Step 2: Build your materials · topic 4 of 5

Write a LinkedIn About section that sounds like you

Most About sections I see are either blank or a list of adjectives. Yours can do something the rest of your profile can't: let a reader hear how you think. LinkedIn allows up to 2,600 characters here ^[1], but you don't need them all.

Start with a short elevator pitch

Before you write, answer four prompts in a sentence each:

1. Say what you do.
2. Say who you help, or who benefits from your work.
3. Say what makes you different from others with your title.
4. Say what excites you about the work.

Then read your answers aloud. If it sounds like a press release, say it again as you would to a friend over coffee, and write that version down.

Shape it in five parts

Aim for 150 to 250 words, in the first person. That length is my recommendation from coaching, not a LinkedIn rule: long enough to show substance, short enough that people finish it.

1. Open with a hook in the first two lines. In my experience only the opening couple of lines show before readers tap "see more", so put your clearest sentence first. Lead with what you do and for whom, or with a short line about why you do it.
2. Add proof: two or three results with numbers, the same ones from your resume.
3. Say what makes you different: the habit, background or mix of skills others in your role may not have.
4. Say what you want next, in one line about the role or problem you'd like to work on.
5. End with one personal line, something true and light, such as what you do on weekends or what you're reading.

Echo your resume, in a warmer voice

Your About section should carry the same message as your resume summary, so a recruiter sees one consistent story. Use the keywords that recruiters search for, such as job titles and skills ^[2], and put them in natural sentences. A block of stuffed keywords reads badly to the people who matter.

If you draft with an AI tool, rewrite the result in your own words. AI drafts tend to sound like everyone else's, and the point of this section is to sound like you.

A worked example

I help software companies keep customers happy in their first 90 days. For nine years I've run operations for high-volume service teams, and I'm happiest fixing the process everyone has learned to work around.

At my last company I rebuilt our onboarding handover, which cut setup time from 14 days to 6 and lifted first-year renewals by 8 points. Before that, I managed a vendor program across 12 sites with a $2M budget.

What I bring that's a little unusual: I started in live events, where there's no second take. I plan for the thing that will go wrong.

I'm looking for my next role leading customer operations at a growing B2B company.

Outside work, I'm slowly learning to bake bread, with mixed results.

That's about 130 words. Every number is made up for the example, so swap in your own.