Job Hunting7 min read
How to Make Your CV Stand Out in 2025
The job market has never been more competitive. Here is what actually works.
Most LinkedIn About sections are either empty or unreadable. Here is how to write one that works.
The LinkedIn About section is one of the most valuable pieces of digital real estate available to a job seeker, and most people either leave it blank or fill it with something that reads like a job description written by a committee. Neither approach works. A well-written About section can be the difference between a recruiter clicking through to your profile and moving on to the next person in their search results.
LinkedIn has over one billion members. Recruiters use it every day to search for candidates, and the algorithm surfaces profiles based on keyword relevance, completeness, and engagement. Your About section is one of the few places on the platform where you can write in your own voice, tell your own story, and give a recruiter a reason to reach out. It deserves more than a copy-and-paste from your CV.
The most common mistake is writing in the third person. Phrases like "John is a results-driven professional with over ten years of experience" sound like someone else wrote them, because they usually were. LinkedIn is a first-person platform. People are reading your profile, not a press release about you. Write as if you are speaking directly to the person on the other side of the screen.
The second most common mistake is leading with job titles and years of experience. That information is already in your work history. The About section should add something your CV cannot: context, motivation, personality, and a sense of where you are headed. If your summary is just a prose version of your CV, you have wasted the space.
The third mistake is writing for everyone and therefore connecting with no one. A summary that tries to appeal to every possible employer ends up sounding generic. The more specific you are about what you do, who you do it for, and what makes you good at it, the more compelling it becomes.
The About section should add something your CV cannot: context, motivation, personality, and a sense of where you are headed.
A strong LinkedIn summary typically covers four things: what you do, how you do it differently or particularly well, what you are looking for or working towards, and how to get in touch. You do not need to cover all four in equal depth, and you do not need to follow this order rigidly. But if any of these four elements is missing, your summary is probably weaker for it.
The first two lines of your About section are visible without the reader clicking "see more". Those two lines are your hook. Do not waste them on a vague opener like "I am a passionate and dedicated professional." Instead, lead with something concrete: a specific role, a specific problem you solve, a specific achievement, or a specific perspective that makes you interesting.
For example, compare these two openings. The first: "I am an experienced marketing professional with a background in digital and content strategy." The second: "I help B2B software companies turn complicated products into content that non-technical buyers actually want to read." The second is specific, it names an audience, it names a problem, and it implies a skill. It gives the reader a reason to keep going.
Once you have the reader's attention, use the middle section of your summary to explain how you work. What is your approach to your field? What do you believe that other people in your industry do not? What problems do you find genuinely interesting? This is where personality comes in, and it is what separates a memorable summary from a forgettable one.
You do not need to be controversial or unconventional to make this work. You just need to be specific. "I believe good design starts with understanding the user's frustration, not the client's brief" is more interesting than "I am passionate about user-centred design" because it implies a point of view and a way of working.
LinkedIn's search algorithm uses the text in your profile to decide when to surface you in recruiter searches. Your About section is one of the places it looks. This does not mean stuffing your summary with keywords until it reads like a job advert. It means writing naturally about your work and making sure the terms that matter in your field appear in the text.
Think about what a recruiter would type into LinkedIn to find someone like you. If you are a project manager in construction, they might search for "project manager," "construction," "NEC contracts," or "programme management." If those terms are relevant to your experience, they should appear somewhere in your profile, and the About section is a natural place for several of them.
Many summaries simply stop. They describe the person and then trail off. A stronger approach is to end with something that invites the reader to take a next step. This does not need to be aggressive or salesy. It can be as simple as: "If you are working on something in this space and think there might be a fit, feel free to connect." Or: "I am currently open to new opportunities in [field]. The best way to reach me is via LinkedIn message or at [email]."
If you have a CV website, this is also an excellent place to link to it. A line like "You can see examples of my work and a full interactive CV at [your URL]" gives the recruiter somewhere to go and demonstrates a level of professionalism that most candidates do not bother with.
LinkedIn allows up to 2,600 characters in the About section. Most people should aim for somewhere between 200 and 500 words. Short enough to be read in under two minutes, long enough to say something meaningful. If you find yourself going much beyond 500 words, you are probably including information that belongs in your work history rather than your summary.
Formatting matters too. Large blocks of unbroken text are hard to read on a screen. Use short paragraphs, and do not be afraid of white space. Some people use bullet points for part of their summary, which can work well if you want to highlight specific achievements or skills. Just make sure the bullets are substantive rather than a list of adjectives.
A CV personal statement is typically two to four sentences at the top of a traditional CV. It is formal, concise, and written for a specific application. A LinkedIn summary is longer, more conversational, and written for a general audience of potential employers, collaborators, and contacts. The two serve different purposes and should not be the same document.
Your CV personal statement should be tailored to the specific role you are applying for, using the language of the job description. Your LinkedIn summary should reflect your professional identity more broadly, written in a voice that sounds like you on a good day at work. If you copy one directly from the other, both will be weaker for it.
Your LinkedIn profile is not a static document. It is a living thing that should evolve as your career does. If you wrote your About section three years ago and have not touched it since, it almost certainly no longer reflects who you are or what you are looking for. Set a reminder to review it every six months, or whenever you change roles or shift direction.
A strong LinkedIn summary and an interactive CV website work together. The summary gets you found. The CV website shows them what you can do. Between the two, you have a professional presence that most candidates simply do not have.
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