The Most Underused Section on LinkedIn
Most LinkedIn profiles have a decent headline and a list of job titles. But the About section — your summary — is either empty, a copy-paste of a resume objective from 2015, or a wall of text that nobody reads.
That's a missed opportunity. Your summary is the only section on LinkedIn where you get to speak in your own voice, tell your story on your terms, and explain what the bullet points on your profile don't capture.
Recruiters read summaries. LinkedIn's own data shows that profiles with a summary receive significantly more InMail messages than those without one. It's also the section where hiring managers get a sense of whether you'd be a good cultural fit — something they can't gauge from a list of job titles.
What Makes a Summary Actually Work
Before the examples, here's the framework. Every strong LinkedIn summary has four parts:
| Section | Purpose | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | Grab attention, state who you are | 1-2 sentences |
| Value | What you do and the results you deliver | 2-4 sentences |
| Proof | Specific accomplishments or credentials | 2-3 bullet points |
| Close | What you're looking for or how to reach you | 1-2 sentences |
A few rules that apply regardless of career level:
Write in first person. "I lead a team of..." not "Sean is a results-driven professional who..." Third person sounds like you hired someone to write about you (and not a good someone).
Front-load the first three lines. LinkedIn truncates your summary after roughly 300 characters and shows a "See more" link. If those first three lines don't earn the click, the rest doesn't matter.
Skip the buzzwords. "Results-driven," "passionate," "thought leader," and "synergy" communicate nothing. Replace them with specifics.
Entry-Level Summary Example
If you're early in your career or recently graduated, the biggest challenge is that you don't have a decade of accomplishments to reference. That's fine. Lead with what you've studied, what you've built, and what kind of work energizes you.
I'm a data analyst with a background in economics and a fixation on turning messy datasets into clear stories. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2024, where I spent two years as a research assistant building predictive models for the Department of Public Policy.
Since then, I've been working at a healthcare startup where I built the reporting infrastructure from scratch — dashboards in Looker, automated pipelines in Python, and a forecasting model that helped leadership cut patient acquisition costs by 22%.
I'm looking for an analyst role at a company where data actually informs decisions, not just decorates slide decks. If your team is solving interesting problems with real data, I'd love to talk.
Why this works
It's specific (UNC, Looker, Python, 22%), it has personality ("decorates slide decks"), and it tells the reader exactly what this person wants. No buzzwords, no filler.
Mid-Career Summary Example
At the mid-career level, you have accomplishments but you also have a narrative challenge: you need to connect your experience into a coherent trajectory, not just list what you've done.
I've spent the last eight years in B2B marketing, and the through line has been the same: figure out what actually drives pipeline, do more of it, and cut everything that doesn't move numbers.
At Segment, I rebuilt the demand generation engine from the ground up. We went from relying on a single trade show for 40% of pipeline to a diversified strategy across paid, organic, and partner channels. Pipeline grew 3x in 18 months while cost per MQL dropped by 35%.
Before that, I ran content marketing at a Series A startup where I took the blog from 2,000 monthly visitors to 45,000 and built an email list of 12,000 subscribers that became the company's top-converting channel.
Right now, I'm focused on the intersection of product-led growth and traditional demand gen. If you're a SaaS company trying to figure out how those two motions work together, we should talk.
Why this works
It opens with a clear professional identity (B2B marketer who cares about pipeline), backs it up with two stories that include real numbers, and closes with a specific area of interest. A recruiter reading this knows exactly whether this person is a fit.
Senior / Executive Summary Example
At the executive level, the summary shifts from "here's what I've done" to "here's my philosophy and the impact I create at scale."
I build and scale go-to-market teams at growth-stage SaaS companies. Over the past 15 years, I've taken three companies from under $10M ARR to over $50M by building repeatable sales processes, hiring and developing high-performing teams, and aligning sales, marketing, and customer success around shared revenue targets.
Most recently at DataForge (acquired by Salesforce in 2024), I grew the sales organization from 8 reps to 65 across three regions while maintaining a team quota attainment rate above 80%. Before that, I was VP of Sales at CloudMetrics, where I led the pivot from SMB to enterprise and closed the company's first seven-figure deal.
I believe sales leadership is about building systems, not heroics. If your reps need a closer riding in to save every deal, you have a process problem, not a talent problem.
I advise two early-stage startups and I'm open to board and advisory roles. Best way to reach me: [email protected].
Why this works
The philosophy statement ("building systems, not heroics") differentiates this person from every other VP of Sales. The numbers are at the right altitude for an executive — ARR, team size, acquisition outcomes — not granular activity metrics.
Career Changer Summary Example
If you're transitioning industries, your summary has to do extra work. You need to acknowledge the change, connect the dots between your past and future, and show that you've already started building relevant skills.
For the past six years, I taught high school chemistry. I loved the work of breaking down complex concepts and making them accessible. What I didn't love was the feeling that the tools we used hadn't evolved since 2005.
That frustration led me to product management. I completed a product management certificate through Reforge, built a prototype edtech app using Figma and no-code tools, and started volunteering as a product advisor for a nonprofit that builds learning software for underserved schools.
What I bring from teaching: the ability to understand users who aren't technical (because my users were 16-year-olds), experience designing "curricula" that guide people through complex workflows step by step, and an obsession with whether people actually learned the thing I was trying to teach them.
I'm looking for an associate PM role where my background in education is an asset, not an asterisk.
Why this works
It tells a story. The reader understands why this person changed careers, what transferable skills they bring, and what they've done to prepare. The closing line ("an asset, not an asterisk") is memorable.
Five Mistakes That Kill LinkedIn Summaries
Starting with "I am a passionate professional." You've lost the reader by word four. Start with something concrete.
Writing in the third person. Unless you're a diplomat or a celebrity, it reads as pretentious. Use "I."
Ignoring the fold. The first 300 characters are your audition. Don't waste them on "Welcome to my profile!" or "With over X years of experience..."
No numbers. Even one data point transforms your summary from a claim into evidence. Revenue, team size, user count, percentage improvement — pick one and include it.
No call to action. Tell the reader what to do next. Are you open to new roles? Looking for advisory opportunities? Happy to connect with people in your industry? Say so.
How to Write Yours in 20 Minutes
You don't need to agonize over this. Set a timer and follow these steps:
Step 1 (5 min): Write one sentence answering "What do I do, and for whom?"
Step 2 (5 min): Write 2-3 bullet points with your strongest accomplishments (include numbers)
Step 3 (5 min): Write one sentence about what you're looking for or what excites you
Step 4 (5 min): Write a hook — the first line someone sees before "See more"
Assemble those four pieces in order: Hook, Value (step 1), Proof (step 2), Close (step 3). Read it out loud. If it sounds like a person talking, you're done. If it sounds like a corporate brochure, rewrite the stiff parts.
Sources
- LinkedIn Official Blog: How to Write a Great LinkedIn Summary — LinkedIn's guidance on what makes profiles stand out to recruiters
- Harvard Business Review: How to Write a Professional Bio — Research-backed framework for presenting your professional narrative
- Forbes: The One LinkedIn Section You're Probably Ignoring — Data on how the About section influences recruiter behavior
Make Your Summary and Resume Tell the Same Story
A great LinkedIn summary gets recruiters to your profile. A great resume gets you to the interview. The two need to align — same accomplishments, same numbers, same narrative. Superpower Resume helps you build a resume that matches the story you're telling on LinkedIn, tailored to each role you apply for and optimized so nothing important gets missed.
