Hey friends! 👋
Welcome back to The Data Diaries! I just dropped a new Instagram Reel that's already getting tons of DMs, and I had to jump straight into my newsletter to dive deeper.
Here's the thing: your LinkedIn profile is seen by 40x more people than your resume, but most of us are completely sabotaging our chances before recruiters even finish scrolling.
I've audited hundreds of LinkedIn profiles over the years, and I keep seeing the same 5 mistakes over and over again. The frustrating part? These are all totally fixable, but no one has ever taught people how to avoid them.
Most importantly, these mistakes happen at the very top of your profile — the part that determines whether a recruiter keeps scrolling or clicks away in the first 3 seconds.
The 5 profile mistakes costing you opportunities:
Unprofessional profile picture - Grainy selfies where I can't tell which person you are or a photo from your Instagram… These need to be business professional.
No banner picture - That gray default banner screams "I don't take LinkedIn seriously" and leaves precious real estate that could convey your value blank.
Non-metropolitan area location - Recruiters search by major cities and have a bias toward local candidates.
Generic headline - "Data Analyst at XYZ Company" tells me nothing about your unique value.
Open-to-work banner - Some employers see this as signaling desperation (set to "Recruiters only" if you use it)
Here's what I've learned: people aren't making these mistakes because they don't care. They're making them because no one has ever taught them the right way to do it.
Universities don't teach this stuff. Most LinkedIn "experts" are just regurgitating basic tips that don't actually work.
That's exactly why I'm doing something I've never done before.
🎉 My FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization Crash Course
Last year I sold 700+ copies of my LinkedIn profile optimization cheat sheet. This year, I’m giving the knowledge away for free in this 3-lesson mini course.
You'll learn how to craft headlines that get you found in recruiter searches, the exact headline formulas for profile pictures that build trust, banner strategies that position you as the obvious choice, and the right way to signal you're open to opportunities.
Because I remember being that person frantically Googling "how to optimize LinkedIn profile" at 2 am during my own brutal 4-month job search. I remember feeling like everyone else had some secret playbook I didn't have access to.
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile shouldn't be rocket science, and it definitely shouldn't cost you hundreds of dollars.
Ready to finally fix your profile?
Sign up for my mini course here 👉 https://bit.ly/mini-course-newsletter
I promise this isn't as scary as it sounds. You just need to know what actually works, and I hope this course does that for you.
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 300k+ tech and data professionals. Make sure you subscribe for more newsletters like this! ↓