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Every minute, LinkedIn users submit just north of 8,000 job applications, according to company data.
For job seekers, that can feel like a daunting number, especially as headlines about layoffs seem to infiltrate news feeds at a similar rate.
While LinkedIn isn’t the only platform for searching job ads, it’s the most popular, with a global user base of over one billion. So if you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile in a while, whether you’re actively seeking employment or not, it’s time for a refresh.
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“People want to see that you have a digital footprint and see that you have more context about who you are,” said Sam Wright, head of career strategy at Huntr, a company that specializes in job search tools.
Here are three quick ways — plus one bonus round — to clean up your LinkedIn profile.
1. Emphasize your most important facts and stats
Think about the information you want a potential employer to know about you first, and make sure they can see it fast.
If you have impressive facts or stats, make sure no one has to dig into your profile to find them. In part, that means using your headline and about section.
The headline, for example, can go beyond your current job title. A post on LinkedIn profiles from the University of Washington advised professionals to use 10 to 15 words to describe both career focus and top skills.
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Wright recommended compiling your achievements and crafting a few sentences highlighting them for the about section.
“I like to remind people that we all have TikTok brains, eight-second attention spans — hiring managers and recruiters included,” Wright said.
If finding your most important information requires too much scrolling and clicking, odds are, a recruiter or hiring manager might not get there.
2. Be detailed
On your resume, you probably go into specifics about your past positions, not only describing your title and length of employment, but also your key achievements and responsibilities.
Make sure that information is also on your LinkedIn profile.
A 2025 guide from Rutgers University suggested using strong verbs and bolstering those bullet points with measurable numbers to tell what it calls your “professional story.”
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You should answer the question of what you actually did in your job.
Wright said that information helps with visibility, and it’s easy to add since you’ve already got it on your resume.
3. Remember your audience
You’ve likely seen rants on LinkedIn. Particularly after something like a layoff, you might be tempted to vent your work-related frustrations on the platform.
In short, don’t.
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Remember that if you’re on the job hunt, your target audience is recruiters and potential employers. Rants, however justified or deeply felt, are better suited for friends and family.
“You want to promote yourself as a professional that somebody wants to work with,” Wright said.
And if you’ve posted a screed in the past, it’s worth going back through old posts and deleting anything that might not represent you well.
While you’re at it, you can use our guide to make sure your online presence beyond LinkedIn won’t get you disqualified from a job you want, either.
Bonus round: Refresh often
Even if you’re not on the job hunt at the moment, it’s important to keep your LinkedIn profile polished and up-to-date.
Wright suggested a good time to revisit your profile is around when you do performance reviews at work. That way, you have your most recent stats and accomplishments at hand, and should you suffer a layoff or decide to start looking for a new gig, your profile is ready to go.
