How I made my LinkedIn profile visible

At the beginning of 2017, I sought work opportunities in South Africa and overseas. I decided that it was time I made myself more visible on LinkedIn. I had successfully found a job on LinkedIn in the past. Still, I knew by looking at other developers' profiles that mine couldn't compete. I decided to fix it.

I started looking at other people's profiles. I tried to extract things that made them look more professional and proficient in their skills. I based it on my perception of professionalism. My idea was to look at the LinkedIn profile of people who have worked at multiple big companies in various countries.

I saw it those profiles gave me the impression that these people were very intentional in how they wanted to be perceived.

The research

You need to go on LinkedIn and find these two groups of people:

• People with the same job but a much better profile than you.
• Those with your future career: a senior engineer, should look for CTOs in big tech companies.

Observe these profiles and focus on extracting some essential information:

• How they name their position.
• How they describe their work and the keywords they use.
• What certificate do they have (this can help you identify the skills you need in the future and prioritize your learning).
• How active they are on LinkedIn (also look at Twitter as some people prefer to tweet).

The findings