LinkedIn Profile Headline for Career Changers

Switching careers is definitely not one of the easiest things to do.

So, what do you put in your LinkedIn headline if you want to change your career?

I get asked this question a lot, “how do I construct a powerful LinkedIn headline when I want to change my career?”

 

The LinkedIn headline formula I’m about to give you makes you really stand out because it shows that you’ve done your homework on yourself, and on what’s required for your new role.

Not very many people actually do this!

But before I give you this formula there are a couple of things you need to do first.

Find Out More About Your New Goal Career

For example, if I wanted to change my career to become a Digital Marketer, I go to LinkedIn and in the keyword search box I put in the term “digital marketing” and I click on People.

I’m looking for ways that people describe their job in this particular profession.

People describe themselves as Digital Marketing Specialists, Digital Marketing Managers, and Digital Marketers.

They’re using words like e-commerce, UX strategy, digital marketing. So, these will give me ideas around the common titles people might use to describe the career change that I want to make.

Then, I’m going to go to a job board.

I’ve used Seek, but you could use Indeed. There are millions of job boards out there depending on what country you come from. But I’m from Australia and I’m using Seek because it’s the most popular one.

Now, I’m going to put in the words “Digital Marketing” and see what advertisements come up because this is going to give me an employer’s perspective.

So, if employers are using the words marketing coordinator, digital marketing specialist, digital marketing assistant – these are going to give me an indication of what are the most common job titles and keywords that employers use when they seek staff.

And then, I can click into an advertisement to see the common skills I will be required to demonstrate in my new digital marketing career.

I want to match up the skills and the titles that I put in my career change headline with the most common ones that employers look for, but the ones that I can demonstrate as well.

So, here’s the exact formula that I’ve used with many of my clients who’ve wanted to change careers that will help you construct a powerful headline.

The Proven LinkedIn Headline Formula in Changing Careers

This is a 4 part formula that’s worked really well for a lot of my clients.

Headline = (1) “Aspiring/ Ambitious” (2) Your Goal Job Title (s) + (3) Required Skills + (4) How You Want to Make a Difference in Your New Career

Formula Part 1 – Write: “Aspire/Ambitious” 

In the first part of your headline put the words either “aspiring” or “ambitious”.  So, you’re not claiming that you have that title, but you are stating these are your ambitions or aspirations.

Formula Part 2 – Write: Your Goal Job Title 

And then, put a common job title – that’s the title that you’ve gotten from your research. This is your goal role.

Formula Part 3 – Write: Your Required Skills

Then, I would put some keyword skills you discovered from your research of LinkedIn profiles and advertisements.

What are the common skills that employers seek in your new role?

These can also be skills you’ve gained from training or study that you’ve done.

Formula Part 4 – Write: The Difference You’ll Make in Your New Career

Next, I would put the difference you would like to make in your new career.

What difference would you like to make?

For example, what impact would you like to make if you’re going to become a Digital Marketer?

That actually shows that you’ve really done your homework on what’s required, but that you’re ambitious and that you would like to make a difference.

It also shows the right attitude.

Career Change Linked Headline Example

So in this image, you can see what the headline looks like.

We’ve got “Aspiring Digital Marketing Coordinator” – that’s a common job title that you might like to apply for.

The skills that you understand that are needed for that role and that you have are  – SEO, SEM, UX, PPC, content creation.

And the difference that you’d like to make to your future employer is that you’re passionate about great UX and building traffic to create online powerhouse brands.

All together now:

“Aspiring Digital Marketing Coordinator | Skills: SEO, SEM, UX, PPC, Content Creation | Passionate about great UX and building traffic to create online powerhouse brands”

Conclusion

A good headline stating the career change you want to make will help you come up in recruiter’s searches and will help people understand your experience.

But it’s only the start!

There are other things that you need to do if you want to actually successfully change your career in the fastest way possible.

There are two things I’d like you to do from here, read my LinkedIn profile tips blog and also my blog that tells you how to tap into the hidden job market.

Because if you’re looking to change your career, you’re actually going to have to do a lot more networking and get referrals and recommendations into the role that you’re looking for – rather than relying on recruiters looking at your LinkedIn headline or applying for jobs online.

I hope this helps you start your new fulfilling career.

If you’d like to find out if you’ll get hired from your LinkedIn profile, take this short quiz!

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