Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 0:04
Are you using top LinkedIn keywords in 2024 and beyond? According to zippy, 87% of recruiters think that LinkedIn is the most effective resource for finding candidates. So what you choose to include on your profile for keywords is going to significantly impact how visible you are in your job search.

Chris Villanueva 0:26
My name is Chris Villanueva . I am the founder and CEO of Let’s Eat Grandma resume service. We are designed to help job seekers land meaningful work. Here, we’ve helped over 10,000 professionals in the last 10 years to find work through our resumes and LinkedIn profiles. So I want to make sure that this episode comes from a good place.

Chris Villanueva 0:46
A lot of the things that I’m going to be mentioning today come from our own experience as a resume service, and not just from me, but from our amazing resume writers. This is based off of a blog that we put on our podcast. So shout out to Katie, our blog manager, and the awesome people who have been a part of building this up. So I’m going to make sure that I am the human podcast voice that is going to be able to bring these things to life, because I want you not only to get this information, but really feel it as I speak into this microphone today, and you feel that encouragement

Chris Villanueva 1:22
Now, a PSA today. I know we are in the end of 2024 and it is a tough job market. And if it’s one thing that I can add to you and your day, beyond just the information you’re going to get, it’s that bit of encouragement for you who may not be getting the results that you want. I was on LinkedIn, and just every single post, I don’t know whether it’s my algorithm or it’s just the way that LinkedIn looks these days, but every single post back to back just seemed to be a job seeker who was struggling or felt discouraged or just was feeling very negative about how things were going. I’m seeing even people who are begging, saying, Please, please, please.

Chris Villanueva 2:01
I’m about to lose my my house. I’m about to go homeless. I need a job right now. So I know it’s it’s a bit strange out there, economy wise and job search market wise. I don’t know what is exactly going on. Not an economist, but people are struggling. If that is you, I’m going to tell you two things right now, number one, do not for one second think that it is you and your value as a person that is being depleted whenever you’re getting rejected or feel like you’re not using your best gifts out there, I’ve been at many points in my life where I’ve either not gotten my expectations met for who I am as a professional, I’ve gotten rejected before, and it felt oh my gosh, this must be me. I’m starting to suck now. I’m telling you, this is not you.

Chris Villanueva 2:50
You are just the same amazing professional, if not better than you were yesterday, because you’re picking up new things every day. So don’t let rejection get to you. It’s not personal. It’s not going to be something that reflects on you as a person. You are so much more than your job search.

Chris Villanueva 3:08
The second thing I’m going to tell you today is, do not give up doing the same things that are going to get you the job eventually. So I’m seeing people post on LinkedIn, for example, like, Oh, I’ve been told so many times that networking is the right thing to do, but I’m tired of hearing it no more networking for me. Or I’m sick and tired of adjusting my resume because it’s not working well. That is not the type of attitude that is going to get you your job. And I get it.

Chris Villanueva 3:38
Trust me, I feel the same sort of things whenever I’m doing the principles and the things that are supposed to be getting me the results, but they’re not necessarily getting me there yet. I would say two things. Number one, the principles of networking and the principles of adjusting your messaging, your brand, those will always stay the same. You have to stand out. You have to set yourself apart, but you may need some tweaking. You may need to look at your networking strategy in a different way.

Chris Villanueva 4:08
Perhaps you may not be energized by attending in person events. That may be something that just is not going to help you think about something that you can switch up this month to move you forward. So don’t give up again. This feedback. It may feel like you’re getting hit with a bunch of negative messages, and it’s telling you and your life to go in the opposite direction. Just stay focused on getting that dream job. Heck, it doesn’t have to be a freaking dream job. Getting that job that is going to move you on over to the next step.

Chris Villanueva 4:42
I don’t care if you have to take some time to take a part time job or something just for money, that doesn’t mean that you are depleting your own resume in the future or your own professionalism. Just got to keep moving forward. And I promise you, you’re going to look.

Chris Villanueva 4:59
Back on this five years later and say, oh my gosh, I hustled through, and I made it through 2024, 2025 this period, all right, I’m going to step off my kind of non informational side. I like to give really actionable tips, but this stuff cannot go unsaid. I want you to feel like you can keep moving forward and you have someone at your side that can keep pushing you forward. You got this, I promise you. So let’s talk about top LinkedIn keywords, understanding how it works.

Chris Villanueva 5:30
The Platform LinkedIn is very similar to those applicant tracking systems in which someone could put up a search for a specific set of keywords, just like they would with a resume, and the search will be organized in a certain way, with the top candidates with the best, most relevant matches will appear at the very top of the recruiter’s search bar. And really, the entire platform revolves not only on these searches, but also the element of social proof and networking.

