How to Build a LinkedIn that Lands Jobs, According to a LinkedIn Exec

If you’ve ever stared at your LinkedIn profile wondering, “Does this even matter?” — you’re not alone. But if you joined our recent Extern webinar with Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn, you know the answer is a loud, recruiter-approved yes.

Logan White dropped 11 actionable, insider-backed tips that can instantly make your LinkedIn profile more searchable, more credible, and more likely to lead to a job. Whether you’re just getting started or doing a full summer glow-up on your profile, this guide breaks it all down.

Why Your LinkedIn Matters More Than Ever in 2025

According to LinkedIn’s latest stats:

• There are over 1 billion members on the platform.
  
  
• 65 million job seekers visit LinkedIn weekly.
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• Over 50% of recruiters use skills (not just degrees or job titles) to search for candidates.

Translation? Your LinkedIn is your professional homepage. And in a world of AI recruiters, online applications, and resume bots, you need to stand out fast.‍

11 LinkedIn Profile Tips from a LinkedIn Expert

1. Add a Professional Profile Photo

Your profile photo isn’t just a nice-to-have, it's your first impression in the job market. Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn, states that profiles with a photo see up to 9x more connection requests, 21x more profile views, and 36x more messages.

“It’s your virtual handshake.” — Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn

That alone can be the difference between getting noticed or getting skipped. And no, it doesn’t need to be taken by a pro photographer. A clean headshot against a neutral background (think white wall, good lighting, shoulders-up) is enough to boost your profile.

If you’re not sure where to start, check out campus career centers or community events many offer free headshot sessions. Even your smartphone camera can work if you frame it right. What matters is showing up like you belong on the platform. Because you do.

2. Record Your Name Pronunciation

This is one of those small, thoughtful touches that sets your profile apart especially in a global job market.

On the LinkedIn mobile app, you can record a 10-second audio of your name, and it shows up next to your profile photo. According to Logan White, this not only promotes inclusion, but also gives you the chance to make a strong first impression with hiring managers before you ever get on a call.

“It’s a way for others to make a great first impression and to make sure they’re saying your name correctly.” —  Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn

This feature is especially helpful if you’ve had your name mispronounced in interviews (or life in general). And it’s useful in reverse too; you can preview how to say your interviewer’s name if they’ve enabled it.

📱 Pro Tip: You can only record your name using the LinkedIn mobile app (not desktop), but you can listen to others' recordings on both.

3. Include Your Pronouns

Adding your pronouns to your LinkedIn profile might seem like a small detail, but it sends a powerful message about how you want to be seen and how you respect others, too.

LinkedIn offers an optional field next to your name where you can include pronouns like she/her, he/him, they/them, or custom entries. You can also control who sees them, whether that’s your full network or just connections.

Hiring professionals are increasingly attentive to identity-respecting practices. The data backs it up: 72% of hiring managers believe it’s important for candidates to list their pronouns, and 70% of job seekers say it matters that recruiters respect how they identify.

“It’s a simple step that shows respect and encourages inclusive hiring.” — Logan White

If you’re building your profile to connect with forward-thinking companies, this is a subtle but clear way to align with modern workplace values.

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4. Add Your Industry and Location

This is one of the most underrated ways to show up in recruiter searches and one of the easiest to update.

When you add your industry to LinkedIn, you're helping recruiters filter for the roles you're actually interested in. Whether you're pivoting into tech, already in marketing, or eyeing finance, your profile should reflect that. The same goes for location. Even if you're applying remotely, most recruiters still filter candidates by city or region.

Logan White, shared that profiles with industry info get up to 9 times more profile views. And over 300,000 people search LinkedIn by industry every week.

“If you know the field you want to break into, listing your industry helps recruiters find you faster.”

Planning a move? Hoping to work in New York, London, or fully remote? Add those to your location preferences. It helps your profile appear in more relevant searches and makes sure the messages you get are actually aligned with where you want to work.

5. Turn On “Open to Work”

If you're job hunting and you haven't activated LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” feature you're missing out on one of the most powerful signals in the job search game.

This setting allows you to quietly or publicly indicate that you're open to new opportunities. You can specify what kinds of roles you're looking for, where you're willing to work, and when you're available to start.This feature can double your chances of getting recruiter messages.

