How do I write an effective LinkedIn summary and how does this differ from a pd resume passing ATS?

Question

Questions:  What text goes in my LinkedIn Summary Section? Many people have told me in the past that the LinkedIn Summary (or about section) should be the same as what you would insert as bullet points a  ‘Summary' Section of a pdf resume, which I know not everyone on Taro is a fan of (having a summary section which takes up a lot of space on a pdf resume)--so what should I include instead? Keywords method question: What kinds of keywords should go there if we want to be discoverable on LinkedIn by the right kind of recruiters and opportunities? Do I literally just take everything ChatGPT throws at me that thinks is good keywords from a job description (other recruiters have told me this) and think that's what's good enough as a LinkedIn hack? This is different than having a resume pass ATS and instead thinking of human recruiters and what they look/search for. Rest of LinkedIn profile experience: For the rest of the LinkedIn profile, should we just literally paste everything from my pdf resume,  copying and pasting from that we wrote, where the text we composed was inspired after going through Alex's resume writing course? Logos and household names on LinkedIn Profile: Does it *really* matter if the first 3 positions I have on my LinkedIn profile don't have a company logo (these are stealth projects/startups). Does not having enough  logos of companies I have worked for (not all had LinkedIn pages) really matter that much? How do I overcome the challenge not working at a FAANGMULA company or a startup that is a household name that has a clear logo that is recognizable? Is it really a red flag if I have 3 stealth projects/companies I am working on that don't have a company logo? I was told that I didn't have enough household names on my LinkedIn (logos) and that I needed to have a logo for stealth companies/projects I am working on/for and if they didn't have a LinkedIn page they were not considered 'real,' they are real companies, but our startups folded prior and failed and never really spent time building up a Linkedin presence an an early stage startup so my team while my team put the name on their profiles, they didn't tag a page I created after I left the company.

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

I'm not a recruiter, but I don't think that much weight is assigned to the LinkedIn summary section as it has similar problems to resume summaries: They are usually all "tell", no "show". I imagine most recruiters just skip straight to the experience section.

What kinds of keywords should go there if we want to be discoverable on LinkedIn by the right kind of recruiters and opportunities?

I think it's similar to resumes in that you want as many keywords (i.e. tech things) as possible. As for the "right kind" of recruiters and opportunities, that's much harder to control. I imagine most of that will come from the prestige of your background (companies worked for + school). 1 small tactical piece of advice I have is to not have the public #OpenToWork ring. A lot of recruiters/hiring managers see that as desperate and a signal of a lower-quality candidate.

Logos and household names on LinkedIn Profile: Does it really matter if the first 3 positions I have on my LinkedIn profile don't have a company logo (these are stealth projects/startups).

Unfortunately, I think it does 😓. The problem with stealth startups is that there's 2 buckets:

Actual stealth startups that raised lots of money and built products that got real traction but had to stay secret for whatever reason
Made up startups that were effectively just bad side projects and the candidate is desperate to manufacture some work experience

It can be hard for recruiters to differentiate. If you can fish out an old company logo and attach it on, that would be great. There's no reason you can't retroactively make the LinkedIn company page now. And of course, drop as many metrics as you can about the company traction.

How do I write an effective LinkedIn summary and how does this differ from a pd resume passing ATS?

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