Online Profiles | Job Search in Finland
Professional LinkedIn Profile
Online profile in professional networking sites like LinkedIn is a great way to boost the job search. A job seeker should always make sure his/her LinkedIn profile is up to date. A good profile serves as a resume and grabs the recruiter’s attention.
LinkedIn is a social media focused on working life, and according to the 2021 survey, 35 % of Finns used LinkedIn. It is an excellent channel for networking, job search and demonstrating your own skills. Build an attractive LinkedIn profile and make yourself visible to employers!
LinkedIn profile language
- In LinkedIn, the employers and recruiters mainly conduct searches using English, thus it is a good idea to write your profile in English.
- If you wish, you can use Finnish, but, nevertheless, it is recommended to add at least most important information and keywords in English.
- You can also create your profile in two languages: English and Finnish. In case you work mainly in Finnish and plan to use LinkedIn only domestically within Finland, the Finnish profile may be sufficient.
- Anyway, you should to put the most energy and concentration at profile in that language you think is the most essential in your professional life.
The intro and presentation
The intro and presentation section are highly important, as it is intended to pique the interest of the person visiting your profile to explore it further. It should therefore be informative, interesting and such that the visitor wants to keep reading.
The Headline section under your name is the first thing people see in search results, as well as after clicking on your profile. Instead of just for listing your job title, it is a good opportunity to introduce yourself - clearly explain who you are in business life and what you do. You can describe your role and responsibilities using keywords. Do not forget to pay attention to the length of the text - character limit for LinkedIn headlines is 220 characters!
In the About section, you can represent your skills more accurately and detailed with priority given to your most important work experiences and competencies. Tell your professional story: knowledge, abilities, experiences and accomplishments. Don’t hesitate to bring out your personality. The LinkedIn About character limit is 2 000 characters - use all of it!
Profile picture and Background image or Cover photo
As a LinkedIn profile picture, you should choose that one helping you stand out from the crowd. Profile photo is a visual representation of your personality. Note, the focus should be on your face, but not your clothing, accessories, hair, makeup or background. This should be a professional headshot photography, that shows off your face from the shoulders up. No one else should be on the photo - this is an image of only you. A good picture may say a lot about your professionalism and your attitude toward the work.
The requirements for the LinkedIn photo are the same as for the CV. You can read more: CV photo tips. Take a good photo for your CV.
You should also add a Background image/ Cover photo to LinkedIn. Choose a visually pleasing image that best describes you and/or your interests. Recommended LinkedIn background image requirements: Format—JPG, PNG, GIF; and size—1584 x 386 pixels
Education and work experience
It is a good idea to actively update the education and work experience section when there is something to add. This way, your LinkedIn profile always works as an up-to-date resume that allows you to apply for job vacancies quickly.
Write about your education and work experience in a comprehensive but concise way. If you’re not sure what kind of words to include, you can take a look at the profile of someone working in the same field and use it as a template for building your own text.
Don’t just list your former job titles and employers, but also open up your work experience and responsibilities in detail, add descriptions about what you did in each position, mention your achievements in the role. Do not forget to use the right keywords.
You should list your degrees and/or degrees in progress, usually starting with the highest or most recent degree first. List your degrees in reverse-chronological order. Give the employer a brief overview of your education, studies and qualifications. Include the name of the school/university, its location, the degree type, the date earned or expected graduation year, the major and minor. You can also describe the topic of your thesis.
Read more: Template for building a good Curriculum vitae (CV) / Resume.
Skills & Endorsement
Feel free to list all the skills you will find that are useful in working life. List the software you have used or your potential skills in, for example, communications, sales, customer service, marketing or content production. Teamwork or leadership are also skills that should be added to the list.
Add or edit your skills in order of importance to you and your current position. This is important as LinkedIn will only highlight your top 3 skills, any other skills can be viewed only by clicking the button "show more". Once you have listed all your skills, other people can give you endorsements.
Accomplishments
Use the Accomplishments section to represent your outstanding projects, highlight publications you have conducted to, write about research you have done, recount all the honours and awards you have achieved, share the information of your certificates, and do not forget to be honest when listing your language skills and level of proficiency.
So, in LinkedIn you can add accomplishments in different sections: Publication, Patent, Course, Project, Honour and award, Test Score, Language, Organization.
Interests
Follow the companies, groups, influencers, schools and news sources that you find interesting. This can demonstrate the professional fields you are mostly interested in pursuing. By adding an Interests section to your LinkedIn profile, you can gain the attention of new connections, as well as foster new opportunities.
Public profile
In spite of the fact that you may be concerned about privacy, private profile is not a good idea on LinkedIn. Private profile is completely hidden and not visible to employers. Thus, if you are in active job search or open to new job opportunities, it is recommended to configure your public profile. So, make sure your profile is public, can be found and your skills can be explored.
LinkedIn posts
LinkedIn is not just a CV bank but also social network. Share your posts, articles, thoughts and knowledge on LinkedIn as it is a great way to increase your connections. In case you are not really confident how to write posts, you can learn about the communication culture on LinkedIn by following and commenting other people's posts.