How To Get LinkedIn All-Star Status in 2024
This is how to get LinkedIn All-Star status to stand out as an underrepresented and high-skilled candidate. Achieving LinkedIn All-Star status is a powerful way to stand out as an underrepresented, high-skilled candidate in today's competitive job market. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the essential steps to elevate your LinkedIn profile to All-Star status, enhancing your visibility and attracting top-tier opportunities. Each step focuses on key aspects of your profile, from optimizing your headline to showcasing your skills and endorsements. Follow along with our detailed video tutorial to maximize your results. Implement these steps one at a time, and watch as your LinkedIn profile transforms into a compelling representation of your professional brand, making you more attractive to recruiters and employers. Whether you're looking to advance in your current career or pivot to a new field, this guide will help you unlock the full potential of your LinkedIn presence.
The benefits of a strong LinkedIn profile
There’s no doubt that having a strong LinkedIn profile and being active on the platform can be very helpful in landing a job or making a career move. LinkedIn allows its users to build meaningful connections and their personal brand and offers a great starting point to build connections that could lead to informational interviews. On top of this, LinkedIn offers the latest in career trends, advice and a job board. This makes LinkedIn extremely useful and important to job seekers.
What does LinkedIn All-Star status mean for Diverse job seekers?
LinkedIn All-Star status means having a fully complete profile. Ideally your profile is also active and well put together. This will significantly increase the chances of your discovery by various companies looking to hire people based on your skills and experience. In fact, LinkedIn users with an All-Star profile are about 40 times more likely to be contacted by Recruiters and Hiring Managers. A strong LinkedIn profile is an important part of meeting the expectations of employers in the Canadian job market. And when it comes to personal brand, your LinkedIn profile provides an opportunity to showcase your skills and overcome any hiring objections before the interview. Overcoming possible objections can be particularly powerful for underrepresented professionals, international students and new Canadians who may face additional, unfair barriers in their job search.
How to get LinkedIn All-Star status in 9 steps (with video)
Here is an overview of the 9 steps.
Know what stage your LinkedIn profile is at.
Add a professional profile picture.
Write a compelling headline.
Add your industry and location.
Complete the experience section.
Add at least 5 skills.
Add your education.
Write a compelling about section.
Get 50 + connections.
Reaching All-Star status with your profile may seem daunting at first. But breaking it down into smaller steps makes it more obtainable. Every change you make improves how you present yourself to prospective employers and connections. So you are winning even before you have completed everything!
video: the steps to achieve LinkedIn All-Star status
here are the 9 Steps to achieve linkedin All-Star status:
Step 1
know what stage your LinkedIn profile is at
LinkedIn profiles have 5 stages of strength: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and All Star.
When you’re building out your profile, LinkedIn will tell you how well you’re doing with their Profile Strength Meter. You can find your Profile Strength Meter on your profile’s homepage under the section named ‘Dashboard’.
As an underrepresented professional, international student or new Canadian, All-Star status will be important to enhancing your credibility and overcoming possible objections.
Note: At the time this article was written LinkedIn was implementing changes around the profile completeness scale. Some users were reporting a missing Dashboard. This was replaced with Analytics information. Here is the most recent update directly from LinkedIn.
Therefore, it is possible that your profile looks a little different. The stats and data around the importance of profile completeness stay the same.
Step 2
add a profile picture
Having a high-quality profile picture is important to getting All-Star status on your LinkedIn profile. Your picture is an important first impression for anyone who visits your LinkedIn profile.
This impression can include evaluating your status and trustworthiness. After all, a picture says a thousand words. As a result, it is important to show a professional image of yourself.
When taking a profile picture for LinkedIn, it is important to have bright lighting, clearly shows your face and make sure the photo has a general positive energy to it.
LinkedIn users who include a photo receive 21X more profile views than users without one. Profile views are important to enhance your credibility and visibility on the platform.
While it is a best practice to omit a photo from a resume, it is necessary to include a photo on your LinkedIn profile.
Underrepresented job seekers, international students and newcomers may raise concerns of potential bias that is caused by showing their physical appearance. This concern is valid and should not be ignored. The practice of showing a photo at any point in the job search process is problematic in Canada.
However, the profile picture on LinkedIn remains a best practice for a LinkedIn profile and necessary to achieve All-Star status.
Third-party sites like Photofeeler provide an opportunity for impartial feedback on your LinkedIn profile photo. Here, you upload your profile photo and receive anonymous feedback from users on the site.
Step 3
write a compelling headline for your LinkedIn profile
The LinkedIn default headline is probably not going to serve you in your career goals. The default headline will typically read ‘current employer + current job title’. This may not helpful if you are looking to attract inbound opportunities, like messages from Recruiters or Hiring Managers.
There is no magic formula when it comes to a ‘perfect’ headline.
The goal for headline should be to appear in more searches, which are relevant and help you meet your professional goals.
This means working backwards and setting a clear goal for LinkedIn, and then identifying who would be running any related searches.
A good practice is to reflect on the terms they will be searching. Be sure to include those relevant terms in your headline.
Here’s an example: Human Resources Specialist | Recognized as Top 10 in my company | Helping Recruit and Retain Top Talent
Step 4
add your industry and location
Adding your desired industry and location is probably one of the easiest ways to get closer to All-Star status.