“This is the sauce right here. Turning on ‘Open to Work’ makes you way more visible to recruiters.” — Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn

You can tailor your preferences by job title, location (up to five cities or regions), work type (remote, hybrid, on-site), and availability. If you’re currently in an externship, still finishing school, or need a delayed start, you can indicate your preferred start date too.

Worried about your current manager seeing it? No problem you can limit visibility so only recruiters (outside your current company) will know. But if you’re in a short-term program or gap period, making it public can help your network send leads your way.

6. Write a Compelling About Section

Think of your “About” section as your LinkedIn trailer, a quick preview of who you are, what you bring to the table, and where you're headed. It’s not about sounding fancy. It’s about being clear, confident, and human.

Your summary is your opportunity to share your career story in your own words. And no, it doesn’t have to be long, just focused.

“Your About section is your elevator pitch. Keep it short, clear, and make it count.” — Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn

Here’s a quick framework:

• One sentence on who you are and what you’re passionate about
  
  
• One sentence on what experience or projects you’ve completed
  
  
• One sentence on what kind of opportunity you’re seeking
  
  

Bonus points if you include a few of your top skills or industries of interest they’ll help with search visibility, too.

And remember: you can edit this anytime. Your career evolves, and your About section should evolve with it.

7. Feature Content (Pin Top Projects)

Your LinkedIn profile isn’t just a static resume, it's a showcase. The “Featured” section is where you get to prove your skills with real examples of your work. Instead of just saying what you’ve done, this is where you show it.

The best part? You can feature almost any type of content: articles, posts, presentations, videos, or even PDFs. For students and early professionals, this is an incredible way to highlight externship projects, class presentations, or portfolio pieces that may not shine on a traditional resume. If you helped a nonprofit redesign their social media calendar, built a market research deck for a startup, or coded a prototype in an externship this is the place to pin it.

“This is where you get to bring your work to life. Use Featured to make your best projects impossible to miss.” — Logan, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn

Think of it as your personal highlight reel. Unlike your Experience section, which is text-heavy, the Featured section lets your work speak visually. A recruiter scrolling your profile should be able to instantly see evidence of the impact you’ve made not just read about it.

Pro tip: Don’t overload this section. Choose two to four high-quality pieces that you’d be proud to talk about in an interview. And if you don’t yet have polished portfolio content, start small even a LinkedIn post reflecting on what you learned during an externship can be featured.

By using this section strategically, you’re not just telling your career story, you’re showing it in action. That’s the kind of profile that stands out in a sea of text-only resumes.

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8. Fill Out Your Work Experience in Detail

Too many people treat LinkedIn like a copy-and-paste of their one-page resume. The problem? That leaves recruiters with the bare minimum. LinkedIn gives you far more space to expand, so use it.

Instead of just listing job titles and dates, dive into what you actually accomplished. For every role whether it’s a part-time job, a leadership role in a campus org, or an externship think in terms of impact. What projects did you lead? What problems did you solve? What tools or skills did you pick up? These details make your story memorable and searchable.

Adding experience isn’t optional. Profiles that list work experience are 10 times more likely to get messaged by recruiters than those without it.

“Don’t just list what you did. Explain the impact you made. That’s what gets attention.”

Here’s a simple structure to make your Experience section shine:

• Context: What was the organization and your role?
• Contribution: What specific projects or responsibilities did you own?
  
• Impact: What changed because of your work? Did you increase engagement, streamline processes, or produce deliverables?
  
  

And don’t forget to attach media when you can. Just like the Featured section, your Experience entries can include links, images, or PDFs. If you presented findings to a company partner during an externship, link the deck. If you wrote articles or managed a campaign, show the output.

This section is your chance to demonstrate consistency and growth over time. Even if you’ve only had externships or short-term roles, filling them out with detail shows initiative, professionalism, and readiness for bigger opportunities.

9. Add Education and Volunteer Work

When recruiters scan your LinkedIn, they’re not only looking for jobs you’ve held they’re also looking for your academic background and the ways you’ve given back. Education and volunteer experience fill in those blanks and give your profile added credibility.

On the education side, don’t just list your university. Include details that highlight your growth and achievements: majors, minors, coursework, honors, and leadership roles. If you’ve completed certifications or online courses (Google, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning), add them too. In a competitive market, showing that you’ve taken initiative to upskill makes a difference.

