Experience, Skills, Custom URL, Recommendations
Contents
- Experience bullets
- Skills
- Custom URL
- Recommendations
Experience bullets
Formula
[Action verb] + [specific metric]
Not: "Responsible for X" or "Managed X" — these are resume fossils that LinkedIn's NLP ignores.
Before → After
| ❌ Before | ✅ After |
|---|---|
| Managed social media accounts | Grew social following by 340% and generated $50K in attributed revenue |
| Responsible for sales team | Built and led 8-person sales team that exceeded quota by 25% for 6 consecutive quarters |
| Led product development | Shipped 12 features in 18 months; user retention +47% |
| Handled client accounts | Retained 23 enterprise accounts worth $2.4M ARR; 94% renewal rate |
| Worked on marketing | Wrote and shipped the "Pipeline Teardown" series; 18M impressions, 340 qualified leads |
Action verbs (strong)
Led, Built, Increased, Delivered, Shipped, Cut, Drove, Launched, Grew, Closed, Retained, Rebuilt, Scaled
Action verbs (weak — avoid)
Worked on, Handled, Assisted with, Responsible for, Participated in, Helped with, Was part of
Media attachments
Every role should have at least one attached media item:
- Screenshots of metrics dashboards (anonymized)
- Links to live projects, articles, demos
- Case study PDFs
- Video walkthroughs
Roles with media get 2.1x more profile view duration than text-only roles.
Skills
Volume rules
- Up to 50 skills listed (LinkedIn cap)
- Pin top 3 at the top of the section
- Mirror skills from target job descriptions if job-seeking
- ≥1 endorsement per skill to count in search (skills with 0 endorsements are invisible to recruiters)
- 5+ skills listed: 3x more connection requests
2026 high-value skills
Include if genuinely applicable:
- AI Literacy
- Data Analysis
- Project Management
- Strategic Thinking
- Communication
- Cross-functional Collaboration
- Prompt Engineering
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Systems Thinking
Skills hygiene
- Remove skills you haven't used in 3+ years (stale signal)
- Don't list generic soft skills without evidence ("Leadership", "Teamwork") — back them with roles that prove it
- If you have conflicting skills across roles (e.g., front-end dev + sales), keep them — LinkedIn tolerates breadth
Custom URL
The rule
linkedin.com/in/firstnamelastname
Never: linkedin.com/in/firstname-lastname-123abc456
How to claim it
- LinkedIn → Profile → Edit public profile & URL (top right)
- Edit custom URL
- Change to
firstnamelastname(no spaces, no dashes if possible)
Why it matters
- Memorable — you can say "linkedin.com/in/sergebulaev" in conversation
- SEO — Google ranks canonical URLs higher than hash-tail URLs
- Email signatures — the short URL reads as intentional, not default
Recommendations
Why they matter
- Candidates with ≥3 recommendations: 71% more likely to land interviews
- Authority profiles with 10+ recent recommendations: 4x trust signal vs. profiles with 0
How to request (the right way)
- Email or call first — don't use LinkedIn's generic auto-request
- Ask for specifics — "about [specific project / skill / outcome]"
- Offer to draft bullets — make it 2 minutes of their time
- Reciprocate — write theirs first, then ask
Template for the ask
Hey [Name],
I'm cleaning up my LinkedIn and hoping you'd be up for a short recommendation.
If you're open to it, specifically about:
- [specific thing you worked on together]
- [concrete outcome]
- [skill you demonstrated]
Happy to draft 2-3 bullets you can edit. Takes you 60 seconds, helps me a ton.
Also happy to write yours first if that helps.Rotation
- Target 3 recommendations per year from current context
- After a role change, ask for 1-2 from the old role (not 5 — looks desperate)
- Diverse contexts matter: colleagues, clients, vendors, direct reports