Top 5 Ways to Chase a Hiring Manager Away from your LinkedIn Profile

According to Jobvite, 93% of recruiters will review a candidates social media profiles before making a hiring decision. You should consider LinkedIn as an important extension of your resume and professional history.

From a hiring manager’s prospective, here are 5 things to avoid doing on LinkedIn:

• Photo that is too personal. Keep in mind that LinkedIn is different than Facebook. Photos from a night out with friend or wedding photos are all red flags to hiring managers. Top employers who are very good at separating work from personal matters. A hiring manager may misjudge you as a candidate by something personal that they see in a profile picture.

• Posting non-business material to your network. A hiring manager will be able to review your LinkedIn posts. Stay away from controversial subjects and photos.  You don’t want this to stand in the way of getting an interview and a great job offer.  Instead, post relevant business material that point to you as being the expert in your field.

• Stay away from joining political groups, or following political candidates. The simple rule that the first time you meet someone, never speak about politics. You never know the other person’s views. According to Washington Technology, political views ”should not be posted in discussion areas, used as answers in the Q&A or be fodder for polls. Potential clients, partners and co-workers can and often will take offense.”

• Missing Profile information. LinkedIn has tools to tell you how complete your profile percentage is. Make sure that you spend time to accurately fill out the information and take the time to get recommendations. You wouldn’t fill out a partial resume and should follow the same rule here.

• Low numbers of connections. This tells the hiring manager one of two things. Either you have a low number of professional connections, or you haven’t spent the time to keep up with trends and build a robust LinkedIn Profile. There are simple ways to grow your numbers of connections such as joining a group called TopLinked, Networking with your Alumni, or noting yourself as a LinkedIn open networker.