Your LinkedIn profile matters. Some companies ignore your résumé and look only at your LinkedIn. Additionally, in-house recruiters rely on LinkedIn to scout talent. You can think of your LinkedIn profile as an exercize in search engine optimization.
Unlike your résumé, you don't have to delete all non-web-related experience from your LinkedIn. But if you are going to keep non-web-related items, put them at the bottom of your page.
Your layout might look like this:
- Summary
- Skills & Expertise
- Projects
- Education / Experience (whichever is most impressive)
Headers A profile picture helps viewers feel like they're getting to know you.
Your title is 'web developer' ("full stack" implies a couple years' experience). You can add "for hire" or something to that effect in your title.
Summary
Make your summary exciting. Show your enthusiasm!
- Mention that you are looking for opportunities
- List your main skills: Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, Backbone...
These skills are also keywords that will stick out to employers. Throw in a couple buzzwords like "TDD", "pair-programming", MVC, REST...
CJ's summary is a great example. (For students on the East Coast CJ is a TA in San Francisco.)
Skills and Expertise
Include all web-related skills here.
- Ruby
- Ruby on Rails
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- Backbone.js
- SQL
- Git
- HTML
- CSS
- Web Development
Delete non-web- or tech-related skills. You don't want to be a jack of all trades.
Projects
LinkedIn makes it easy to link to your personal projects. Employers will love that. It also looks cool if you worked on a project with someone else and list them as a collaborator. It shows you like to work in teams!
This App Academy alumnus provides an example.
If you haven't already, connect with App Academy classmates on LinkedIn. Then endorse each other for all of your newfound skills.
Feel free to add me (Simon) on LinkedIn once your profile is ready. I'll look over it, endorse your skills and give you some feedback. Add me on AngelList too.