Before starting to look for a role there are a couple of things I advise you spend some time preparing before you start applying or contacting people within the industry. The first is relatively obvious in your CV, the second that may not be so obvious is LinkedIn. Whilst they are both very important of course, I found that LinkedIn was the go to place for anyone wanting to know a little more about me. This included recruiters, contacts, potential connections, industry professionals and potential hiring managers. Whilst my profile did evolve during my time searching for a Cyber Security role, I ensured I had a strong starting point. Don't be afraid to reach out to recruiters, industry professionals and specialists along the way as I found plenty of people are prepared to help and advise.
Your LinkedIn profile will inform people of what you have been up to as well as where you plan to go. It acts as your digital CV, your own personal webpage, as well as a professional social media platform. Don't underestimate how much it can do for you. That said its important to spend some time honing your page so that it can help you towards your goals. Your LinkedIn profile is the catalyst to making new connections and integrating into the Cyber Security community. You may find it helpful to have your LinkedIn profile open whilst reading through this content to allow you to understand the layout and each section.
Profile Picture
The first thing any visitor to your profile will notice is your profile picture. As this is your professional profile it needs to reflect this, your face should be the focal point with no distracting backgrounds. The most important thing is that it you appear approachable and professional. It doesn't have to be from a photoshoot, it just needs to be a clear and good quality picture.
Headline
The first section to look at is your headline, which is the text directly below your name. When setting up your profile this will take detail from your most recent role by default so its important for you to amend this. Recruiters will have very little time to scan through your profile so this becomes one of your most important spaces. You have limited text here before it becomes white noise or too much information. The headline needs to be punchy and tell people what you want them to know in a very brief summary. Is it courses completed? Is it the job title you are aiming for? Is it personal traits or soft skills? I strongly recommend taking a little time to think and tweak this as it needs to sum you up but at the same time highlight where you want to go. Ideally you want to be using industry related key words or titles as well as relevant qualifications to enable searches to find you.
About
The section where you want to include the most detail is the "about" space. Here is your opportunity to briefly expand upon your headline. Again I suggest this doesn't become War and Peace as you still need to maintain your readers interest but it is an opportunity to inform the reader about who you are, what you have been up to and what your goals or aspirations are. Whilst LinkedIn is a professional Social Media platform don't be afraid to include some personality within the text as this will make the section more readable and help the reader connect with you personally so try and use a conversational style tone if possible. Typically this will be scanned through by a recruiter so try and include key words and role specific words ideally taken from job descriptions you may have come across. The kind of things you want to include here are your career aspirations, how you are learning and filling the experience gap you will have from not already working in the industry, what motivates you and why you are choosing to make the change into Cyber Security. Try and think about how you can stand out here above other individuals who will be in a similar circumstance to you.
Featured Activity
There is one section of your LinkedIn profile that is not set up by default but is another important section to use. This was actually recommended to me by a recruiter, and that is the featured section. This allows you to highlight and promote your posts which helps reach larger viewer numbers. To activate this section you just have to select the add profile section from the blue drop down box at the top of your profile and select the featured section. You will then see this appear in your home page under your about section and to feature a post you just have to select the plus sign at the top of the featured section then decide which post you want to feature and click on the little feature star in the bottom left and that's it. This is a handy little tip as it allows your posts to reach more people and makes it easier for people visiting your profile to find posts that you want to prioritise or highlight. All this obviously helps with getting your name and profile out into the Cyber community.
Your Dashboard
Underneath your new featured section you will have a small dashboard which shows you information on how many people have viewed your profile in the last 90 days, how many views you have on your posts and how many searches you have appeared in. This is all helpful as it allows you to see how you are influencing your visibility within LinkedIn and identify what activity is working best for you. If you click into any of the values you can look at further detail like timelines etc. Regularly viewing this allows you to challenge yourself to become more visible by maybe setting yourself targets or trying to ensure that the graphs displayed maintain an upward curve.
Experience and Certifications
Next up is the experience section, this is very likely to be copied from your CV but be sure to keep it brief and succinct as well as adding the company logo's to your job titles where you can. When writing these try and make them as relevant as you can to the roles you are going after as well as highlighting all your key achievements and success's. Ensure you include your key achievements from each position and try and quantify them as much as possible to help demonstrate the level of the achievement. Again remember your aim is to make this as easily readable as possible and to maintain the readers interest throughout. Bullet point this and try and find the balance between shouting about how great you are along with limiting its length. Where you can also include key words from job descriptions and the industry where you can which will also help with putting you higher on the list of profile searches for roles similar to those your aiming for. If you can, provide explanations on any gaps or overlaps in your work history also.
Following on from the experience section is where you list your certifications. Again, try and link in the awarding bodies logo's to each qualification and ensure you include all that are relevant to your job search or may offer you an advantage over other applicants.
Skills and Endorsements
Another important section of your LinkedIn profile is the skills and endorsements section. This is used to display the skills you have learned and are able to demonstrate. When new job roles are posted onto LinkedIn they will have skills listed out within the post to highlight what the employer is looking for. This is usually 10 or so skills that relate to the role the hiring company or agency are recruiting for. The skills are basically tags and the more of these you have on your profile the better you will match for the role your looking to apply for. Past and present colleagues can also endorse your listed skills to help build confidence for the reader so they can see that you have demonstrated the skills because people have confirmed (endorsed) you have them. To add a new skill you simple click the add new skill on the top right of the section and type the skill into the search bar then select it when it appears and save.
LinkedIn also has a skills assessments option where you can actually demonstrate your knowledge and skills through quizzes and activities. This again will give employers confidence that you know your topic and can confirm this.
Recommendations
Following on from the Skills and Endorsements section is the Recommendations pane, this provides similar information but allows people to go into a little detail about what it is like to work with you. Don't be afraid to ask past colleagues and managers to write a short paragraph about you. This will help add context on what your strengths and personality traits are and basically acts as a form of reference. Its a strong statement when someone goes out of their way to populate this for you as it demonstrates your value to any potential employer.
Interests
Lastly at the bottom of your profile is an area to highlight your interests. These can be professional or personal but it is always helpful if you have some of these that are relative to the industry you are looking to work in. For example in regards to Cyber Security show interest in governing bodies, leading Technology and service providers, or even the places you ultimately would love to work for. Think of the tools you will likely be using and follow those companies. There is lots of scope to easily show your interest in the industry here and of course there is the benefit of being able to see posts and articles from or related to those interests.
As you can see none of this is complicated, but will really aid you in demonstrating that your a desirable candidate for those roles you are applying for. Now that you have tailored your LinkedIn profile to match the roles you will be applying for and demonstrating how great a fit you will be the next step is to start directing views to your profile and building your connections to increase your chances of a successful job hunt.