A Strong Summary Makes a Winning LinkedIn Profile

By Joshua Waldman from Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies

A strong LinkedIn profile summary is short, concise, unique, and tells a story or narrative. Hiring managers turn to your summary to discover more about you. Your LinkedIn profile summary section appears just below the blue area at the top of your profile.

Your profile summary is your chance to make an impression. Whatever you do, don’t bore the hiring managers who are reviewing it. Only after reading your summary do hiring managers look at your experience and education.

A good profile summary has these four characteristics:

It’s short. Keep your summary between five and ten lines on the screen, or three to five sentences. When read out loud, your summary shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to read. (And, yes, that means you need to read it out loud with a timer.)
It’s concise. Your summary isn’t the place for bulleted lists of your accomplishments, but it should quickly tell viewers more about you.
It’s unique. Avoid jargon, buzzwords, or clichés.
It’s a narrative. You’re welcome to use first person pronouns in your summary. Rather than referring to yourself in the third person, like you would in a résumé, tell your story with I and my.

Your profile summary is the first place you get to elaborate on your personal brand. And your brand should focus on the value you offer the reader. So feel free to use a clear and well-crafted value statement in this area of your profile.