Recruiters spend an average of 6-8 seconds on your LinkedIn profile before deciding if you're worth a message. Six seconds. That's it. So if your profile isn't immediately compelling, you're invisible.

Here are the five things killing your chances, and exactly how to fix them.

1. Your Headline is Boring as Hell

The mistake: "Marketing Professional | Seeking New Opportunities"

That tells me nothing. Your headline shows up in search results and is the first thing anyone sees. Make it count.

The fix: Use specific keywords and value proposition: "Senior Content Marketer | B2B SaaS | Grew organic traffic 300% at [Company]"

See the difference? One is generic, one tells me exactly what you do and that you're good at it.

Pro tip: Include your top 2-3 skills in your headline. Recruiters search by keywords. If "project management" isn't in your headline, you won't show up in those searches.

2. Your Profile Photo Sucks (Or Doesn't Exist)

The mistake: No photo, or a photo from your cousin's wedding where you're half-cropped out.

Profiles with photos get 21x more profile views and 36x more messages. Not having a decent photo is professional suicide.

The fix: Get a clean headshot against a simple background. You don't need a professional photographer—just good lighting and a solid-color wall. Smile. Look approachable. Dress like you would for work.

What not to do: Group photos, sunglasses, obvious cropping from vacation photos, or that picture from 2015 where you had different hair.

3. Your "About" Section is MIA or Meaningless

The mistake: Nothing in your About section, or just a copy-paste of your resume summary that reads like a robot wrote it.

Your About section is where you get to be human and tell your story. This is prime real estate. Use it.

The fix: Write 3-4 short paragraphs that cover:

• What you do and who you help
• What you're especially good at (with specific examples if possible)
• What you're looking for next
• How to reach you

Use first person ("I help companies..." not "Ms. Terry helps companies...") and actually sound like a human.

Example: "I've spent the last 8 years helping B2B SaaS companies turn content into revenue. At my current role, I grew organic traffic from 10K to 150K monthly visitors in 18 months.

I specialize in SEO strategy, content operations, and turning technical topics into content that actual humans want to read.

Looking for senior content marketing roles where I can build and lead teams. If that's you, let's talk: [email]"

See? Specific, human, tells me what you do and what you want.

4. Your Experience Bullets are Boring Task Lists

The mistake: "Responsible for managing social media accounts. Handled customer inquiries. Participated in team meetings."

Cool, you did your job. But what did you accomplish?

The fix: Use the result formula: Action + Result + Context.

Instead of: "Managed email marketing campaigns" Write: "Redesigned email marketing strategy, increasing open rates by 47% and generating $200K in additional revenue"

Add numbers wherever possible. Percentages, dollar amounts, team size, users impacted—data tells a better story than adjectives.

5. You're Not Using the "Open to Work" Feature (If You're Job Hunting)

The mistake: Being passive and hoping recruiters magically find you.

Profiles with "Open to Work" turned on get 2x more recruiter interest. It literally signals to recruiters that you're open to conversations.

The fix: Click the "Open to work" button on your profile. You can choose to show it publicly (green ring around your photo) or just to recruiters.

Be specific about what roles you're open to. Don't just check every box—narrow it down to roles you actually want. Quality over quantity.

The 20-Minute Fix

You can fix all of this in about 20 minutes:

• 5 minutes: Rewrite headline with keywords
• 3 minutes: Update/add profile photo
• 8 minutes: Write a decent About section
• 3 minutes: Add 2-3 quantified achievements to your recent roles
• 1 minute: Turn on Open to Work

That's 20 minutes that could literally change your job search.

Why This Matters

Here's the reality: 70% of employers check LinkedIn before hiring someone. 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to find candidates.

If your profile is incomplete or underwhelming, you're not even in the running. It's not about being perfect—it's about being better than the 80% of people who half-ass their profiles.

Fix these five things and you'll immediately stand out from the crowd. Because most people won't bother, which means you'll have less competition.

Don't leave opportunities on the table because your LinkedIn looks like you set it up in 2012 and never looked at it again. Take the 20 minutes. Future you will thank you.