LinkedIn headline and About section: how to write both

The headline and the About section are where most profiles waste space. The headline is auto-filled with your current job title — and LinkedIn's own help center explicitly recommends rewriting it to promote an area of expertise. The About section, when it exists at all, is usually a generic paragraph about a "passion for challenges".

Both are worth the investment because they are what circulates: the headline appears in search results, invitations and comments; the About section is the first substantial text anyone reads when they open your profile.

The headline structure

The headline accepts a fair amount of text, but in many contexts — search results, comments, invitations — only the first 60 to 70 characters show. So the decisive information goes first.

Target title · specialties or tools · differentiator, result or audience served

Common headline mistakes

• ▸Leaving the automatic default. "Analyst at Company X" contains no term anyone would search for.
• ▸Adjectives only. "Dedicated, proactive professional passionate about results" is neither filterable nor verifiable.
• ▸Too many emojis and separators. One or two separators organize; eight become noise.
• ▸"Open to opportunities" on its own. That is a status, not a skill — and the Open to Work feature exists for exactly that.
• ▸Internal acronyms. "R&D Specialist II — GAB" means nothing outside the company.

The About section in four paragraphs

The About section holds a fairly long text, but only the opening lines appear before the "see more" button — around 300 characters on desktop and fewer on mobile. Treat the first three lines as a self-contained summary.

1. 1Opening (2-3 lines): who you are professionally and your single strongest result. This has to work on its own, before "see more".
2. 2Specialty (3-5 lines): what you actually do, with tools, processes and contexts. This is where the keywords live.
3. 3Proof (2-4 lines): one or two concrete results with a number and a timeframe.
4. 4Direction and contact (2 lines): what you are looking for now and how to reach you.

A full example

I have worked with retail data for six years. My focus is turning manual reports into automated dashboards: last year I cut the commercial close from 3 days to 4 hours for a 12-store chain. Day to day I use SQL, Python (pandas) and Power BI to model sales, inventory and CRM data. I have built the metrics layer from scratch for two operations and trained 40 business users to work with the dashboards without depending on IT. A few results: 18% fewer stockouts after a replenishment dashboard; 22% higher contract renewal in the B2B book after segmenting by purchase behavior. I am open to Senior Data Analyst or Analytics Engineer roles in retail and e-commerce. Contact: name@email.com.

Notice that the first three lines already deliver function, focus and a number. If the reader never clicks "see more", they still walk away with something useful.

If you are changing careers

The headline should name the destination, not the origin — without erasing your foundation. Formats that work:

• ▸`Financial Analyst moving into Data · SQL and Power BI · 6 years in FP&A`
• ▸`Physics teacher transitioning to Instructional Design · Articulate and Moodle`
• ▸`Employment lawyer focused on Compliance · Data privacy and integrity programs`

In the About section, give the first paragraph to the destination and the second to the bridge: what in your prior experience applies directly to the new function. Never lead with chronology.