Volunteer experience can be just as powerful. Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn, states members who include volunteer roles see up to 6 times more profile views than those who don’t.

“Education shows where you’ve studied, but volunteer work shows your values. Both matter to recruiters.” — Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager at LinkedIn

And here’s why it works: volunteer roles demonstrate teamwork, leadership, and passion outside of formal jobs. Whether you organized a charity event, mentored younger students, or supported a local nonprofit, you’re showing skills that employers care about.

If you’re light on professional experience, education and volunteer work can anchor your profile. And if you already have job history, these sections round out your professional story and make you more relatable. Recruiters want to see not just what you’ve done, but who you are.

10. List at Least 5+ Skills (and Get Endorsed)

LinkedIn data shows that members who add at least five skills receive up to 17 times more profile views than those who don’t.

Your skills section isn’t just decoration. It’s one of the most important ways recruiters find you on LinkedIn. When they’re searching for candidates, they don’t only type job titles they type skills. If those skills aren’t on your profile, you won’t show up. This section carries major weight in recruiter searches.

Here’s how to approach it:

• Start with your strongest five. Choose the skills you’d be confident discussing in an interview.
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• Mix hard and soft skills. Include technical tools (Excel, SQL, Canva) and interpersonal strengths (leadership, communication, project management).
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• Pull from job descriptions. Look at postings in your field and mirror the language they use.

“Recruiters often search by skills first. Adding them to your profile makes you far easier to find.” — Logan White, Corporate Communications Manager

Endorsements give your skills extra credibility. Don’t be afraid to reach out to peers, externship teammates, or mentors and ask them to endorse you. In return, endorse their skills too it’s a two-way street.

This section also evolves. As you gain more experience, finish courses, or change directions, update your skills list. Recruiters want a clear, up-to-date picture of what you can do right now.

11. Request Recommendations

Endorsements validate your skills, but recommendations go a step further. They’re personal testimonials written proof that someone has worked with you, trusts you, and believes in your abilities.

Recommendations are one of the clearest credibility signals on a profile. A well-written one shows not just what you’ve done, but how you did it your teamwork, reliability, and professionalism.

“Recommendations add weight to your profile. They’re like digital references that recruiters can see instantly.”

The best way to approach this is to be intentional. Don’t just blast requests to everyone in your network. Instead, identify people who can speak to specific experiences:

• An externship manager who guided you through a project
  
  
• A professor or course instructor who oversaw your academic work
  
  
• A teammate or colleague who collaborated with you on a meaningful assignment
  
  

When you ask, make it easy. Send a short, thoughtful message reminding them of the work you did together and suggesting what they might highlight. Example: “Would you be open to writing a quick LinkedIn recommendation based on the market research project we worked on? It would really help showcase my skills in data analysis and presentation.”

Aim for two or three strong recommendations to start. They don’t all need to be long a few authentic, specific ones are more valuable than a dozen generic blurbs.

These small statements can be the final push a recruiter needs to reach out. They show that your network believes in you, which makes it easier for employers to believe in you too.

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Explore Remote, Flexible Externships You Can List on LinkedIn

So you’ve polished your headline, added a professional photo, and maybe even pinned a project in the Featured section. But here’s the real question: what substance are you showcasing on LinkedIn? Recruiters don’t just want to see a polished profile they want to see proof of experience. And this is where externships can completely change the game.

An Externship is a guided, short-term, project-based learning experience built around skills development and professional mentorship. Instead of jumping straight into full production work, you complete job-aligned training and company-endorsed projects with guided support from an Extern Manager. That makes externships both structured and impactful: you’re learning while also producing meaningful deliverables that companies value.

Externships are designed to be flexible and remote, but there’s one important detail to know: you can only participate in one externship at a time. This ensures you’re able to give each project your full focus, meet deadlines, and get the most out of mentorship. While you can’t stack multiple externships simultaneously, you can complete several over the course of a semester or year, allowing you to explore different industries and build a diverse portfolio one experience at a time.

When you’re updating your LinkedIn profile, externships can live right alongside your work experience, projects, and education. Think of them as resume-ready experiences that are officially credentialed by Extern’s partner companies. For example, if you complete a marketing externship, you can add it under “Experience” with the title (e.g., Beats by Dre Marketing Externship), the company listed as Extern, and a short description of the project deliverables. Suddenly, your LinkedIn doesn’t just say you’re interested in marketing it shows you’ve done the work.

