Career Hub · Resource
Use LinkedIn effectively during a tech job search
career-toolkit
Checklist
- Rewrite headline to include target job title and top three tools
- Write a 100–150 word About section in first person
- Add portfolio projects as experience entries
- Turn on Open to Work visible to recruiters only
- Connect with 10 people per week from your target community
- Send personalised connection requests, not the default message
- Publish one learning post per month
LinkedIn is the primary discovery channel for tech recruiters in the UK. A well-optimised profile that is actively maintained will surface in searches you never applied to. An inactive or generic profile will not.
The headline
Your headline is the most important line on your profile. It appears in search results, message previews, and connection request notifications. Do not use "Open to work" as your headline. Use a title that describes who you are becoming: "Junior Cloud Engineer | AWS · Terraform · GitHub Actions" or "Data Analyst | SQL · Power BI · Python". Include the specific tools you want to be found for.
The About section
Write 100 to 150 words in first person. State what you do (or are learning to do), what problems you want to solve, and what you are currently working on. End with an invitation to connect or reach out. The About section is read by people who are already considering you; it confirms or breaks their impression.
Experience and projects
Add your portfolio projects as experience entries with the company name "Independent Project" or "Personal Project." Describe what you built, the tech stack, and the outcome. This solves the experience gap for career changers.
Building a network in your target community
Connect with 10 people per week from your target role: junior engineers, mid-level practitioners, and hiring managers at companies you want to work for. When sending a connection request, add a short personal note: "I saw your post about Terraform module design and am currently building a similar pattern in my cloud project. Would be glad to connect." Generic requests are ignored.
Content and visibility
Publishing one LinkedIn post per month about something you learnt (a debugging session, a project decision, an insight from a course) generates more recruiter interest than any amount of profile optimisation. Recruiters actively search for people who are learning in public. It signals exactly the traits they are looking for: curiosity, communication, and momentum.
The Open to Work setting
Turn it on, visible to recruiters only if you do not want your current employer to see it. Set it to your specific target titles. Recruiters filter by these titles when searching LinkedIn's recruiter tool.