matters.

6. Skills & Endorsements

• List the tools, languages, and platforms you actually use.
• Put your top 3 most relevant skills first.
• Endorse your peers and ask them to return the favor.

7. Recommendations

These carry weight.

Ask a former colleague, boss, or client to write you a quick 2–3 sentence recommendation. Return the favor if you can.

8. Link to Your Other Platforms

• GitHub
• Blog or .com
• YouTube (if applicable)
• Calendly or other contact methods

Make it easy for someone to find your work and reach out.

Use an LLM To Polish EVERY Section

Seriously, use ChatGPT or another LLM (e.g. Deepseek, Google Gemini, etc). It is literally like having an expert writing coach helping you, who never sleeps, and never gets tired of working.

Prompt Engineering is just the practice of giving a good, clear setup to get the best result from the model. The LLM’s are trained on all human knowledge. By default they are told to “Be a helpful assistant”, which means their responses will be helpful, but typically generic. Instead, if you say: “Act as an experienced recruiter and job placement expert. Please review…”, then these LLM’s roleplay 100%. They BECOME that Persona, and give you far more focused responses, more aligned with that persona, or role.

You don’t have to accept every suggestion it makes. But it will almost always help you say what you meant to say. You can also keep iterating and speak freely about what you like and you don’t like. For example: “This sounds like a sales pitch, not me.” or “This comes across like a Nike commercial trying to be edgy, this should be more real and authentic.”.

Here are a few more prompt examples:

• "Rewrite this Experience section to make it more achievement-focused. Show my impact."
• "Improve this headline so it sounds more confident but not arrogant."
• "Make this summary more readable and less stiff, like I’m talking to a peer."

You can even paste in a job description and ask it to tailor your profile to match.

What Is LinkedIn Premium?

LinkedIn Premium is a paid upgrade that gives you a few extras. It’s definitely not mandatory, but it can be useful if you’re actively job hunting or trying to grow your network.

Features include:

• Seeing who viewed your profile
• InMail (message people you’re not connected with)
• More detailed insights on job postings (how you stack up)
• Applicant tracking and visibility tools
• Extra filters when searching for roles or people

Summary

LinkedIn isn’t just for salespeople and influencers. It’s where people in tech validate each other, get recruited, and find collaborators.

If you’re building your brand or thinking about a career pivot, start with:

• A solid profile photo and banner
• A thoughtful headline and About section
• Clean, clear Experience entries
• Some Skills, a few Recommendations, and your contact info

And definitely pair up with an LLM to clean it all up and make it shine.

This is low-effort, high-return stuff. Don’t skip it.