Okay so yeah, creating a LinkedIn profile that gets noticed is honestly the thing that pulled me out of the absolute pit I was in last summer when I was living off instant ramen in my parents’ spare room in Faridabad—wait no I mean I was imagining that but actually I was just doom-scrolling in my own flat here feeling like human garbage. My old profile? Zero views for weeks. Zilch. I had this bio that read like a robot wrote it after too much corporate coffee: “Results-driven professional seeking opportunities.” Barf. Nobody cared.
And then I kinda snapped one night at like 1:37 a.m. with the ceiling fan making that annoying click-click sound and I just started rewriting everything like a lunatic. And weirdly… it worked? Not overnight, but views started trickling in, then a recruiter messaged me, then another. So here’s the messy, not-perfect, human version of how to create a LinkedIn profile that gets noticed, coming from someone who still typos his own name sometimes.
First Fix Your Damn Profile Picture (Yes I’m Yelling at Past Me)
I used to have this photo from 2019 at a wedding. Suit, yes. But the lighting was trash, I was squinting, and half my face was in shadow like I was in witness protection. No wonder nobody clicked. Recruiters spend like 7 seconds on your profile apparently (I read that somewhere and now I believe it).
What finally worked for me:
- stood in front of a plain wall in daylight
- wore a clean shirt (not even ironed, let’s be real)
- smiled like a normal human not a serial killer
- cropped it so my head isn’t tiny
It’s not perfect—there’s still a tiny sweat stain under my armpit if you zoom in—but people actually started accepting my connection requests. Progress.
Write a Headline That Isn’t Boring AF
Old headline: “Student | B.Tech CSE | Looking for Internship”
New headline: “CSE grad turning caffeine into code • Building weird side projects • Open to backend roles or chaos”
See the difference? The second one has personality and keywords recruiters actually search for. I stole that trick from watching way too many “LinkedIn glow-up” TikToks at 3 a.m.
Pro tip I learned the hard way: put the job you WANT not just the one you have. If you’re desperate for a product role but currently doing support, lead with product keywords. Recruiters search “product manager fresher” way more than “technical support executive.”
The About Section: Stop Writing Like a Resume, Start Writing Like a Human
This is where I used to lose people. Mine was three paragraphs of buzzwords. Now it’s basically me ranting in a nice way.
Example of what I have right now (copy-paste level honest):
“Hey I’m lot — the guy who once debugged production code while crying because the build kept failing at 4 a.m.
I love backend stuff (Node, Python, Postgres, you name it), side projects that probably won’t make money, and long rants about why microservices are both amazing and evil.
Currently hunting for my first full-time dev role where I can break things and then fix them better.
If you’re hiring or just wanna talk about terrible API design over virtual chai, hit connect. No pressure.”
It’s not polished. There are sentence fragments. I admitted to crying at code. But people respond to it. I’ve gotten like 8 messages in the last month just from the About section being… me.
Quick Other Stuff That Actually Moved the Needle
- Skills — pin the top 3 that matter most. Mine are JavaScript, Node.js, Problem Solving (lol)
- Custom URL — change it to linkedin.com/in/lot-dev or whatever, not the random number string
- Featured section — I put my GitHub README screenshot and one dumb meme project I’m proud of
- Activity — comment on other people’s posts. Even “this is gold” works sometimes
I still don’t have 500+ connections or a blue tick or whatever. My profile is still kind of a work in progress. But it’s getting noticed now. Like actually noticed. Recruiters view it. People message me. It’s weird and nice.
So yeah. Go mess with your profile tonight. Make it less perfect and more you. Create a LinkedIn profile that gets noticed by being the messiest, most honest version of yourself that still shows you can do the job. And if you do update it—drop me a connection. I’ll probably accept while eating Maggi at midnight.
