Fix your Online Persona

When starting any real effort to apply to jobs, it's important to take a quick moment and assess your related social media profiles. I don't mean checking out your Instagram, TikTok, or Google+ (Rest In Peace). I mean sitting down and thoroughly evaluating your profiles in LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Dice, Indeed, or any other niche sites you represent yourself on. Here is a quick guide on how to market yourself best online to better attract recruiters and other industry professionals, as well as better demonstrate you care about your work and yourself. For this guide, let's focus on LinkedIn.

Make it picture perfect.

In the example above, we can see that the default profile and banner pictures are still there, and there is quite a lot of information missing. These are easy to fix. Find a nice picture of yourself (preferably in something business casual) and add it as your profile picture. This could be you at a wedding, an industry event, or if you need to, just go out wearing something nice and take a few selfies.

The banner is pretty easy to fill too. Your company may provide a social media package with a banner image, but I would caution you to not use it. We want to create an identity for you that is separate from your employer's. At the end of the day, recruiters are going to want to talk to you, and it's your page after all. For me, I went to Canva and used one of their templates for LinkedIn banners. If you don't want to put your name on it, you can find a nice image on a free stock image website and put that in. LinkedIn has tools for cropping images, so you just need to make sure the image is within the generous size range.

Making Headlines

Next thing down is your headline. This accompanies your profile picture and name when you post around the site or when people search your name. A good rule of thumb is to have what makes you marketable loud and proud up front. My current headline is this:

This lets people know the following:

• What I do now
• What my specialties are
• What can set me apart / a conversation starter
• My best certification
• Another thing to set me apart from the pack

Use pipes to separate, and use a LLM to help get some different options for your headline.

Location Location Location

Really self explanatory. Put where you live. If you live near a city, see if there is a "X Metropolitan Area" available. That will tell recruiters you are good with working in that city or near it.

About Me? What about me?

This section helps build on your headline. Give a summary of who you are and the value you bring to an organization. Start with a strong opener that defines your professional identity. Then build off of that with 2-3 sentences of your strengths and impact. Use tools you have used or problems you solve. End with what you're seeking, be it a new job or to just make connections in industry.

Featured Section

Use this to market any projects, certifications, articles, presentations, or portfolio links. This is a great place for recruiters to see what you have been up to.

Experience

This is where people learn the most about you. Where you have worked, how long you have worked, and what you have done in industry. Treat this like a resume, and be detailed in your roles, responsibilities, and impacts. This is also a great refresher for when you have years under your belt and you can't quite remember what you worked on as an intern.

Education

List any degrees, schools, or relevant coursework. If you had extracurriculars in school, list those here too. This is a great way to network with alumni.

Licenses and Certifications

In cybersecurity, this is vital. Everyone will want to know what certifications you have, and this is where they reside. With Credly, you can upload the record of the certification directly to LinkedIn after you pass.

Skills

This is a word bank of competencies. List what you know, leave out what you don't. Just like on a resume, everything is testable. If you put that you have crazy BurpSuite skills and you can't navigate the menu, you may be in hot water.

Recommendations

If you can get someone to vouch for your skills, like a former boss or a coworker, that goes here. I haven't since that just sounds awful for LinkedIn clout.

Accomplishments

If you publish anything or are known for anything like CVE's or Development, use this space to brag.

Volunteering

Go volunteer. It's good for you. Help others, donate blood, or do whatever you can. After that, put it here. It looks great for recruiters and you're helping people around you.

Activity

Anything you post, reblog, like, or comment on will be here. Don't post AI slop, political posts, or anything else that could cause recruiters to turn and run. Activism and fighting for what you believe in is great. Just don't do it in the same space you're trying to get hired from.

For example, look at Robert M. Lee's LinkedIn. He's the founder of Dragos, a popular OT Cybersecurity tool.

In Summary

Clean up your LinkedIn so it clearly shows who you are, what you’re good at, and the results you get. Make your headline, About, and experience all tell the same story. Focus on impact instead of listing tasks. Cut the buzzwords and be specific about your skills and wins. Add proof with projects, certifications, or recommendations. Keep it simple, honest, and aligned with the roles you actually want.