305: Optimize Your LinkedIn About Section in 30 Minutes or Less

If you're a mid-career professional wondering why your LinkedIn profile isn’t attracting recruiters, the issue might be hiding in plain sight—your About section. In this actionable episode of The Mid-Career GPS Podcast, John Neral shares a step-by-step guide to transforming your LinkedIn About section to boost visibility, stand out in search results, and attract career opportunities—even in a tough job market.

John walks you through how to write a compelling unique professional value statement, build your strategic career story using SEO keywords, and format your content for maximum readability on desktop and mobile. Plus, learn how to quantify your impact with clear metrics that grab attention from hiring managers and how to add just the right touch of personality to your profile.

You’ll also hear expert tips on how to responsibly use AI writing tools like ChatGPT without sounding robotic and why details like punctuation and tone matter more than ever.

Whether you’re actively job searching or simply want to get noticed more in your current role, this episode will help you turn your LinkedIn About section into a 24/7 career magnet.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How to craft a strong "unique professional value statement" that sets you apart
✅ The biggest mistakes mid-career professionals make in their LinkedIn About section
✅ SEO tips to help you show up in recruiter searches
✅ Why formatting matters—and how to structure your About section for readability
✅ How to quantify your achievements to build credibility fast
✅ Smart ways to use AI tools like ChatGPT without sounding like a robot
✅ Why including a personal touch can be a game-changer in attracting attention

Links & Resources:
🔗 Get your LinkedIn Profile Audit for $50 at johnneral.com/resources
📩 Want more help with your job search or career clarity? Join John’s newsletter for exclusive tips by clicking here.
 🎧 Share this episode with a colleague who needs to revamp their LinkedIn profile

Keywords (for SEO):
LinkedIn About section tips, LinkedIn profile optimization, mid-career professionals job search, get noticed by recruiters, optimize LinkedIn for job search, LinkedIn career b

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to LinkedIn Visibility Problem
• 1:15 The Importance of Your LinkedIn About
• 3:37 Creating Unique Professional Value Statement
• 5:06 Using AI Tools Effectively
• 8:41 LinkedIn Profile Audit Offer
• 11:31 Key Takeaways and Call to Action

Transcript

John Neral: 0:01

Every week, I hear from mid-career professionals asking about how they can increase their visibility and get noticed by more recruiters and people on LinkedIn. Well, I've got one simple tip for you today. It's all about what you write, or don't write, in your LinkedIn About section. Join me for this episode where I will share some quick, actionable and easy tips to optimize your LinkedIn About section in less than 30 minutes of your time, so you can get noticed and find that job or career you'll love. Let's get started. Hello, my friends, this is the Mid-Career GPS Podcast and I'm your host, John Neral. I help mid-career professionals like you find a career they love, or love the one they have, using my proven four-step formula. This episode is all about taking one component of your LinkedIn profile and maximizing and optimizing it so you can attract more people to your profile. So when you think about that LinkedIn about section, what I want you to remember is that you do have to scroll down on the profile to get to it. So typically, what you'll see is you'll see that banner, that space behind your headshot, your headshot, your name, your title or what we call your headline, and then you got to scroll down a little bit to get to that about section. Here's why this is important. If someone is really and truly interested in learning more about you, they have to get past the stuff at the top part of your LinkedIn profile. But a really good recruiter and hiring manager or professional connection is going to want to scroll down and take a look at your About section. It immediately needs to grab their attention at your about section. It immediately needs to grab their attention. So the way that you do that is, first and foremost, in your about section.

John Neral: 2:10

I want you to start with what I call your unique professional value statement. I've talked about this several times on the episode before, but just to remind you, and especially if you're new here, your unique professional value statement is one sentence that clearly communicates who you help and what you help them do. Specifically At the top of every episode, you hear me deliver my unique professional value statement statement. I say I help mid-career professionals. I identify my target audience, find a career they love, or love the one they have, using my proven four-step formula. So it's very clear and clean about who I help. The other thing that I did when developing my unique professional value statement is I got rid of all of the fluff or the word salad that was in it. In this day and age, and especially in this job market, people want you to get to the point, so use that unique professional value statement to very simply drive home what kind of professional you are, who you help and what you help them do.

John Neral: 3:26

The next thing I want you to remember here is to treat your about section as if it is your virtual cover letter, if you think of LinkedIn as your virtual business card, because LinkedIn is open 24-7 and it's always there working for you. Your about section can tell so much about your story. You have 2,600 characters to utilize in this section. Make it like you are telling a strategic cover story about you and your career. Here's where you can expand on clearly defining the problem you solve for an organization, a company, a business. Incorporate keywords that are SEO, optimized search engine optimization and make sure that you write about your results, quantify your impact, that you write about your results, quantify your impact. Results matter.

