The second document they will actually open
You did not sit down hoping for another complete guide to LinkedIn profile optimisation.
You sat down because a role fitted. You spent the week on the résumé. The first screen finally names the work. Then someone on the other side did what they always do. They typed your name.
What they found was last year's job title. Or a headline that says you are looking for opportunities. Or an About section that could sit on anyone in the industry. The dates do not quite match. The last role is a duty list. The photo is a crop from a wedding.
I see this a lot. People who have a file they would defend in a room, and a profile that still belongs to the last employer. The résumé got them this far. LinkedIn finished the conversation.
You are not short of a career. You are short of a profile that sounds like the same person.
The headline is doing more than naming the chair
Open your own profile as if it belonged to someone else.
Under the name, what do you actually know. A job title and a company are a label. It is not a search a recruiter would type, and it is not a reason to click.
Write the work you do now, at the level you do it, in the field you want to be found in. Then one plain differentiator that is true of Tuesday. Not a slogan. Not "results-driven professional." Not "open to work" as the whole story.
Looking for new opportunities tells them you need something. It does not tell them what you can hold.
If the work is projects in mining, say the work and the sector. If it is operations in health, say that. If you are moving field, the old title will keep writing you back into the last room. Name the direction you are actually applying for, then keep the evidence honest.
You do not need to fill every character. You need a line a stranger could repeat.
The first two lines of About are the ones they see
The About section is the only place on LinkedIn where you can speak in the first person before they scroll. The first two or three lines appear in the preview. If those lines are wallpaper, most people will not click see more.
Open with who you are and what you actually do. Then two or three things that changed when you did the work. Close with the kind of role you are open to, or the kind of problem you take on. Short paragraphs. A few bullets if the proof is easier to scan that way.
This is not a copy of the résumé profile. It can be a little more spoken. It still has to be the same person, the same level, the same facts. If the résumé says you owned a budget and LinkedIn says you supported a team, they will believe the mess.
Weave in the words of the ads you are actually targeting, where those words are true of the week. If they are not true, leave them out. A keyword dump reads like a keyword dump.
Experience has to match the file
List each role with the title, the employer and the dates that sit on the résumé. If those three things disagree, a recruiter will stop trusting both documents.
Under each recent role, write three to five lines that start with what you did and end with what was different. Led, delivered, reduced: those verbs only help if the rest of the sentence is a scene you would talk about in a room.
A duty list proves you were employed. It does not prove the week changed.
You do not need a figure on every line. If you have a number you would be calm repeating, the one from a report or a conversation with your manager, use it. If you do not, a plain result is cleaner. Invented project values have a way of coming up later.
Mirror the language of the brief where it is honest. Do not paste the vacancy. Do not invent a title you never held so the profile ranks.
Older roles can be short. A line or two. LinkedIn will let you write a novel under a job from 2011. A stranger will not read it.
Skills, recommendations, the photo
Add the skills that belong to the roles you want, and put the ones that matter first. A short list of work you actually do beats a long list of tools you used once.
Two or three recommendations from people who saw the work are worth more than a pile of one-line endorsements. Ask someone who can name a week, not someone who will write that you are a pleasure to work with.
The photo should look like you on a work day. Face visible. Ordinary background. Clothes that would not surprise the industry. Not a group shot, not a logo, not a crop from a party.
If the rest of the profile is careful and the picture is casual, they will remember the picture.
One story across the résumé and the profile
Australian recruiters treat the two documents as a check on each other. Titles, employers and dates have to agree. The level has to agree. If the résumé is a manager and LinkedIn still reads like the job before that, they will believe LinkedIn.
Government and public sector readers will also look. If you are applying on criteria, the profile should not wander into a different story. You do not need selection-criteria language pasted into About. You do need the same person, at the same classification, with the same facts.
Update the profile when the job changes, when a major piece of work finishes, or when the target shifts. A profile that still describes the last employer is a leftover, not a record.
You can still write this yourself
Plenty of people never buy a LinkedIn rewrite and still get the conversation.
If you can make the headline name the work, write an About a stranger would finish, match the experience to the résumé, and take the leftover title off the top, you may not need anyone this week.
Help starts to earn its keep when you cannot see it. The headline is still the old chair. The About could belong to anyone. The dates do not match the file. You are changing field and the profile will not leave the last industry.
Then a second pair of eyes is a reasonable ask. Not because a site promised a complete 2026 optimisation package. Because you are being misread. A useful service will ask about the brief and refuse a line that contradicts the résumé. You are not buying a tier name.
If you want a look, send the file and the profile link. Say the kind of role. I will tell you what the two documents are currently saying, and whether you can fix the profile yourself.
You do not need another lecture on why LinkedIn matters in Australia. You already know that. That is why the tab is still open.
