Career strategist discloses costly mistake in LinkedIn profiles that's hindering their job search

A resume is an important tool for recruiters when deciding whether an applicant could be a potential job candidate. However, for those applying on websites or professional apps like LinkedIn, the very first thing the recruiter will see is their profile. What goes into one’s profile will determine whether or not things go any further than the first application stage. Career strategist Michael Nazari—who goes on TikTok by @findfulfillingwork—revealed a big mistake many people make on their LinkedIn profiles that hinders their chances for employment. The career strategist who dedicates his account to work-related advice and tips shared a video explaining why one’s profile can be a deciding factor in landing an interview or job.

He shared in his video: “I’ve been seeing posts where people have applied for jobs for months and aren’t hearing back. Some of them are even facing homelessness.” He then mentioned that he checked out their profiles to figure out the issue and found a pattern causing the same. “It’s the little things like this that people think don’t matter or shouldn’t matter,” Nazari said as he revealed the secret. With a sample LinkedIn profile open in the background, Nazari explained, “Your headline needs to talk about the job that you want.”

The background displayed a sample headline that reads “Creative, Entrepreneur, Leader.” Nazari remarked, “This is too generic. The recruiter won’t be able to find you and if they do find you, this is going to make them abandon your profile.” Next in the video, Nazari shared another sample profile whose profile headline read “Passionate about Talent Management.”

Pitching his views on this profile, the career strategist said, “This is a little better because there is an industry term,” indicating “Talent Management” as an industry term for a person’s chosen field. However, Nazari said that it still was not good enough.

He then shifted to another profile where the headline read, “Puzzle Master Extraordinaire.” While this may seem creative, Nazari revealed that it just wouldn’t do. The expert said, “This is a good example of allowing yourself to get too personal or too creative. LinkedIn is just business.” Moving to his last sample profile, the expert revealed, “This is a good example.” The profile featured three statements and Nazari explained the pattern behind the same. He said, “First you put your current role. If you don’t have a job right now, put it as ‘professional’ like 'marketing professional.’”

Moving to the next line, Nazari said, “Then the industry you want. You can put consumer SAS, medical healthcare and so on.” The last one, according to Nazari, “should be a problem you solve or specific technologies you know.” In three simple steps, the expert shared how optimizing a LinkedIn profile can be easy and super quick. His video was appreciated by employees and candidates and has gained 678k views. @peter60612 said, “Not me unknowingly doing this. I was just bragging about my title.” @genienepywll said, “Also, put what you are certified in. I put my certifications at the top, it helps!” 

With several people wanting to know more, Nazari posted a follow-up video on how to quickly write a good LinkedIn headline. He took one of the comment’s examples of a Data Scientist. Taking help from job applications, Nazari drafted a rough headline. For the first line, he wrote “Data Scientist| SQL/Python.” In the next line, he picked another prominent description, “AI-driven and data visualization.” “As you apply for more jobs, you’ll find better descriptions that you can keep adding,” Nazari concluded.