John Neral: 4:22

And then, at the end, what I want to offer you to consider here is to include something personal but professional. This is one of the tips that I give my private coaching clients and, time and time again, what they come back and say is that when they get to that interview especially further along in the interview process it will be mentioned. They'll get a question about where they like to travel or what their favorite recipe is. Those things matter in this market. They want to know who you are as a person. They want to see how well you're going to fit and, additionally, make sure that you utilize hard returns to make it easy for people to read, whether they're reading it on their desktop or their smartphone. Don't think of writing your about section as if you were writing a term paper or a formal paper. You need to make sure you write this for the platform you're on. Hard returns are your friends.

John Neral: 5:27

Now I'm also asked should you use AI or ChatGPT? A lot of context about who you are in your career, so you can give it something to react to. What you want to make sure is that whatever you put in your about section sounds like you, that it's written in your voice, your tone, and it doesn't feel like it's some mechanized regurgitation that has been put into some AI tool and now they're reading something that sounds like that and not like you. So what I want to offer you is, if you have a current version of your about section. If you have an updated or draft about your about section, put that in a chat GPT. Ask them to optimize it, ask them to include SEO keywords that are specific to your industry, your job type or your role, but make it sound like you, and the way that you do that is you have to take what the AI gives you and go back and edit it. If there is a word in there you typically don't say, or if there is some phrasing that you don't believe is correct, it is your responsibility to edit it and change it.

John Neral: 7:02

Recruiters and hiring managers are getting very savvy right now to seeing and reading what chat GPT sounds like. You don't want to lose the opportunity to interview for a job because someone felt like you couldn't use the tool effectively, or you just relied on an AI tool to write something about you and never bothered to revise it. We know that AI is not going away, but you do have to be strategic in using it. Now. The other thing I want to share with you, though and this is something I've talked about with a couple of people in my network who are in the editing and copywriting space and that is to be careful of the em dash. The em dash is that elongated dash that looks about double the length of a regular dash, and ChatGPT loves using it to create a space or a change of thought. Can you use an em dash? Sure, but if you're using too much, what I am hearing from people in my network is that that could be a red flag to a recruiter or hiring manager that you didn't completely edit your profile, or, specifically here, your About section, and merely copied and pasted. Copied and pasted. So could that be a deterrent, depending on who you're interviewing with, it could. So let's minimize and get rid of the risk and let's focus solely on being able to write an optimized profile that truly reflects who you are and what you do. Now for what I shared has been helpful.

John Neral: 8:45

Here's the next thing. So there's two options. One is I would love for you to take the tips in this episode and block 30 minutes off on your calendar and use that time to focus solely on rewriting your about section. Make sure, again, that you highlight your results, your accomplishments, what it is that you do, clearly defining the problem you solve, and write it in a way that, when you look at it, does it generate enough interest about the kind of professional you are. Now, if you want to take that one step further, I offer a LinkedIn profile audit Now.

John Neral: 9:31

In this audit you can find it on my website at johnnarrellcom forward slash resources and in this audit, what I will do for you after you complete a form that I need to get some information from, I'm going to turn on Zoom, and in real time. I'm going to turn on Zoom and in real time. I'm going to review your LinkedIn profile from top to bottom, from your banner all the way down to your interests. I'm going to give you my feedback on where I think your profile is helping you in your job search or career development and where it may be hurting you, and how to change that. So, very simply, you get my feedback. The cost for this service is $50. So if you want my feedback, this is one great way to get it and then to get those actionable tips to help you transform your LinkedIn profile that will increase your visibility, increase your awareness and how you're telling your story on the platform and then being able to take that and bring that into any networking or interview conversation you have. So, to learn more about the LinkedIn profile audit. You can visit my website, johnnerocom forward slash resources.

John Neral: 10:49

But as we wrap up this episode, here were my three tips to help you optimize your LinkedIn about section. Number one start with your unique professional value statement. Describe who you help and what you help them do. Number two, treat your about section like your virtual cover letter. Use those 2,600 characters to tell a strategic cover story that clearly defines the problem you solve. And lastly, Consider if you want to use AI or ChatGPT to help you rewrite your about section. If you do, be careful, make sure that you are taking it, revising it, editing it, and it sounds like it's your own voice. All right, my friends, again, if I can help you out further, make sure to check out my LinkedIn profile audit at johnnarrellcom forward slash resources.

John Neral: 11:41

And if this episode was helpful, do me a favor please and text it to a friend. All right, until next time, remember this. You will build your mid-career GPS one mile or one step at a time, and how you show up matters. Make it a great rest of your day. Thank you for listening to the Mid-Career GPS podcast. Make sure to follow on your favorite listening platform and, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear your comments on Apple Podcasts. Visit johnnerrellcom for more information about how I can help you build your mid-career GPS or how I can help you and your organization with your next workshop or public speaking event. Don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on social at John Darrell Coaching. I look forward to being back with you next week. Until then, take care and remember how we show up matters. Thank you.