Peer Review Template for LinkedIn Profile
Name of the reviewer: Quentin Michalchuk
Author’s Name: Claire Eccles
Date: November 4th, 2020
Subject: Peer Review of Claire Eccles’s LinkedIn Profile
Dear Claire,
Thank you very much for the opportunity to read your work. The LinkedIn profile is presented in a clean format, with very impressive and unique qualifications. Below are the most salient comments about the review:
Initial Impressions
This profile is written concisely and is both comprehensive and comprehensible. The headline accurately captures current professional status, and the URL is easy to read and copy. However, it is important to note that the headline seems incomplete; one normally also includes the university and program in the headline, essential in ensuring that potential employers can easily understand educational background. The amount of connections implies that this is a new account. It is encouraged to connect to friends and co-workers to expand profile exposure. Viewing peers can also assist one in improving ones’ own profile. Including a professional photo is a choice that may open up the author’s profile to many new people, as a professional photo statistically boosts viewership by 14 times.
Profile Picture
There is currently no profile picture; please add one as soon as possible as it will increase profile viewing. When added, please ensure that the image is high-quality and up to date, the lighting allows for easy visualization, ensuring to emanate approachability.
Headline
This headline definitely captures one aspect of the author’s professional status and interests; however, it does not seem to completely envelop all fields of interest. Since the author is a student at UBC, this may be something to add, as some recruiters look specifically for students, especially for internship opportunities. Other interests and areas of professional life may be touched on to give the profile a more well-rounded presentation and attract many more hirers from all walks of life.
Summary
The summary provides an excellent extension to the headline, fulfilling previously suggested improvements. Education is presented; however, more background and its impact on current career choices can allow for increased relatability and personality. Very interesting end to the summary, standing out from the previous sentence and displaying passion and motivation on future interests.
Work and Volunteer Experience
The author’s work and volunteer experience capture a thorough and sports-filled account of current and past experience. Formatting is impressive, with a title, appropriate durations of experiences, all companies, organizations and locations involved, and in chronological order. However, it may be useful and to the author’s benefit to include a description of all contributions, accomplishments and skills acquired from each experience. This ensures effective communication of important takeaways from jobs that all readers will appreciate and allows the author to think critically about their own experiences.
Education
Both present and past educational ventures are described, with institution names and years attended, in chronological order. Program of study may be simplified from “Bachelor of Science – BS” to “Bachelor of Science – Computer Science”; in addition, the abbreviation is BSc. Key awards and involvements are likewise presented, although they may be expanded further to stand apart from other UBC students, increasing reader interest.
Skills and Endorsements
The list of skills and endorsements contains some skills that the author is adept in, covering a variety of topics including shopify. Relevancy to personal interests is clear, however the list seems to be lacking. Increasing list size to 10 will in turn increase interest in the profile, providing a more comprehensive and impressive set of skills. The author may also ask for endorsements from connections as well as ordering the top 3 skills according to target audience, as these are shown first.
Interests
Occupation-related and potential industrial pursuit-related interests are present, however only the school and sports of great interest are presented. The author may get more involved by following companies and figureheads within industries of interest and exposing oneself via online interfaces both expanding interests and increasing employment chances. Following these companies and figureheads also allows for regular updates on hobbies.
Accomplishments
Highlighted skills are relevant to the author’s objective, however, feel free to add more accomplishments to inspire viewers of your profile.
Projects
Please include all relevant and impressive undertakings. Per project, include project name and timeline, a description of project accomplishments and a list of skills acquired upon successful completion of the project. In addition, please give associated links to view the project.
Connections
Connections are a gateway into the world of online networking and will increase the chance of encountering business opportunities, references and endorsers. For an increase in the number of connections, they can easily be created by requesting connections from friends and coworkers. Try to aim for 25 if new.
Organization and Grammar
The following grammatical errors have been identified:
- “About” section: Major should be capitalized; “who’s determined to find opportunities to grow in” has some awkward connotations, try “who’s determined to find opportunities to excel at” instead.
- Education section: Consider replacing “Bachelor of Arts – BA” with just “Bachelor of Arts”. Otherwise, it is a little redundant; instead of “, Alpha Phi”, “and Alpha Phi”.
- Volunteer Experience – The description under “Varsity Volunteer” is somewhat choppy, spoken as if the author did not partake in the experience. Try to rephrase, even without personal pronouns to something like this: “Volunteered with Inner city Vancouver elementary school students who visited UBC as a Varsity athlete. The Varsity athletes would take the students on a tour of the campus, exploring the recreation centre and playing a sporting activity with them. In addition, they would educate the students about university, afterwards attending a varsity sport with the students.”
- Try to maintain a technical writing style and tone by cutting down on informal words like “rec” and “kids”.
- For bonus, ensure word use that may be included in search algorithms; tailor to your future employers.
Suggested changes
This profile is clear and clean, a fresh start into the competitive world of LinkedIn. To improve this LinkedIn even further, please note the following suggestions:
- Adding a profile picture with high quality and lighting
- Ensuring to envelop all areas of interest in your headline
- Expanding the summary to include a background and its impact on current career choices
- Describe all contributions, accomplishments and skills acquired from all work and volunteer experience
- Expand on key awards and involvements, taking note of the grammatical suggestions on eliminating redundancy
- Increase the list of skills and endorsements to 10, gathering an increased number of endorsements
- Expand on interests by following companies and figureheads
- Feel free to add more accomplishments
- Begin the projects section
- Aim for 25 connections via friends or coworkers
- Follow organizational and grammatical instructions listed above
Overall Impressions/Concluding Comments
Overall, this is a strong, very unique profile with a lot of promise. By implementing some of the changes described above, this can go from a strong profile to an outstanding one.
Thank you again,
Quentin Michalchuk
Link to original profile: Claire Eccles LinkedIn Profile
Link to Peer Review Template: Peer Review Template for LinkedIn Profile
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