How to get started on LinkedIn the right way in 2025 (part 1)

Hi friends! 👋

Welcome back to my newsletter and this LinkedIn basics series. You guys know I could go on and on about LinkedIn how-to’s so let’s dive right in.

I audit a LOT of LinkedIn profiles and I see a lot of common mistakes that most people have never been taught to not do.

(P.S. You can schedule a personalized audit call with me here!)

Universities usually never teach students how to use LinkedIn besides just creating a basic profile and connecting with people you already know, and it’s such a shame.

When I had to use LinkedIn for real during my first job search out of university, I had to figure it out through lots of trial and error.

I eventually learned what makes a good LinkedIn profile, one that stands out to recruiters, only after years of 1. Taking note of others’ profiles in my field and 2. Experimenting with so many different versions of my own profile.

And when I took those learnings and applied them to auditing hundreds of others’ profiles, here are the most common mistakes I see, and how to fix them.

The visual elements at the very top are where eyeballs will go first when a hiring manager or recruiter lands on your profile. That means you need to optimize these elements to make the best first impression you can!

Your profile picture should be professional, high quality and smiling. Invest in a professional headshot. But if you can’t, make sure you’re taking your picture in natural lighting.

But your banner picture is also precious real estate to convey info about your skills. You can make a customized one using Canva templates and it should at the very least show your name, target role and contact info.

This one is a bit controversial. While I don’t have a problem with showing the green open-to-work banner, some employers DO have an implicit bias against this because it could signal desperation.

Make sure when you turn on your open-to-work settings, you are selecting the option of “Recruiters only” for visibility.

500 is not some random number I’ve plucked out of thin air. Beyond 500, LinkedIn automatically shows “500+ connections,” and that’s another subtle signal to recruiters that you actively use the platform. Anything less than that and recruiters will think you don’t login much. And why would they want to send job opportunities your way if they think you don’t login much?

500 seems like a lot, but here’s how you’ll get there in no time. Beyond connecting with family, friends and colleagues you’ve already worked with, you need to also connect those outside of your immediate network. Find 5 people in your industry per day by simply doing keyword searches in LinkedIn’s search bar, and then most importantly, send them personalized connection requests.

A good template to use for those connection requests: “Hi [name], My name is [name] and I’m an aspiring [target role]. I’d love to learn more from your experiences and stay connected!”

Keep in mind that LinkedIn is one big search engine, not just for job seekers looking for jobs, but also for hiring managers to find candidates. I totally understand wanting to stand out with a creative title like “Chief Rockstar” or “Marketing Wizard.” But these aren’t easily searchable or matchable to job postings.

Stick with industry-recognized titles and do your research by looking at others’ profiles and open job postings on the platform.

You should always set this to the location where you are targeting your job search rather than where you currently live. Or if you live a bit further out from the city you’re targeting, make sure to list that city.

What about if you’re targeting a remote role? Still choose the closest metroplitan area to you.

Major cities have more jobs, and recruiters have a bias toward local candidates.

This is another oft-overlooked section for job seekers. You have to keep in mind that hiring managers and recruiting managers are always trying to minimize risk with their hiring choices, and candidates that look like they don’t have recent employment history are risky.

Make sure to have a current employer listed at the top right of your profile. If you’re between jobs, list your last employer, a career break, or your own company.

These 6 tips only cover the very top of your profile! As you can probably already tell, there are so many things that go into an optimized profile.

I’ll be diving into how to optimize the other sections (About, Activity, Experience, Skills, Recommendations, Education) next week and you won’t want to miss it because that’s where the meat of your profile lives!

In the meantime, if you want a quick and visual cheat sheet to keep track of the many things you should be doing to optimize your profile, you can grab my guide here.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter! See you for the next episode of The Data Diaries soon 👋

- Megan

And in case you don’t know who I am, I’m Megan Lieu, Data Scientist-turned-Developer Advocate who has helped thousands of job seekers through my content on LinkedIn and Instagram, as well as my courses on LinkedIn Learning. I’ve learned a lot from the ups and downs of my data career, and sharing the lessons has helped me build a community of 265k+ tech and data professionals.