Optimizing LinkedIn for Career Growth

Teach what the profile is for in the local labour market, and be honest that it varies. In some countries and sectors recruiters search it constantly; in others, particularly for care, cleaning, hospitality and much shift work, it plays almost no part and the session is time she could spend elsewhere. Find out which situation your mentees are actually in before running the workshop again.

Where it does matter, the parts that carry weight are unglamorous. A headline that says what she does rather than what she is looking for. Experience described as tasks and results rather than job titles, because a job title from another country tells a local employer very little. Skills spelled out in the words used in local advertisements. And qualifications listed with what they are equivalent to, if that has been established.

The most common real problem is not optimisation. It is a work history that looks broken: a gap for migration, a gap for care, and work that is below her qualification. Those need a short honest line each rather than being hidden, because hiding them is what makes them look worse than they are.

Do you tell people to name the over-qualified work, or leave it off?

Name it, and frame it as what she was doing while a recognition process ran or while she was learning the language. It is common enough to be unremarkable: Eurostat data shows over-qualification is higher for women than men at every citizenship level and highest for non-EU women. She is describing a documented pattern, not confessing to a failure.

One thing the first reply should have said. A public profile makes her findable, and that is not always something she wants. Before running this as a standard session, check individually whether being searchable is safe for each person, and have a version of the workshop that produces a good document to send rather than a public page. Nobody should have to explain in front of a group why she would rather not be found.