Chris Villanueva 5:59
So the more you’re engaging with the platform, the more you’re staying active and building those connections, the more power you are going to have in your LinkedIn profile. So they have all your data. There really is no platform, no quote, applicant tracking system as unique as LinkedIn and as powerful, because they have all of the data they have when you switched that last job, if you’re updating your profile, they have how active you are on the platform. They have who you’re connected to. They have all of your skills. They have your location, and these are the things that you have control over in your profile to gain that sort of visibility. So what you include on your profile in every single section matters for how you get picked up.

Chris Villanueva 6:44
So let’s talk about top keyword searches. If you go to LinkedIn navigator, LinkedIn recruiter, Google, how many different filters there are for candidates? There are so many filters. There are dozens of different filters and things that could be switched on and or on or off things like job function degree, things like if you spoke several different languages, or if you have several years of experience to know, years of experience. But I want you to really focus on the top ones that you can control and the top ones that I know hiring managers are going to be searching for the most.

Chris Villanueva 7:21
Let’s focus on the top one that’s going to be position titles. Position titles are going to be the number one keyword search, not only in a LinkedIn profile, but in a resume, because people are still looking for experience again. That doesn’t mean if you don’t have the experience before, this is something that is going to work against you. You just have to think of the different ways you can include a position title in your LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t had that position yet, the headline is one of the best opportunities for you to include that position title.

Chris Villanueva 7:53
So say, for example, you are applying for a UX designer position, then that is something that you can proclaim on your LinkedIn profile in a headline, it shows you’re targeted. It shows you are moving to what you want, and it shows you have the qualifications and the skill set for that position. Don’t think that you are proclaiming to the world that you have been a UX designer for five to 10 minutes, again, for five to 10 years.

Chris Villanueva 8:20
Remember, we are just finding ways to include this on your profile in whatever way that you can. Another section, you can include a position title, again, in the example, UX designer is your summary section. One really simple way that a lot of job seekers will include such a position title is at the very bottom. They will put, you know, key competencies or skills or experience, and they’ll just list out the keywords.

Chris Villanueva 8:47
That is one thing that you can do, just put it at the very bottom of your about section. But I would go one step further, and if this is a position you’re really looking to focus in on, find a way to include that within the first two sentences of your about section. Now, if it does two things, it not only includes your position title or your intended position title another time in your profile, but it includes it in one of the most visible parts of your LinkedIn profile.

Chris Villanueva 9:17
Remember, someone has to expand that about section, typically to read the entire thing, but your first two sentences in that about section are going to be the most important, because this is going to be visible in your profile no matter what. So find a way to include that.

Chris Villanueva 9:34
Again, if you haven’t held that position, it can become a little bit tricky, but saying things like UX designer with X years of experience in a volunteer or projects or things that you’ve learned in a classroom that does not invalidate that experience whatsoever. Remember speaking with a career coach a long time ago, Al Robinette, just because it’s unpaid.

Chris Villanueva 9:59
Experience does not mean that it isn’t relevant experience. So shout out to Al there and yes, include that experience in those position titles in whatever way you can.

Chris Villanueva 10:11
The second type of keyword that I’m going to call out today may surprise you. It’s going to be location. This one is huge. Location is one of those things that has become controversial these days, because we are in the age of remote work and flexible work, and people saying that they only want to gain these positions, and it’s becoming less relevant, whether you want remote work or not, or flexible work or not.

Chris Villanueva 10:34
I still highly recommend focusing in on location you have to share or match the locations of the jobs that you want, for example, if you are applying for jobs, generally, that are headquartered in Austin, Texas, it behooves you to find ways to include Austin on your profile if you’re relocating to Austin, for example, from California. And I know we have a lot of you, because I’ve met a lot of Californians here in Austin. God bless you all.

Chris Villanueva 11:05
You have to include Austin in your profile, either as the location that you’re setting on your profile, or, again, that summary statement saying that you’re willing to relocate, or you are relocating, or even in those experience sections themselves. So location is one of those things that’s going to be an important thing to optimize. Now I want to just read a few stats here. In 1986 45% of Americans packed up a move.

Chris Villanueva 11:35
Oftentimes, they moved four jobs and to follow their careers. Clearly, that is not the case anymore. In this stat here, about 2% of Americans did this in the first quarter of 2023 now I understand that, again, we are in a very different age, but we’re seeing more and more that there’s going to be an emphasis on in person work. And remote workers have been asked, and this is increasing, have been asked to return back to the office

Chris Villanueva 12:03
So again, it doesn’t matter if you are going to be remote yourself or applying for remote jobs, find some way to include location, because there still is a strong tie to the physical location of where you’re at.