When editing your LinkedIn profile, make sure to enter your postal code, city and your country. These details should match the location where you would like to work.
For example, if you are living in Alberta, Canada but looking for work in New Brunswick, Canada, you should list New Brunswick as your location.
Many Recruiters will search for job candidates on LinkedIn using the industry and location settings, so if you leave this blank, you’ll be left out of the results. This is also the case if your location details do not reflect your targeted location.
Even when searching for remote candidates, Recruiters will often narrow this to a specific geographic area. For example, they may need candidates in a specific time zone.
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Step 5
Complete the experience section
According to Forbes, LinkedIn members with current positions are discovered 16 times more in recruiter searches and their profile views increase up to 29 times.
The bullet points here, just like on your resume, should be achievement-based and targeted towards your desired job or field.
For the experience section, you will need to include your most current position plus two prior positions.
Make sure to include your key accomplishments from those roles. You can describe this in bullet points, under the job title.
If you have a well-written resume, you can copy and paste some of the bullets you have already written. Make sure to revise any copy paste errors as formatting might not look as nice on your profile.
Make sure to omit any irrelevant information from your LinkedIn profile, just like you would from your resume.
For more on this, check out the post things NOT to say on a resume in Canada.
Step 6
Add at least 5 skills to help achieve All-Star LinkedIn status
All-Star status requires at least 5 skills in your skills section. LinkedIn reports that users with five skills or more are contacted up to 33 times more by recruiters.
Adding skills to your LinkedIn profile may sound easy, but you want to be intentional about the skills you choose. Of course, you’ll want to include skills that you’re good at.
It is also important to add skills related to the keywords employers are using to find candidates.
One way to find which keywords go with your role is simply by looking through 5-10 job postings on LinkedIn. When reviewing the job postings, you will start to notice words in common across postings. Those reappearing skills are the ones you should include in your skills section.
Step 7
add your education
Make sure to complete the Education Section of your LinkedIn profile. This section will allow you to connect with fellow school alumni.
By adding your school information, LinkedIn will be able to recommend new connections, based on your school. This makes it easy to add new connections, because you will have something in common.
The Education Section can also be very useful if you are a recent graduate or international student just starting to build your network.
Step 8
write a compelling about section
The About Section of your LinkedIn profile might be the most difficult to complete.
It may take you some time and energy to craft a compelling About Section. This section of your LinkedIn profile is your chance to market yourself to employers or clearly articulate any other LinkedIn goals you might have.
It is normal and likely that your about section will change over time. For example, once you land a dream job your LinkedIn goal may change from seeking employment to building your personal brand.
When it comes to creating a strong LinkedIn About Section, consider including the following elements.
An opening statement
A summary of your most impressive skills
A few bullet points focused on your achievements
Explain why someone should get in touch with
Your contact information (email address and phone number)
Here is an example LinkedIn profile. The About Section explains the purpose.
Step 9
Get 50 + connections
To reach All-Star status on LinkedIn you will need at least 50 connections.
You can connect with others by sending them an invitation or by accepting their invitations. You can also jump start your connections by allowing LinkedIn to match you up with people from your email address book.
Another way to start is simply by using the search feature to your previous employers and connecting with past colleagues.
Establishing connections and interacting is a core part of LinkedIn. As an underrepresented professional, international student or new Canadian, connections will also enhance your overall brand and credibility.
Consider following LinkedIn influencers and thought leaders for inspiration on what to post, how to connect and how to use the platform effectively.
Conclusion: LinkedIn All-Star status can help you get hired
Achieving LinkedIn All-Star status can be an incredibly effective way for underrepresented professionals, international students and new Canadians to stand out in their job search and careers.
This is especially true as LinkedIn continues to report growth year over year.
At Hirediverse.ca, we’ve seen the power of LinkedIn. You never know who might see your profile or who you may impress with a post. The person on the other end could be a Hiring Manager or a Recruiter.
“The most important thing is to be true to yourself. People will either like you or they won't, but at least you'll be living authentically.”
-Rhianna
Advancing your career starts from within. It's not just about climbing the corporate ladder or landing the next big promotion; it's about understanding your passions, values, and strengths. Self-reflection is the cornerstone of finding true career happiness. Taking the time to reflect on your experiences, challenges, and successes helps you gain clarity on what you truly want in your professional journey. By looking inward, you can identify what drives you and align your career goals with your personal values. This inner work sets a strong foundation for a fulfilling and purpose-driven career.
Embracing self-reflection allows you to navigate your career with intention and confidence. When you know yourself deeply, you can make decisions that resonate with your true self, leading to greater satisfaction and success. It's about finding a career path that not only utilizes your skills but also brings joy and meaning to your life. By continually assessing and realigning your goals with your inner values, you ensure long-term fulfillment and growth. Remember, the journey to career happiness is ongoing, and it starts with understanding yourself from the inside out.
Learn LinkedIn
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Get access to the LinkedIn micro-learning that will level up your LinkedIn profile, build your personal brand and your confidence. There is a special focus on leveraging LinkedIn to overcome unfair bias in the hiring process. This lesson will benefit anyone who is looking to enhance their LinkedIn profile and build their personal brand. The lesson includes; 15 minute video tutorial, a workbook, LinkedIn connection request templates and a comprehensive LinkedIn profile checklist.
