Let me be blunt: most engineering LinkedIn profiles are terrible. They read like resumes from 2005 - boring job titles, vague descriptions, and zero personality. After 10 years of recruiting at FAANG companies, I've seen what actually works. This isn't theory - it's what gets you noticed.
The Profile Photo: Your 3-Second Test
Profiles with professional photos get 14x more views. That's not hyperbole - that's LinkedIn's own data. But "professional" doesn't mean corporate headshot at a studio. It means:
- Clear, high-resolution photo - No pixelated images from 2012
- Good lighting - Natural light from a window works better than harsh overhead lights
- Professional but approachable - Smile. You're not at a funeral
- Recent - If it's more than 2 years old, update it
Skip the hiking photos, group shots, or pictures of your dog. Save those for Instagram. Your LinkedIn photo should make someone think "I'd grab coffee with this person" not "Is that them or their roommate?"
The Headline: Your First Impression
You have 220 characters. Don't waste them on "Software Engineer at CompanyX." That's what the experience section is for. Your headline should answer three questions:
- What's your level? Senior? Staff? Lead?
- What do you build? What's your technical specialty?
- Why should I care? What makes you different?
Good Examples:
- "Senior Backend Engineer | Building Payment Infrastructure at Stripe | Ex-Google"
- "Staff ML Engineer | Computer Vision & Autonomous Systems | PhD Stanford"
- "Engineering Manager | Scaling Teams 5→50 | Previously Uber, Airbnb"
Bad Examples:
- "Software Engineer" (Too generic)
- "Passionate Developer | Coding Enthusiast | Tech Lover" (Fluff)
- "Full Stack Developer | HTML, CSS, JS, React, Node, Python, Java..." (Skills dump)
The About Section: Tell Your Story
This is where most engineers fail. They either skip it completely or write a novel about their "passion for technology since childhood." Neither works.
Your About section should be 3-4 short paragraphs maximum. Here's the structure that works:
Paragraph 1: What You Do Now
One to two sentences about your current role and the problems you're solving. Be specific. "I build distributed systems that process 10M+ events/second" beats "I work on backend services."
Paragraph 2: Your Superpowers
What are you exceptionally good at? System design? Performance optimization? Leading teams through ambiguity? Pick 2-3 things and back them up with brief examples.
Paragraph 3: Call to Action
What do you want? New opportunities? Collaboration? Mentorship? Make it easy for people to reach out. Include your email or "DMs open."
Example About Section:
"I'm a Staff Engineer at Datadog building real-time observability infrastructure that processes 3 trillion data points daily. Before that, I spent 4 years at Google scaling Cloud Spanner.
I specialize in distributed systems, database internals, and performance optimization. Some recent wins: reduced P99 latency by 60%, cut infrastructure costs by $2M/year, and mentored 5 engineers to Senior/Staff level.
Always happy to talk about database architecture, career growth, or working at scale. DMs open."
Experience: Show Impact, Not Tasks
Nobody cares that you "participated in daily standups" or "collaborated with cross-functional teams." That's table stakes. Every job description should follow this formula:
The Impact Formula:
[Action Verb] + [What You Built] + [Measurable Impact]
Good:
"Architected microservices migration from monolith, reducing deployment time from 2 hours to 15 minutes and enabling 10x team velocity"
Bad:
"Worked on microservices architecture and helped with deployment improvements"
For each role, list 3-5 bullet points. Each bullet should be a story of impact. Use numbers wherever possible: percentages, dollar amounts, user counts, performance improvements, team size.
And please, for the love of all that is holy, use past tense for previous roles and present tense for your current role. It's basic grammar.
Skills: Strategic, Not Comprehensive
Don't list every technology you've touched. Recruiters search for specific skills, so be strategic:
- Pin your top 3 skills - These show up prominently on your profile
- Get endorsements - Skills with 5+ endorsements rank higher in searches
- Include both specific and general - "React" and "Frontend Development", "Kubernetes" and "DevOps"
- Update with market demand - If you know Rust and everyone's hiring for it, pin it
Pro tip: Take LinkedIn's skill assessments for your key technologies. That little "Top 5%" badge actually gets you noticed in recruiter searches.
The Things Nobody Tells You
1. Custom URL Matters
Change your LinkedIn URL from linkedin.com/in/sarah-chen-8a7b3c4d to linkedin.com/in/sarahchen. It's cleaner for your resume and easier to remember. Takes 30 seconds.
2. Featured Section is Prime Real Estate
Pin your best work: blog posts, talks, open source projects, portfolio. This is the first thing people see after your summary. Use it.
3. Activity Matters More Than You Think
Profiles that post or engage regularly get shown to recruiters more often. You don't need to be a LinkedIn influencer, but commenting thoughtfully on industry posts or sharing useful articles 1-2x per week helps.
4. Recommendations Are Social Proof
Don't wait for people to recommend you. Ask directly. Message former managers and colleagues: "Hey [Name], would you mind writing a quick LinkedIn recommendation about [specific project]?" Most people will do it if you make it easy.
5. Turn On Creator Mode
Creator mode makes your profile more visible in search and lets you add a custom button. Plus it signals that you're active and engaged in the community.
The Weekly Maintenance Routine
Your LinkedIn profile isn't set-it-and-forget-it. Here's what to do weekly:
- Spend 10 minutes engaging - comment on 3-5 posts in your feed
- Accept relevant connection requests (be selective)
- Update your profile when you ship something big
- Check and respond to messages (recruiters notice response time)
- Endorse a few people you've worked with (they often reciprocate)
What Actually Gets You Recruiter Messages
After reviewing thousands of LinkedIn profiles as a FAANG recruiter, here's what made me reach out:
Specific technical depth
"Built consensus algorithm for distributed database" is way more interesting than "experienced with databases"
Quantified impact
Numbers tell stories. "Reduced latency by 70%" or "Scaled system to 1M QPS" catches attention
Leadership signals
Led projects, mentored others, drove decisions. Even IC engineers need to show this for senior+ roles
Current company clout
Being at a known tech company gets you looked at. Unfair? Maybe. Reality? Absolutely
Side projects or open source
Shows passion and initiative. Bonus if it has real users or GitHub stars
The Truth About LinkedIn
Here's what nobody wants to admit: LinkedIn is a game. A game with rules. The engineers who succeed aren't necessarily the best technically - they're the ones who understand the platform.
Your LinkedIn profile is a marketing document, not a journal. Every word should serve a purpose: to demonstrate your value, to make you searchable, to make recruiters want to talk to you.
The good news? Most of your competition is terrible at this. A well-optimized profile puts you in the top 5% immediately. And unlike grinding LeetCode, this takes a few hours to get right and maybe 15 minutes a week to maintain.