Here’s the best part: externships are remote and flexible. Whether you’re balancing classes, a part-time job, or even considering a career switch, you can complete an externship from anywhere. That’s a huge plus for international students navigating visa restrictions, or for early-career professionals who want to upskill without leaving their current role. It’s proof that you’re adaptable, proactive, and willing to invest in your career growth all qualities recruiters search for when scanning profiles.

And if you’re not sure how to frame your externship experience on LinkedIn? Extern has you covered. We run free resume + LinkedIn review sessions where career coaches walk you through exactly how to translate your externship projects into recruiter-friendly bullet points. These sessions are built to remove the corporate jargon and help you tell your story authentically. Because let’s face it: the most powerful LinkedIn profiles aren’t the ones that sound like job descriptions. They’re the ones that sound like you.

Think of LinkedIn as your professional highlight reel. Every externship you add builds your credibility, makes your skills tangible, and helps you stand out from the thousands of students and graduates competing for attention. Instead of waiting for recruiters to guess what you’re capable of, externships give you concrete evidence to showcase right at the top of your profile.

So if you’re serious about turning your LinkedIn into a recruiter magnet, don’t just stop at optimizing your headline or About section. Add experiences that show action, initiative, and results. Explore Extern’s catalog of remote, flexible externships, sign up for a free profile review session, and start stacking achievements that make your LinkedIn stand out one externship at a time.

Where Externships Fit on Your LinkedIn (and How to List Them Right)

One of the most common questions students ask is, “Where do I put my externship on LinkedIn?” The short answer: everywhere it makes sense. Externships are professional, project-based experiences. They deserve visibility just like internships or jobs but you need to list them correctly to avoid confusion with host company HR teams.

Here’s the official Extern approach to showcasing externships across your profile:

Externships help solve one of the biggest early-career hurdles: the experience gap. When recruiters see externships on your LinkedIn profile (accurately listed under Extern), they know you’ve worked with companies, handled deliverables, and built real-world skills under professional guidance.

Think of it this way: if you’ve spent six weeks helping a fintech startup analyze customer behavior, or built a social campaign strategy for a nonprofit that’s real professional experience. It’s not just theory, and employers notice.

So don’t hide your externships. Showcase them proudly across your profile, following Extern’s official structure. Each project makes your story stronger and LinkedIn is the place to bring that story to life.

Final LinkedIn Upgrades You Can Make This Week (No Overwhelm Required)

t’s easy to get stuck thinking LinkedIn requires a full overhaul, but small steps compound quickly. Instead of trying to perfect everything at once, start with these quick upgrades you can tackle in less than an hour each. By the end of the week, your profile will already look stronger.

• Upload a new headshotEven a well-lit phone photo against a blank wall works. Dress how you would for an interview and keep it simple. Recruiters just want to see a clear, approachable version of you.
  
  
• Add your top 5 skillsChoose the skills you’d be proud to talk about in an interview. If you’ve done an externship, pull skills directly from the project (e.g., “Market Research,” “Data Visualization,” “Content Strategy”).
  
  
• Rewrite your About sectionKeep it short and punchy. Example: “Aspiring marketer passionate about social strategy and storytelling. Built campaigns through externships with nonprofits and startups. Open to opportunities in digital marketing and brand management.”
  
  
• Post a recent projectWrite a short post reflecting on something you learned from an externship, a class, or a side project. Pin it to your Featured section to instantly add depth to your profile.
  
  
• Turn on Open to WorkCustomize the jobs and locations you’re open to, even if you’re not ready to start right away. Recruiters can’t contact you if they don’t know you’re looking.
  
  
• Message a mentor for a recommendationKeep it specific: “Hi [Name], would you feel comfortable writing a quick LinkedIn recommendation about our work on [Project]? It would help me highlight [Skill/Contribution] on my profile.”
  
  

Even if you only check off two or three of these this week, your profile will already look more polished, more discoverable, and more credible. The best part? None of these updates take more than 20 minutes.

LinkedIn doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Think of it as building your career brand one small step at a time. Each update is a new opportunity to get noticed by the right people.