Our guide can help you to build a strong software tester LinkedIn profile to help you to find your next role and connect with influencers in the field.
LinkedIn is regarded as one of the most useful gateways for supporting a Software Tester’s career. However, most software testers are guilty of not utilizing this channel sufficiently, despite knowing what a killer LinkedIn profile can do for their careers.
Note: this guide assumes that the reader is conversant with the basics of LinkedIn, and already has a profile page setup.
1. Understand your Target Group
A software tester needs to know about their audience or target group. In most cases, hiring managers will be scouting for talent on LinkedIn, so it is essential to have an all-complete and good looking LinkedIn profile. Each statement on a LinkedIn profile page reflects not just the tech personality but also the cultural prowess of the person. For example, instead of writing, “I do software testing,” enhance your description by referencing some tangible outcomes. Doing this is more likely to draw the interest of someone who may even be casually browsing through a prospective profile.
A helpful way of wording this could be – “I tested five applications, and automated two search queries, bringing the total time from testing to production down to 30 minutes for regular test cases which earlier was taking at least one hour.”
2. A/B Test Your Profile Picture
LinkedIn listings focus on showing a photo thumbnail along with a one-liner heading and description of the profile. For a LinkedIn profile to stand out from a pool of millions of software testers, it is important to test multiple versions of the profile picture. Marketers typically refer this to as A/B testing, where the best performing test yields the best output metrics.
Your profile picture acts as a gatekeeper – and the impression it makes can go either way. Instead of focusing on vanity metrics that can be unreliable, different combinations of headlines and profile picture can be tested against the number of profile views received. Testing in this way is also easier to implement, compared to other efforts aimed at making a profile stand out.
3. Relevant Achievements
As a software tester, considering notable results or outstanding achievements, then adding them to your LinkedIn profile, typically yields better results. Explainable and noteworthy achievements are often the kinds of things that potential employers seek. Examples that fall into this area are those who have measurable benefits. For example, automating a manual test case, or developing a testing utility for the organization. Lean ideas that may save a significant number of work-hours can also be good examples. LinkedIn rewards precision and transparency, and the LinkedIn audience is generally put off by fluff. Technical achievements, on the other hand, lend more credibility, and they also tell the reader that the person is targeting similar roles.
4. Relevant Endorsements
Recommendations and social proof are essential. With LinkedIn, endorsements (or recommendations) work as a key social proof currency. These endorsements, however, are most effective when they are relevant. An automation tester may ask for recommendations from a fellow developer (or even a tester for that matter). However, a marketing recommendation may not make too much sense in this case. It’s easy to make a head-start by reaching out to friends, colleagues, ex-bosses, and one’s immediate network, as well as requesting endorsements from connections at work as long as they have enough relevance.
5. Marketing through Content
Styling the content you post as marketing is a good strategy for getting your LinkedIn profiles noticed. Experienced software testers rarely want to branch out to learn new skills, such as writing content about their area of expertise. This can be played to advantage by using LinkedIn as a powerhouse of content marketing. LinkedIn supports visibility on different content types including but not limited to a specific skill, area of interest, or something that is being currently explored by the profile holder.
But what value does LinkedIn add here? LinkedIn helps in presenting the writing to the immediate network automatically. Also, the friends of a person’s network (or Level 2, 3 connections) can see the content when someone likes or shares it. For example, a well-written piece about Selenium reaches many Selenium skilled people, one of whom could be a prospective employer. Unlike on Facebook or Instagram, investing in content at LinkedIn is directly proportional to a propensity of increase in career growth for software testers.
6. Completing the Skills Section
Before completing the relevant skills section, it needs proper keyword research to increase the searchability of a LinkedIn profile. As per Joe Chernov from HubSpot, investing time in completing the skills section added 25% more views to his LinkedIn profile. Software testers need to ensure that they mention all their technical skills as well as including people skills too, because more often than not, testers focus too much on the technicals, omitting to mention their experience in team management and other people skills. Again, this can be used to advantage by ensuring that your profile contains a healthy mix of both kinds of skills. This guide can be used to help you to put up a killer LinkedIn profile. However, software testers can also have numerous influencers to follow or join on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is not only a platform for pursuing your next testing job, but it also offers the chance to network and interact with industry experts. Getting involved in testing groups is a great way to enhance networking while also getting an opportunity to learn new skills. The trick to getting the most out of LinkedIn is to be transparent with information, yet lucid with less fluff. An excellent LinkedIn profile helps testers become noticed in the testing community, while also offering a chance to effectively network with industry influencers, mentors, and who knows – maybe even your next potential employer!
