Perfecting your LinkedIn profile is pivotal in your pursuit of a UI design position. Discover the importance of having a professional profile picture, writing a compelling headline and summary, listing skills for endorsement, detailing work experience and education, and linking to relevant webpages or profiles.
Key Insights
- A polished LinkedIn profile functions as a mini-professional web page, allowing you to list your entire work history, verify skills, post recommendations from colleagues, and link to your portfolio.
- LinkedIn should be treated with as much care and professionalism as your resume, cover letter, and portfolio. It should include a professional photo, a strong headline, a compelling summary, a list of skills for endorsement, and detailed work experience and education.
- Your profile photo serves as the first impression a hiring manager or recruiter will make of you. It needs to be professional and welcoming, taken from the shoulders up, and have a solid background.
- The headline beneath your profile photo essentially works as an elevator pitch for who you are and what you do. It is the first text viewers will see, so it needs to be impactful and concise.
- The summary section gives you the freedom to write about yourself. It should tell a story that explains your passions, reveals any relevant history, highlights your career achievements, and shows off your personality.
- LinkedIn allows you to list up to 50 skills and request endorsements from colleagues, professors, and other industry professionals. It's recommended to identify ten skills that you are best at and seek endorsements for those.
Having a polished LinkedIn profile can be a critical aspect of landing a UI design position. These profiles function as mini-professional web pages. They allow you to list your entire work history, verify skills, post recommendations from colleagues, and link to your portfolio. Filling out these details in full can be very useful in catching the eye of hiring managers and job recruiters who use the site regularly. With a full and polished profile, you may find yourself invited to apply to unposted positions. Thus, neglecting your LinkedIn profile can be detrimental to your job hunt.
How to Make a UI Designer LinkedIn Profile
A LinkedIn profile is best treated as a repository for all relevant job qualifications that won’t fit on your resume or make it into job materials. That said, just like other job materials, LinkedIn serves a specific purpose and shouldn’t be used as a dumping ground for your entire history. LinkedIn should be treated with as much care and professionalism as your resume, cover letter, and portfolio. Below are a few things to consider when building your profile.
Have a Professional Photo
It’s understood that professionals who post a profile photo on LinkedIn see more views and connection requests than those who don’t. Your profile photo serves as the first impression a hiring manager or recruiter will make of you, so it needs to be professional and welcoming. Remember to smile and wear professional clothing. The best photos are taken from the shoulders up and have a solid background. You don’t need a professional photographer to pull off a good photo, but you definitely don’t want it to be a selfie. A tripod and a camera with a timer or a trusted friend will also do.
Write a Strong Headline
The headline sits beneath your profile photo. With a character limit of just over 200, it essentially works as an elevator pitch for who you are and what you do and possess. While it can be difficult to define yourself in only a few words, the headline is the first text viewers will see, so it’s important to get it right. Think of the headline as a value proposition for why recruiters and hiring managers should connect with you. Ask yourself, What you’re known for or good at? What sets you apart from others in the same profession? What skills, ideals, or attitudes do you bring to the table?
These questions may be challenging to answer if you're just starting out. Write down a few headlines you think might work for you, revise them, and ask trusted friends or other industry connections for feedback. Avoid hype words like “best,” “hardworking,” or “dedicated.” This is an opportunity for your personality to shine through and for you to show how you are unique.
Write a Compelling Summary
The summary sits beneath your profile photo and headline. The summary is an “about” section and gives you much more freedom to write about yourself (at a max of 2,000 characters). Think of the summary as a companion to your resume. However, rather than giving a list of dates and work titles, you can tell a story. This story should explain your passions, reveal any relevant history, highlight your career achievements, and show off your personality. In the end, you want your summary to leave a strong impression, just like your header and profile picture.
List Skills for Endorsement
LinkedIn allows you to list your skills and request your colleagues, professors, and other industry professionals endorse them. Listing skills helps hiring managers and recruiters find your profile, and having those skills endorsed proves you actually possess them.
LinkedIn allows you to list up to 50 skills, but many argue that listing so many can distract from your top skills. Instead, it’s recommended to identify ten skills that you are best at and seek endorsements for those. Later, if you wish, you can add more skills, but keep in mind any skills beyond ten will only be visual under “show more,” and not everyone will bother to look.
If you’re struggling with which of your skills to list, you can get ideas by reviewing the profiles of colleagues or other industry professionals. You can also look at job descriptions for your current position or the kind you wish to apply for. Add the skills and keywords to your profile that apply to you.
Work Experience & Education
When building a resume, it’s recommended to include only the most relevant work experience. It’s generally recommended to include as much relevant work experience as possible to help your chances of being found when hiring managers and recruiters are searching the site. However, on LinkedIn, you have unlimited space. There’s also plenty of space to include any training seminars, singular courses, or industry events you have attended. Freelance work fits here as well.