Chris Villanueva 12:18
The third type of thing to focus on, and when it comes to your LinkedIn profile, this is the third keyword, or type of keyword, that is going to be essential for getting you noticed, and could be the game changer that gets you hired, is the skills section. Pay close attention to the skill section, because LinkedIn is has been pushing that more and more because of their initiative for skills based hiring.

Chris Villanueva 12:43
In fact, earlier this year, in 2024 they increased the amount of skills that you can include on your profile from 50 to 100 and I have met with the people of LinkedIn. I have seen the articles that they’ve put put out. I know that they have an agenda, and for better or worse. This is just how it looks. It is to push skills based hiring more and more. So this is something that you need to pay close attention to.

Chris Villanueva 13:10
Again, this is a good thing for those who don’t have that, for example, software engineering position, when they haven’t had it before. They haven’t been VP of Finance, they’ve only been a manager of finance. Again, there’s going to be more emphasis on skills, but you need to look very closely at the types that you include. I am going to strike the balance between quality and quantity here.

Chris Villanueva 13:32
I’m going to push most people listening to this episode right now to include more skills and to fill out that section as much as possible. No, you don’t need 100 skills on your profile. In many cases, that’s going to be overkill, but as a general rule of thumb, just think about filling out that 50 as much as possible. And for example, there was a difference in keyword searches between software engineering and software development.

Chris Villanueva 13:59
Include both of those as an example, because you never know how the algorithm might work at any point in time. So I tend to recommend people cast a wider net for the types of skills that they’re going to include. The difference between having a skills list that’s filled out and not filled out is huge. According to a report from LinkedIn members with five or more skills listed. Again, we’re pushing for way more than that. Were contacted up to 33 times more by recruiters than other LinkedIn members, and received more than 17 times the profile reviews.

Chris Villanueva 14:34
So what I would do is look at how many people have viewed your profile in the last 30 days. Adjust those skills, I would again increase them to the relevant ones in your LinkedIn profile and see if that increased your amount of views from relevant recruiters. Now, question I might get there is, should I include this many skills on my resume? I’m still going to say no the LinkedIn profile.

Chris Villanueva 15:00
That has more tolerance for an extended section, you can expand more on those skills. But your resume, you really should not keyword stuff saying like five to 1015, at the most is the absolute most. I would recommend for a resume section. But your LinkedIn, you can fill that sucker out a lot more here bonus points go beyond your skills section and just filling it up with skills.

Chris Villanueva 15:25
Again, you want to make sure to include it in other sections, such as your headline and your summary. And the thing that can set you apart from other job seekers are getting people to recommend you for those skills. I’m not just talking about endorsements, because you can have people endorse you for certain skills, but a recommendation can go even further, if you have someone’s human voice talking about how you are an excellent designer, VP of Finance, leader, communicator, whatever it may be.

Chris Villanueva 15:58
So find ways to include that you get three skills that you can really highlight at the top of your profile. So I would think very carefully about those skills, but flesh those out so the different sections you can include and focus in on these keywords, again, we’re focusing on position, Title, Location, and those skills are your headline. You can include it in your about section, your experience section, and that skill section, and again, bonus points for the folks who reach out to past managers to get recommendations so that their skills don’t look like something they just threw on their profile, but something that truly had that social proof.

Chris Villanueva 16:37
All right, so this wraps up today’s episode of the Career Warrior Podcast. My name is Chris Villanueva head on over to our website letseatgrandma.com If you sign up for a resume critique, not only are you going to get a free resume review, but you’ll be in touch with us.

Chris Villanueva 16:54
As an organization, we’re doing so many great things, including quarterly live events here in Austin, Texas. So you’ll hear about those. You’ll hear about the blogs we’re releasing, as well as special promotions we have for our resume service. We’re always looking to push the envelope for job seekers. So good to get dialed in and to boost your job search in whatever way you can.

Chris Villanueva 17:15
So thank you so much for tuning in. Can’t wait to hear from you as a job seeker. So hit me up on LinkedIn. I’m Chris Villanueva. CPRW, I’ll see you next time.

Chris Villanueva 17:25
CareerWarrior Podcast, and before you go, remember, if you’re not seeing the results you want in your job, search our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at Let’s Eat Grandma. Can Help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages.

Chris Villanueva 17:45
We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search, and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention, you’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast/ Thanks, and I’ll see you next time you.