Most in-house recruiters in Saudi Arabia and the UAE run a LinkedIn Recruiter search before they publish a vacancy. If your profile does not match the title, skills and location they type in, you are invisible for that role no matter how good your CV is. Here are the ten changes that matter, in order.
- Headline: the job title you want, not the one you have. Recruiters search by target title. “Senior Project Manager | PMP | Giga-projects & Infrastructure | Riyadh” beats “Project Manager at Company X”.
- Location: the city where you want to work. Set Riyadh, Jeddah or Dubai, not your home town, and add “Open to relocation” in your About section if it is true.
- Open to Work, visible to recruiters only. Set the titles, locations and job types. This is the single biggest driver of inbound messages and your current employer does not see it.
- About section: three short paragraphs. Who you are and your target role; the two or three results you are proudest of, with numbers; what you are looking for and how to reach you.
- Experience: results, not duties. Two to four bullets per role, each starting with a verb and ending with a number (budget, team size, percentage, time saved).
- Skills: the 15 to 20 that appear in postings for your target role. Pin the top three. Recruiter filters run on this list, not on your prose.
- Arabic and English where relevant. LinkedIn lets you add a secondary language profile. If you target bilingual employers, add Arabic.
- A real photo and a banner. A clear head-and-shoulders photo increases profile views several times over. Use the banner to state your specialism in words.
- Custom URL and contact info. linkedin.com/in/yourname, plus an email you check. Recruiters often prefer email for first contact.
- Activity: one relevant post or comment a week. Profiles with recent activity rank higher in search and look like a person who is engaged with their field.
A note on “LinkedIn Top Voice” badges and certificates
They do not affect recruiter search. Spend the time on skills and the About section instead.
Want it done for you?
Misaar’s LinkedIn optimisation service audits your profile, rewrites the headline, About and experience sections and designs your banner, with a guide to apply the changes. It is also included in the Career Confidence and Elite Executive packages of the Tamayaz program.