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So you want a professional LinkedIn profile? Well, picture this

1/25/2016

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As a specialist in HR and recruitment, I am always astounded by the lack of care people take about their public "brand". Half-completed LinkedIn profiles, dodgy pictures on Facebook and selfies and tweets that weren't thought through all spell future career disaster for the unwary.

LinkedIn is a massively important part of your brand, and it's imperative your "online brochure" sells and markets you professionally. If a picture paints a thousand words, then your photo is your personal "logo" to a large extent. A 2014 study tracking the eye movements of recruiters by career researchers TheLadders, said recruiters spend approximately 20 per cent of their time looking at LinkedIn photos during their screening process.

So it's vital that we ensure our own photo promotes us professionally to our prospective employers and business networks.

Common photo problems

There are a wide range of common issues I see trawling through candidates on LinkedIn. Some of the main ones are:

• Personal hobbies - unless fishing is a fundamental part of your industry, don't have a photo of you pulling in a large snapper. It just says "I would much rather be doing this, than working for you."

• Busy background - this can be distracting. You want the focus to be on you, not on the background.

• Sunglasses / hat / car / weird top - again these are distracting and take away the professionalism from your picture. A recent photo I saw had a guy wearing dark sunglasses that made him look like he was in the Mafia.

• Wedding shot - though it's great that you are married, this is not the forum to put a photo of you in a suit, cutting your wife out of the photo, but leaving her shoulder in. It also infers you don't have any other pictures of yourself looking professional.

• Blatant selfie - smiling with your arm extended in a selfie does not say "I am a professional - hire me".

• On an angle - in many forums (including LinkedIn), having an 'arty' picture can be cool and can set you apart. However a normal photo of you on a 30-degree angle is not one of these.

• Stretched photos - this happens when a person really loves a particular photo, however it does not fit the LinkedIn measurements so is stretched to fit - a very bad look.

• No photo - I am aware that some people don't want to be judged by their photo, so they choose not to upload one. However their profile then looks incomplete, which does little to gain the confidence of recruiters and potential employers.

• Spend time to make a good logo - These days, any smart phone can create a pleasant and professional photo that ensures you position yourself well alongside others on LinkedIn.
​
Time to get it out and get snapping!
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    Tom O'Neil B.Soc.Sci.(Psych) MNSANZ  MCDANZ

    Tom is an award winning keynote speaker and international careers and personal development author.

    Published and featured in the Harvard Business Review, Economist, TVNZ and TV3, Tom is also a business and careers Columnist for the NZ Herald. You can read some of his most recent articles here...

    Tom has written the ‘The 1% Principle’, published through Harper Collins in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and NZ.  Recently the 1% Principle peaked in the top five business books and the top 21 best sellers on Amazon.co.uk.  

    Tom was brought up in an environment associated to human resources and recruitment and has a degree majoring in social and perceptual psychology. 

    After developing and selling two recruitment consultancies, Tom consulted independently in Human Resources to a number of leading national and international organisations including Sovereign Assurance, South Auckland Health, Auckland City and Morgan and Banks.

    After two short period's doing community support work for his church in the Philippines and India, Tom then joined Deloitte as a Management Consultant specialising in Human Resources.

    Over the last twelve years, Tom has been Managing Director of CV.CO.NZ (NZ) Limited, and has been personally involved in designing high quality career solutions for more than 8,000 clients in over 50 countries!

    Contact Tom O'Neil direct on (0800) 282 669 or email him at tom@cv.co.nz to discuss your career and personal development needs.

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    Gaynor O'Neil MRCSA CRC

    Gaynor is a pioneer within the modern world of recruitment and human resources. 

    Gaynor has successfully built up and sold several successful recruitment and HR consultancies and has written various books concerning career matters, one of them sponsored by a national bank.

    Gaynor is also co-author Selling Yourself to Employers’, published through New Holland Publishers in the U.K., Australia and NZ.   She has also been employed as a weekly columnist for a national newspaper, writing about vocational opportunities.

    Admitted to the Institute of Personnel Consultants in 1981, Gaynor is a Certified Recruitment Consultant. 

    You can contact Gaynor direct at gaynor@cv.co.nz
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