I’ve reviewed thousands of LinkedIn profiles as an HR manager in hospitality — not browsing, but actively looking to hire. In the first 10 seconds on a profile, I’m already forming an opinion. These are the things that hurt a candidate before I’ve read a single word of their experience.
1. A headline that says your job title and nothing else
“Operations Manager at Hotel Group.” “HR Business Partner.” “Software Engineer.”
This is the most common mistake and the most damaging one. Your headline is the first text a recruiter reads after your name. It’s also what LinkedIn shows in search results, in connection suggestions, and when your comment appears in someone else’s feed.
A job title alone tells me what you currently do. It doesn’t tell me what you’re good at, what value you bring, or why I should click through.
Compare: “HR Manager | Hospitality & Hotels | Building teams that actually stay” is the same job title with context that makes me want to read more.
The fix: use your headline to say what you do, who you help, and one concrete thing you’re known for. You have 220 characters — use them.
2. An About section that reads like a CV summary
“Results-driven professional with 10+ years of experience delivering excellence across multiple industries.”
This reads like it was written for no one. Every recruiter has read this sentence 500 times. It triggers a specific mental state: skim and move on.
The About section is where you can actually sound like a person. What’s the real version of what you do? What do your colleagues come to you for? What are you proud of that doesn’t fit neatly into a job title?
Plain language works. First person works. A short paragraph that starts with a direct answer to “what does this person do?” works.
3. No profile photo, or a bad one
On LinkedIn, a profile photo is expected. Profiles without one get significantly fewer views — partly because LinkedIn’s algorithm de-prioritises them, partly because people are instinctively less likely to connect with a name that has no face.
“Bad” photos I’ve seen: group shots where it’s unclear who the profile is for, heavily filtered selfies, photos taken from more than three feet away where the face is too small to read, and photos from events where the background is distracting.
The profile photo should be a clear, front-facing photo where your face takes up most of the frame. It doesn’t need to be a professional headshot, but it should be reasonably recent and clearly you.
4. No banner image (the default grey is a missed opportunity)
The LinkedIn banner is 1584×396 pixels and most profiles leave it as LinkedIn’s default grey background. This is leaving free visual real estate blank.
The banner doesn’t need to be elaborate. Even a solid colour from your industry, a simple image, or text with your name and specialty is better than the default. Canva has free templates. The Image Resizer can help you get the dimensions exactly right.
5. Recommendations that were exchanged, not earned
A section with five generic recommendations that were clearly swapped between colleagues (“Great to work with! Always delivers!”) is worse than a section with one specific, detailed one.
Recruiters read recommendations to find evidence of impact. “She turned around our onboarding completion rate from 60% to 94% in six months” is a data point. “Real team player” is not.
If your recommendations are thin, ask one specific person who has seen your work for a detailed one. One good one outweighs five generic ones.
6. Experience bullets that list tasks, not outcomes
“Responsible for managing recruitment process.” “Assisted with onboarding new employees.” “Handled daily operations.”
These tell me what you were assigned to do. They don’t tell me whether you did it well, what changed because you were there, or what scale you operated at.
Outcomes don’t need to be dramatic. “Reduced time-to-hire from 38 to 22 days by restructuring the initial screening stage” is specific and credible. Even something like “managed onboarding for a team of 15 with zero failed probations in two years” is useful data.
7. The profile hasn’t been updated since the last job search
This is easy to spot: the last update is two or three years ago, the skills section has keywords that don’t match current roles, and the About section references a company they left years ago.
An outdated profile signals either that you’re not actively engaged with LinkedIn, or that you’re not someone who pays attention to detail. Neither is a good impression.
You don’t need to update daily, but any significant career development — a new role, a project, a certification, a promotion — should prompt a quick review of the headline, About, and experience section.
The common thread across all of these is the same: the profile was written once, quickly, and then left alone. LinkedIn works better as a living document than a static CV. A profile that shows someone paying attention to their professional story is a profile worth reading.
Related tools: Character Counter · Image Resizer · Text Formatter