Profile teardown: 7 changes that 4x'd inbound recruiters

A workshop alum let us tear down her LinkedIn live and re-publish the changes. Six weeks later her inbound recruiter messages went from two a week to nine a week — same role, same seniority, same city. Here's exactly what we changed, plus the rules we use on every teardown since.

1. Headline: from job title to value

Default LinkedIn fills your headline with your job title. That's the worst possible use of the most valuable real estate on the page. Your headline appears in every search, every comment, every connection request — every time someone hovers over your name in any feed.

• Before: "Senior Product Manager at [Company]"
• After: "Senior PM @ [Company] · I make new users stick. Activation, onboarding, growth funnels."

Three formulas that work, in 220 characters or fewer:

• Title @ Company · what you do · who it's for. "Senior Designer @ Linear · I make B2B software feel inevitable. Design systems, motion, onboarding."
• Title @ Company · the outcome you produce. "Engineering Manager @ Stripe · Shipping payments infra without burning out the team."
• Niche · proof · how to find you. "Healthcare PM · ex-Oscar, ex-Flatiron · Fixing the messy middle between clinical and consumer."

2. Photo: warm, current, and looking at the camera

Get a photo taken in the last 18 months, in good light, smiling, looking at the lens. Not a selfie. Not a wedding crop. Not your old corporate-headshot from a previous job. Recruiters scan dozens of profiles at a time — a photo that looks like you'd be approachable in a meeting beats a perfectly-staged headshot every time.

• Background: plain (white wall, soft blur, outdoor green) — no bookcases, no logos, no obvious bedroom.
• Wardrobe: one notch dressier than your usual workday, in a colour that contrasts with the background.
• Crop: shoulders to top of head, eyes on the upper third of the frame.
• Smile: actual one, teeth optional. Camera-aware but not stiff.

3. Banner: stop using the default cloud

The default LinkedIn banner is a wasted 1584×396 px. Use it for one of three things: a tagline that extends your headline, a screenshot of work you're proud of, or your conference logo if you spoke recently. Anything beats the blue clouds.

• Tagline banner: a single sentence, large type, on a brand-coloured background. Free in Canva (search "LinkedIn banner").
• Work-screenshot banner: an actual product screen, talk slide, or article header — anything that proves you make real things.
• Speaking banner: a photo of you on stage, with the conference logo bottom-right. Subtle status signal, hard to fake.

4. About: lead with the answer, not the journey

Your About section should answer the question "why should I keep reading?" in the first sentence. Not "I started my career in 2015..." — that's the boring middle. Lead with what you do, who it's for, and why you're good at it.

After the opening, structure the rest in three short paragraphs and a list:

1. Para 2: where you've been (companies, scope, scale) — three sentences, max.
2. Para 3: what you're best at, in plain language. The specific 2-3 things, not a 12-skill word salad.
3. Para 4: what you're looking for next, or how to reach you. "Open to chat about [X, Y, Z] — DMs are open."
4. List at the bottom: the keywords you want to surface for, written as a sentence ("Keywords: B2B SaaS, growth, onboarding, activation, lifecycle marketing, PLG.") — recruiter searches catch these.

5. Experience: turn paragraphs into outcomes

Each role should have a one-line summary, then 3–5 bullets — each bullet a result, not a responsibility. "Led onboarding" is a responsibility. "Doubled activation in 6 months by rebuilding the first-run experience" is a result.

The bullet formula that works for almost any role: [Action verb] [thing], [scope/scale], [outcome with a number].

• PM: "Owned the activation funnel for 8M monthly users; raised D7 retention from 18% to 27% in two quarters."
• Engineer: "Led the migration off Mongo to Postgres; cut p99 from 800ms to 140ms and saved $40K/month."
• Designer: "Redesigned the checkout for the highest-traffic flow; increased completion 11% and shipped a new design system used across 6 product teams."
• Marketer: "Launched the lifecycle programme that drove $2.4M in ARR in year 1; built and ran a team of three."

6. Featured: pin three artifacts

The Featured section is the most underused part of LinkedIn. It's the first thing on your profile after the About — pinning three good things here is the difference between "someone with a job" and "someone who actually does the work."

• A piece of writing you're proud of: a blog post, a talk write-up, a Substack issue, a case study. Long-form is fine — recruiters skim and bookmark.
• Proof you can present: a recorded talk, a panel clip, a 5-minute Loom walking through a project. Public links work even if it's just YouTube unlisted.
• An artifact: a launch post you wrote, a design case study, a strategy doc you can share, a deck. One concrete "thing" you helped make.

7. Skills: prune ruthlessly

If you have 47 skills listed, you have zero skills listed. Pick the 8 you most want to be hired for, in order of priority. LinkedIn's algorithm and recruiters' searches both reward focus — endorsements concentrated on a few skills carry more weight than a smear of one or two on each.

Order matters: the top 3 are the ones that show on your profile preview and weight heavily in recruiter search. Put the role you actually want, not the role you currently have.

8. Activity: post one good thing a week

You don't need to be an influencer. You need to look alive. One thoughtful post or comment a week — for three months — is enough to flip your profile from "static résumé" to "person worth reaching out to."

• Post the thing you'd say to a colleague at lunch. Specific, short, useful. Avoid "5 lessons from my journey" lists.
• Comment thoughtfully on three posts a week from people in your space. Not "great post!" — actual reaction or follow-up question.
• Re-share with a sentence of your own opinion, not just a clap emoji.

9. Recommendations: ask three people

Recommendations are weirdly underused. Three is the magic number — fewer feels accidental, more feels manufactured. Ask a former manager, a peer, and a direct report (if you've managed). Make it easy by drafting two bullet points of what you'd love them to mention.

10. Open to Work: when and how

Two settings: a recruiter-only signal (visible to LinkedIn Recruiter users, no green frame) and the public green frame. The recruiter-only signal is almost always right — it raises your inbound 3–5x without telling your current employer. The public frame helps if you're between jobs and want everyone to know; it can hurt if you're employed and your boss notices.

What recruiters actually search for

LinkedIn Recruiter searches are mostly: title + skill + location + years of experience + company tier. The most underrated lever for you is keyword density in the right places — title, headline, and the first three skills. Lower-leverage but still useful: the keyword line at the bottom of your About, and the skills bar.

Cold recruiter DMs: how to triage

Once your profile is sharp, you'll get more cold messages than you can answer. Don't try to. Sort them in 30 seconds:

• Generic mass DM (no role, no company) — archive.
• In-house recruiter at a company you'd consider — reply within 48 hours, even if just to say "happy to chat in a few weeks."
• Agency recruiter with a specific role — reply if the comp range is named or the company is interesting; ask both questions if not.
• "Quick call?" with no context — reply asking for the role, comp range, and company before any call.