Relevant Links to other Webpages or Profiles
Your LinkedIn profile is a place to gather all important aspects of your work history. If you have a portfolio webpage, you should provide the link in your profile. If there are important webpages or projects you’ve worked on, you can link to those. You can also link to things such as professional accolades, other social media profiles (provided they are work-relevant), or anything that serves as an example of your design history.
5 UI Designer LinkedIn Tips
Building a Linkedin profile can be challenging since it looks like so many other social media platforms. However, its unique aspects make it ideal for promoting your skills and accomplishments. Aside from the above guidelines, below are a few additional tips for designing an effective and successful profile.
Tip #1: Maintain a Professional Appearance
It’s important not to treat your LinkedIn profile like a Facebook page and come off as overly casual. Think of your LinkedIn profile as part of your job application materials. You want to communicate to recruiters and hiring managers that you are a professional. Your profile picture should be a professional headshot, and your work experience needs to be presented as you would on a job application.
On the other hand, you don’t want your profile to be boring or stale. There is an opportunity on LinkedIn to give more of your personality than you could on other job application materials. Take advantage of it, as this allows you to stand out among the competition. It can be a difficult balance to strike between professional and personable. You can ask a trusted friend or colleague for feedback. Another option is to look online for profile examples and take note of what they do right.
Tip #2: Complete the Profile
This may seem obvious, but your LinkedIn profile should be entirely complete. Recruiters and hiring managers will notice missing elements, which could put them off. They may assume you aren’t willing to put in the necessary effort or you aren’t taking the job search process seriously. If you’re in the process of applying for jobs and your LinkedIn profile isn’t ready, don’t be afraid to leave it out of your application. Having a completed and professional LinkedIn profile is helpful to the job application process but not vital. In the end, not providing a potential employer with a LinkedIn profile link is better than giving a link to a bad LinkedIn profile.
Tip #3: Cultivate Networking Opportunities
One of the best aspects of LinkedIn for job seekers is the networking opportunities it provides. LinkedIn makes it easy to connect with UI Designers and associated professionals. By seeking out these connections, you can gain references, endorsements of your skills, and job search tips. You might even find unposted job opportunities. Additionally, each connection you make with an industry professional opens the door to other connections within that professional’s network. In this way, you can chain connections, reaching your way throughout the industry and toward industry figureheads. LinkedIn is one of the best networking tools on the Internet, and it’s important to take advantage of it.
Tip #4: Utilize Keywords
Your LinkedIn profile is a searchable page, and it’s how recruiters and hiring managers locate you. They use a search tool that they plug with keywords, and LinkedIn profiles with those keywords show up in their results. For example, a recruiter might be looking for a senior UI Designer with experience in JavaScript. They might use keywords like “senior,” “UI,” and “JavaScript” in their search tool.
When crafting your LinkedIn profile, you should consider what keywords to include. You want to avoid buzzwords or keywords that don’t apply to you. For example, don’t list JavaScript if it’s not a skill you have. This wastes recruiters’ time and ultimately hurts your chances of finding a job that applies to you. If you aren’t sure what keywords to include, look through job postings you’re interested in and identify words for skills and experience that repeatedly appear. When using keywords, make sure to tie them into your personal story in a way that seems natural and not. It’s best to ask a trusted friend or professional to proofread your writing if you’re unsure of how your tone and voice are coming across.
Tip #5: Get Feedback
Crafting an effective and compelling LinkedIn profile might be tricky to get right on your first try. Receiving professional feedback from instructors, colleagues, and other professionals can be invaluable to crafting a professional online presence. Even a trusted friend will do well in a pinch.
One great place you can gain such feedback is in the UI Design Certificate Program offered through Noble Desktop. In addition to receiving hands-on training from expert instructors, students learn essential industry concepts and tools. You’ll also build a portfolio of professional projects and receive one-on-one career mentorship. During this mentorship, students can ask any questions they have about the job application process and receive feedback on their materials and approaches, including their LinkedIn profile. This feedback can be invaluable in setting you apart from the competition.
Learn the Skills to Become a UI Designer at Noble Desktop
Noble Desktop offers several UI design classes for those seeking professional instruction in pursuing a career as a UI Designer. Classes are small and feature expert instructors and free retake options. Courses can be attended in person in NYC or online from anywhere.
The UI Design Certificate is designed to prepare students to launch a career in UI design. You’ll learn essential design principles as well as how to use the most popular UI design tools: Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Throughout the course, you’ll complete a number of hands-on projects and build a portfolio to showcase your skills to potential employers.
Should you be interested in UX design as well as UI design (the two fields commonly overlap), you can pursue the UX & UI Design Certificate. You’ll learn the design principles and industry tools of both UX & UI design, build a professional portfolio, and receive one-on-one job preparation assistance.
Bootcamps are also available where you can learn the ins and outs of the most popular UI design tools, including Figma, Photoshop, and Illustrator. These courses are open to pure beginners and are designed to guide you to mastery of the program.
If you’re not ready to jump into a full UI design course, you can explore Noble Desktop’s learning hubs. These hubs are designed to inform you about a topic and offer learning resources, including free tutorials and self-guided education. UI design learn hubs include: