Chris Villanueva 00:19
Now, I know a lot of us folks are already on LinkedIn. I think that’s great, but these five mistakes will help you to realize where you might be able to improve some things. And I typically don’t do negative episodes, like five worst things, but I’ve just seen so many of these issues by looking at profiles even now. So I hope that this is valuable for you and I hope even if you have a decent LinkedIn profile, actually I know that you’ll be able to pull some nuggets from this episode here.

Chris Villanueva 00:50
So how’s your week started off? Mine? Pretty darn good. I have that birthday like I talked about here. I’ve been helping a lot of job seekers through their struggle and through moving forward with the market here. I’ve hearing some people in the inbox saying that they’re still not getting some results here, so my heart goes out to those people.

Chris Villanueva 01:09
I’m always trying to lead with a spirit of service here. So if that is you, feel free to head on over to our website and submit your resume for a free review. We’ll just pop on over and we will give the review and we’ll make sure that we can give you whatever we can just to boost your job search here. Now talking about LinkedIn, let’s go over these top five LinkedIn mistakes that job seekers are making.

Chris Villanueva 01:35
First one is a low quality photo. Okay? A low quality photo could be the thing holding you back from appearing like the sharp, polished, amazing professional you are. So I’m going to go on a limb here. I’m going to say 60% of photos on LinkedIn are not that good and I’d say maybe like 10% are amazing. I’d give it a pass. And then I would say that yes, the other 30% are mediocre.

Chris Villanueva 02:07
Most of you listening right now can probably improve your picture here. If I’m going over some things here that you already are doing and I’m missing something, let me know. Leave a LinkedIn comment and I would love to learn here. But the things that I’m noticing really are people are not using a proper camera angle and I think having a good sharp resolution on that camera, these are just old photos that people used and there’s a bit of a blur to speak to the crop and the camera angle.

Chris Villanueva 02:35
You have to make sure that you have the right size here and you have the right things going on here. I looked at a photo the other day and it was like the face was smooshed up against that little LinkedIn circle that’s like your thumbnail. It filled up the entire circle and I saw another photo that I could barely even see the person because they just were too far back. So make sure you have the proper cropping here.

Chris Villanueva 03:00
I’m trying not to brag here and saying that I’m the best because I make mistakes all the time, but connect with me on LinkedIn and my photographer I think did a fantastic job and we got a good crop for my LinkedIn profile. So I’m Chris Villanueva, CPR. That’ll give you a good example here and I’d love to connect with you and just to talk to you in general, but I think that serves as a great example here.

Chris Villanueva 03:21
Make sure your background is not too busy. That’s an important one. Again, because we have short attention spans and oftentimes it’s like there’s so much noise already online, you have to make sure that your face stands out in that background. We don’t do that by having a busy background. So just a plain white background or plain color is the professional standard in my opinion here. Alright, so low quality photo mistake number one, it’s your first impression.

Chris Villanueva 03:48
The second mistake that job seekers are making on their LinkedIn profiles, I think this is one of the worst ones, are a headline that looks backward, not forward, a headline that looks backwards and not forwards. I really think that headlines are your second impression when it comes to your LinkedIn profile. It’s the thing that pops up next to your picture. It represents your brand in a very big way, and why are you even on LinkedIn? Most people don’t put the creativity and just default to whatever position they’re at or just a generic statement here.

Chris Villanueva 04:20
I say, don’t worry if you’re afraid that your boss is going to think that you are leaving by changing your headline, be bolder than that. You are refreshing your personal presence so you can further your skillset, network and brand. So if by golly, coming up with a really sharp headline that speaks to what kind of professional you want to be in the future, if that’s the move, then I say go for it.

Chris Villanueva 04:43
Now, a quick note, I mentioned earlier that a lot of folks have their position as their headline. That is okay in some instances for me, for example, I’m putting founder of Let’s Eat, Grandma on my headline because that is my ambition for the next five, 10 years is to grow this brand, and I want people to see, whenever I post, I want people to see the Let’s Eat, Grandma name, but if I were replying for marketing roles, leadership positions out there, I would put VP of marketing or marketing strategist with experience in 10 Xing revenue, something that calls out the exact position that I’m going for. I think a lot of people are looking backward, not forward. So think about that as you put out your headline.

Chris Villanueva 05:27
The third mistake that I’m seeing even in 2025 is a boring or AI generated summary. Alright, listen, these AI summaries, do not cut it. I’m telling you, if you don’t put any thought, and this applies to anything, it’s not just LinkedIn, it’s the people who are now pressing create on songs. You can create these AI generated songs, you can create AI art, you can blah, blah, blah. There’s an easy button for everything.

Chris Villanueva 05:54
Don’t just click the easy and expect for your summary to look good or don’t even try because what I’m telling you is the LinkedIn summaries, the heart and soul of your profile. Maybe you’re changing careers and you want to go into detail about what prompted that human change to make you change careers. Was there a story behind that? Did you tinker with toys as a child and did you want to sell lemonade and make money off? Oh god, these examples are stupid.

Chris Villanueva 06:26
Sometimes I have to come up with better examples, but you get the gist of it. Was there a background story that prompted your career change? Or maybe you’re limiting yourself too much for the jobs that you are applying for and should really brag about those accomplishments that speak to where you’re headed next, you’re going to want to kick off your LinkedIn summary with the right keywords.

Chris Villanueva 06:48
Yes. So VP of marketing, senior software engineer, yes, get specific to the job postings, but go beyond that and come up with your own unique supporting evidence such as accomplishments, a background story, a philosophy that really can set yourself apart, set your profile apart and make someone want to connect with you.

Chris Villanueva 07:09
The final thing that I will recommend that a lot of people don’t include is a call to action at the bottom saying if you are looking for someone to hire again, that might be tough if you are trying to keep your job search on the dl, but if you’re looking to connect with a professional like me, feel free to email me at whatever extra email address you have. So call to action. If somebody read your darn profile, then they probably are interested enough to keep connecting with you. Alright, the fourth LinkedIn mistake that I’m still seeing in 2025, this is a big one, is our professional experiences that still lack.

Chris Villanueva 07:44
Listen, don’t just put your company name and your timeline on your professional experiences. You’re missing out on keywords and experiences that can get your profile to show up and the top of searches here. So even if you have to just start off by copying and pasting from your resume to your LinkedIn profile, that’s already better than having nothing here.

Chris Villanueva 08:06
Now I will say the difference, and I’ve mentioned this before on this podcast, but the difference between a LinkedIn and a resume set of professional experiences is LinkedIn. You can go broader and resume. You have the advantage of being able to get more specific to the job posting that you are sending your resume out for. So LinkedIn, I might caution you to go a little bit more generic on those professional experiences. Otherwise just get something on there because it’s better than not having a certain set of keywords on your profile. These things make your profile pop up, so don’t neglect them.

Chris Villanueva 08:40
Alright, the fifth one, dare I say this is probably one of the biggest things that if someone just took this mistake and just started fixing it, this would already get you more traction in your job search. More networking opportunity is not enough LinkedIn activity. So picking common LinkedIn mistakes, the comments matter, the things that you post, the way that you connect with other people in your current company or alumni in your past university.

Chris Villanueva 09:12
These things matter and can increase your visibility and your ability to land that future position here. Listen, I hate social media just like all of you all do. Or maybe you don’t hate social media, but it just stresses you out. The thing that I recommending is just setting just one session. I’d actually probably say two sessions per week to be intentional about your job search here and get deep in the comment section.

Chris Villanueva 09:37
I’m telling you, I know LinkedIn took away that ability to send a personalized connection request. You can’t put a note anymore. I think there’s a limit of five, but comments are the way to bypass that and the ability for you to build a connection before sending that connection request and connect with not just recruiters, but people who are within your space or in your dream company here.

Chris Villanueva 10:00
So don’t forget to actually go out there and get active. Not spending enough time on LinkedIn activity or getting involved is the same as if I were to come up with a beautiful song and never put it on Spotify or never promote it or come up with an advertisement and just let it sit on my laptop because you’re not going to get much traction at all. In fact, people are not going to look at that beautiful profile of yours if you’re not staying active.

Chris Villanueva 10:31
So do it. Take advantage of these five opportunities here and with a little bit of humility and say, okay, I can boost my job search and that’s how I’m going to do it. So thank you so much. My call to action for you today. If you’re still listening, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Chris Villanueva 10:47
I’m Chris Villanueva, CPRW. I have a LinkedIn newsletter that goes out every week. I would love to see you in the comment section and again, that free resume critique by heading on over to our website letseatgrandma.com Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next Monday.