How to Use LinkedIn

karlmontgomery • May 30, 2018

How recruiters and head hunters view your Linkedin profile

As a software developer/engineer, you get a lot of InMails from recruiters, right? Recruiters love Linkedin. We live on Linkedin.

Your Linkedin profile is basically an online, interactive CV. If you want the chance to be headhunted for a new role, you need to make sure your profile sells you properly! You may not even know you want a new position until a head-hunter presents it to you, so you need to make your LinkedIn profile attractive!

Terminology

Linkedin Profile – your personal page – unless you make this private, anyone can view your profile.

News Feed – the main home page of LinkedIn, where any of your connections’ activity can be seen. Your own activity will also be present on your connections’ news feeds.

InMail – internal messaging/communication on the site.

So what are recruiters looking for?

Headline

e.g. Sarah Arthur – Technology Consultant at Recruit Mint. This should state your current job title, or the way you refer to yourself as a professional. For example: Senior C# Developer at Lloyds Banking Group or Junior Web Developer at JP Morgan. NOT Software Developer. This is too vague and won’t encourage recruiters to read further into your profile.

Personal Bio

You have space on your profile to write a few lines (or as many lines as you wish) about who you are, what you do, what you can bring to a business and what you enjoy (professionally).

As a recruiter, I would recommend you keep this clear and concise; what is your background, what is your specialism, what do you enjoy and main skillset/tech stack? This will be similar to the profile section on your actual CV.

E.g. I am a C# Developer with 9 years of commercial experience in a variety of sectors, including finance and automotive. I currently work for (*company*) as a Lead Developer working on (*project*) and manage a team of four developers alongside my hands-on development work.

Skillset: C#, .NET, ASP.NET, MVC, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3 etc.

Work History

Recruiters need evidence that you have worked in a similar role to those they are looking to fill. So, when you list your previous positions held, you need to be a little more specific than ‘Software Developer’…was that Java? C#? Python…? You also need to make sure you have tagged the company correctly so that the recruiter can see the types of companies you have worked for.

Each role you list on your Linkedin profile needs to have a brief explanation of it – this doesn’t need to take long. Some people simply list the tech stack they used at each firm, others mention more details such as how many people they managed and/or the projects they worked on. It is up to you how much detail you go into, but a recruiter won’t contact you if they don’t know what experience you have.

This also applies to your educational history. Link the correct educational organisations (i.e. don’t just type ‘Sheffield Hallam’ but tag the university page it looks more professional and like you’ve given it some thought and care) and write a brief line or two summarising your course/experience there.

If you are a junior in your field and don’t have much by way of work experience, be sure to mention any voluntary roles you have had such as ‘President of Coding Club at Sheffield Hallam’… or ‘Volunteer at Django Girls’ and write a brief description of what that volunteer work entailed. It is also important that you spend more time on your personal bio and education sections as these are your selling points!

If you’re worried you may get bombarded by recruiters looking to steal you away to a new role but you’re not interested in moving on from your current company, simply state something to the effect of: e.g. Note to recruiters, I am not currently looking for a new role, OR, Recruiters – I am not looking to move on from my current company at the moment, I will remove this message when/if I decide to move on.

Good luck and happy LinkedIn-ing! If you want to be kept updated with our latest opportunities, then follow us on LinkedIn here. For more assistance on finding you the right job in Peterboroughregister with us today!

