How to Write Your LinkedIn About Section (Without the Cringe)

I was sourcing for a marketing role early one Tuesday, working through a page of search results, opening profile after profile. Nearly every About section began the same way. Passionate. Passionate about brands, passionate about storytelling, passionate about driving synergies across cross-functional stakeholder ecosystems.

Then one opened with a plain sentence. “I run digital campaigns for companies that sell unglamorous products, and I make people care about them.” I read her whole profile, then I called her that afternoon.

That is the entire job of your About section. One human being, a few lines in, deciding you are worth a conversation. After 12+ years on the hiring side and more than 30,000 clients, I can tell you most people write this section like a press release when it should read like a good introduction at a dinner party. Here is how to fix yours.

The short answer

Write your About in the first person, and open with a plain statement of what you do and who you help. Follow it with evidence, a couple of proof points that show you are good at it. Add a line about where you are heading, then finish by telling the reader how to reach you. Keep the whole thing under about 250 words, in short paragraphs with real sentences. If it sounds like something you would say out loud to a stranger who asked about your work, you have done it right.

How a recruiter meets your About section

Understanding the moment of contact changes how you write. Recruiters rarely browse LinkedIn for pleasure. They run searches, and your profile surfaces (or fails to) based on your headline, title, and skills. I have explained that machinery in how recruiters search LinkedIn and how to surface in the results, and how to win the click itself in LinkedIn headline examples that get recruiters clicking.

So by the time anyone reads your About, you have already won the search and the click. The reader arrives with one question. Is this person worth a message? They are skimming, they have a shortlist to build, and LinkedIn shows only the first few lines before the “see more” link. Your opening sentence carries more weight than everything after it combined.

The structure that works

Open with what you do and who you help. Plainly, in first person, no throat-clearing. “I lead payroll teams for companies going through rapid growth.” “I design onboarding programs that stop new hires leaving in year one.” One sentence a stranger could repeat back to you.

Two habits ruin this opener, and I ban both with my own clients. The first is opening with what you are not. “I’m not your typical accountant” tells the reader one thing you are not and nothing you are, and the skimmer has already moved on. Spend that first line on what you do. The second is the fragment wall. Strategic planning. Stakeholder engagement. Cross-functional leadership. A stack of fragments reads like a keyword index, and no one has ever wanted to have coffee with a keyword index. Write sentences. Sentences are where a person shows up.

Put your evidence in the middle. Two or three lines of proof, in prose. The shape of your career, the problems you are trusted with, one or two outcomes you are proud of. This is the same principle I teach for the work history on your resume or CV, which I cover in depth in how to write a resume or CV that gets interviews. Specifics beat adjectives every single time.

Say where you are heading. One line. Recruiters read the About partly to gauge fit and partly to gauge appetite. “I’m now looking to bring this experience to a regional role” tells them you are reachable and points them at the right opportunities.

Tell them how to reach you. End with a simple invitation. “If you’re hiring for operations leadership, my inbox is open.” It sounds obvious, and it works, because it converts a passive reader into a sender.

Three worked examples

A mid-career professional:

“I run warehouse operations for a national furniture retailer, which means the right product reaches the right store without drama. I have spent nine years getting good at this, including leading my sites through two relocations and a full inventory system change. The thing I care most about is building shift teams that hit their numbers without burning out, because that is what makes the numbers hold. I am now looking to take that approach into a multi-site role. If you are hiring for operations leadership, my inbox is open.”

A career changer:

“I spent eleven years teaching high school science, which means I can explain complicated things to people who would rather be elsewhere, juggle thirty competing priorities in one room, and stay calm throughout. I am now moving into corporate learning and development, where those muscles matter more than people expect. I have completed a certificate in instructional design and I build training materials for a local charity to keep my hand in. If your team needs someone who can turn expertise into training people remember, I would love to talk.”

A graduate:

“I graduated this year with a degree in economics, and the honest version is that I am at the start. Here is what I bring in the meantime. Three years of part-time retail work taught me how to stay useful under pressure, my senior thesis taught me how to build an argument from messy data, and running my university’s film society taught me that events fall apart without someone watching the details. I am looking for a first role in analysis or operations, ideally somewhere I can learn from people who are brilliant at it. Happy to connect.”

Notice what all three do. First person, plain openers, evidence in sentences, a direction, an invitation. Not one of them claims to be passionate.

Write this instead

Certain phrases produce an almost physical wince on the hiring side, so here are the swaps I give my own clients.

Instead of “passionate about,” show the passion through behavior. “I build training materials for a local charity to keep my hand in” proves more passion than the word ever could.

Instead of “visionary,” “guru,” or “thought leader,” name the work. “I’ve spent six years helping finance teams automate their reporting” is credible. Titles you award yourself never are; those labels only count when other people use them about you.

Instead of “results-driven seasoned professional,” give one result and let it drive. A single concrete outcome beats a paragraph of adjectives.

Instead of “synergies” and its corporate cousins, say the plain thing underneath. You worked across departments. You used the tools you had. Corporate filler makes readers skim, and plain language makes them slow down, which is exactly what you want.

Length, and the small mechanics

Aim for somewhere between 100 and 250 words. Shorter reads confident, and everything past 300 words gets skimmed at best. Break it into three to five short paragraphs, because white space is kindness on a screen. Write in first person always. A third-person About on your own profile reads like you hired a publicist, and everyone knows you did not. And before you publish, read it aloud. Any sentence you would be embarrassed to say to a person across a table needs rewriting until you would say it.

The wrap

Your About section is a conversation opener, so write it the way good conversations start. Say what you do, prove it, say where you are going, and invite the reader in. Do it in your own voice, in real sentences, in first person.

If you would rather have a professional do the whole thing, I rewrite LinkedIn profiles for $149 with unlimited revisions, headline to About to every role beneath it, all built from how I know recruiters read. You can order in two minutes through my service builder.

I’m Claire Lawrence. I spent more than 12 years as an international recruiter, and since 2013 I’ve helped over 30,000 clients get noticed and get hired.

Want your profile working this hard for you? I personally rewrite LinkedIn profiles ($149) with recruiter search in mind, alongside resumes or CVs and cover letters, all with unlimited revisions. Build your package here.

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