August 18, 2025
Here's an uncomfortable truth for the recruitment industry: we're systematically excluding some of the most talented individuals from our candidate pools. While neurodiversity-related job postings have nearly quadrupled from 1% to 3.8% in recent years, the stark reality remains that just 31% of people with autism are in employment compared to 54.7% of disabled people overall. In a UK market where employers are struggling with talent shortages and the fight for skilled professionals has never been fiercer, this represents a monumental waste of human potential. The recruitment industry has a problem, and it's one of our own making. Traditional recruitment processes are designed by neurotypical minds for neurotypical candidates, creating barriers that systematically filter out neurodivergent talent. But here's the kicker: teams with neurodivergent professionals are 30% more productive than those without and boast a 90% employee retention rate. If you're not implementing neurodiversity recruitment strategies, you're not just missing out—you're actively disadvantaging your clients and your business in an increasingly competitive market.
By Karl Montgomery August 18, 2025
Here's a hard truth that might sting: your CV isn't enough anymore. In today's hypercompetitive UK job market, where unemployment has reached 4.6% and over 100,000 jobs were lost between April and May 2025, standing out isn't just advantageous—it's essential for survival. With 52% of working-age adults unable to complete all 20 basic digital tasks that industry and government agree are essential for work, the candidates who can demonstrate their digital competency through a professional portfolio will have a significant advantage. But here's the controversial bit: most professionals are creating portfolios completely wrong. They're either treating them as glorified CV extensions or cramming them with irrelevant work that dilutes their impact. If you're serious about career advancement, it's time to master professional digital portfolio creation properly.
By Karl Montgomery July 22, 2025
Here's a statement that will make every recruitment leader squirm: Your recruitment marketing is burning money, and you don't even know it. While you're celebrating that uptick in applications, your actual quality hires are plummeting. While you're patting yourself on the back for lower cost-per-application, your cost-per-quality-hire is spiralling out of control. And while you're obsessing over job board metrics, your competitors are leveraging recruitment marketing analytics to dominate the talent market. The harsh reality? 57% of marketers use leads to measure the success of their marketing initiatives. In recruitment terms, that's like judging a restaurant by how many people walk past the door instead of how many actually buy a meal and come back for more.
By Karl Montgomery July 22, 2025
Here's a controversial statement that'll ruffle some feathers: Your pandemic career gap is not the liability you think it is—it's actually your secret weapon. While you've been losing sleep over that employment gap between March 2020 and whenever you landed back on your feet, the recruitment landscape has fundamentally shifted. That gap you're trying to hide? It's become so commonplace that more than half (53%) of all candidates screened in the last 12 months have career gaps on their CVs, according to employment screening provider Accurate Background. The pandemic didn't just change how we work—it rewrote the rules of what employers expect from a CV. If you're still approaching your pandemic career gap resume with pre-2020 thinking, you're not just behind the curve; you're potentially sabotaging your chances with outdated anxiety.
By Karl Montgomery July 14, 2025
Here's an uncomfortable truth that most recruitment leaders won't admit: your current ATS is actively sabotaging your ability to find the best candidates . While you've been religiously adding keywords to job descriptions and hoping for algorithmic magic, the most talented professionals have been slipping through your digital fingers – not because they lack the skills, but because they don't speak your system's rigid language. The recruitment technology revolution isn't coming. It's here. And it's fundamentally rewriting the rules of candidate discovery in ways that make traditional keyword-based systems look as outdated as fax machines in a WhatsApp world. Welcome to the age of AI candidate search technology, where understanding context matters more than matching words, and where the smartest recruitment teams are already gaining an almost unfair advantage over those still stuck in Boolean search hell.
By Karl Montgomery July 14, 2025
Here's an uncomfortable truth: most of us are rubbish at negotiating our own worth . While 55% of job candidates don't even attempt to negotiate their salary, the very employers who'd benefit from their skills are sitting there wondering why talented people keep walking away from "generous" offers. But here's where it gets interesting – we're living through the biggest shift in workplace transparency since the gender pay gap reporting requirements landed in 2017. Pay transparency isn't just knocking at the UK's door; it's already reshaping how smart candidates approach salary conversations. The question isn't whether you should negotiate – it's whether you're equipped with the salary negotiation strategies that actually work in 2025.
By Karl Montgomery May 14, 2025
The UK's food manufacturing sector stands at a critical crossroads. With advanced automation technologies revolutionising production processes, a significant disconnect has emerged between the sophisticated capabilities of Industry 4.0 systems and the skills of the existing workforce. This gap isn't just a minor operational challenge—it represents an existential threat to the sector's competitiveness, productivity, and long-term sustainability.
By Karl Montgomery May 14, 2025
The explosion of e-commerce has fundamentally transformed the logistics landscape, pushing traditional warehouse and distribution models beyond their limits. In the UK, where online penetration rates have increased from 9.3% to 26.6% between 2012 and 2022, logistics providers face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more flexible solutions while maintaining efficiency and controlling costs. This revolution isn't just changing what logistics teams do – it's transforming how they're structured, the skills they need, and the roles they're creating to meet the demands of the digital commerce age.
By Karl Montgomery May 14, 2025
In today's fast-paced business environment, the ability to secure top talent quickly has become a critical competitive differentiator. Yet many organisations continue to struggle with prolonged hiring processes that not only frustrate candidates but also impact the bottom line in ways that often go unmeasured. While quality hiring decisions should never be rushed, there's a substantial difference between thorough assessment and unnecessary delays.
By Shazamme System User May 12, 2025
In the competitive landscape of technical recruitment, your CV might secure you an interview, but it's your problem-solving prowess that will land you the job. Technical interviews have evolved far beyond simple knowledge checks, becoming sophisticated evaluations of how you approach challenges, communicate solutions, and adapt under pressure.
Show More