Your headline appears beside every comment, message and search result you ever appear in. Build one that states what you do, who you do it for, and the proof — instead of a job title nobody searches for. Written for the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Europe.
Mobile cuts around 60 characters — front-load the role.
Interface preview. The counter and preview are live and run in your browser. The four format examples are fixed samples — nothing is written for you yet.
Role, audience, proof. The default, and the one that performs best in recruiter search because the title comes first.
Leads with the problem you solve. Strong for consultants, founders and anyone selling a service rather than seeking a job.
States availability plainly. Only use it if your search is public — the platform has a private setting for the alternative.
Names the transition in the first clause, so a reader does not have to work it out from your history.
Reset clears every field and restores the empty preview. It cannot be undone.
Content Strategist for B2B SaaS · Built an editorial programme from 40k to 210k monthly sessions · Writing about briefs, teams and the boring parts
I help software companies stop publishing content nobody asked for · Editorial strategy, technical SEO, team building · 7 years, 3 in-house programmes
Content Strategist · Open to senior editorial roles in B2B software, remote or Karachi · Previously Northbeam, Kestrel Digital
Journalist moving into content strategy · 6 years in newsrooms, now building editorial systems for software teams · Learning in public
Fixed examples for layout review. The pattern in all four: a concrete role, a named audience, and one thing only you could have written.
Where it appears, how search reads it, what the 220 characters are actually for, and how often to change it.
The headline is not a profile field so much as a signature. It follows your name into search results, comment threads, connection requests, message previews, notifications and the little card that appears when someone hovers over you. Your profile summary is read by people who chose to visit you; your headline is read by everyone else.
That asymmetry is the whole argument for spending time on it. A person deciding whether to open your profile, accept your request or reply to your message is usually working from those few words alone.
Recruiters search by job title and skill, and the headline is one of the fields weighted most heavily in matching. If you are a product manager whose headline reads “Building things people love at Acme”, you will not appear when someone searches for a product manager — however good you are at the job.
This is the most common and most expensive mistake on the platform. Personality is fine, but it belongs after the searchable words rather than instead of them. Use the title that recruiters actually type, then add the character.
You get 220 characters, but not all of them are equally visible. In comment threads, search results and mobile views the headline is truncated somewhere around 60 characters. Everything past that point still counts for search, but a human may never see it.
So the structure that works is front-loaded: role and audience first, proof second, personality last. “Product Manager for B2B SaaS · Grew engagement 38% · Writing about discovery” survives truncation with the important part intact. The same information in the opposite order does not.
When your role, your target or your proof point changes — not weekly. Frequent edits push profile-update notices to your network, which gets noticed for the wrong reason and slowly trains people to ignore your updates.
One exception is worth planning for: if you are searching privately, keep availability out of the headline entirely. The platform has a private setting that signals to recruiters only, and using it avoids telling your current employer something you had not planned to.
Keywords first because search reads them. Personality last because truncation eats it.
The searchable nouns: your job title and two or three skills, in the words recruiters type rather than the ones your company uses internally.
Who you do it for and what changes because you did. One clause, no adjectives.
The market you work in. It narrows you usefully — being findable to the right people beats being findable to everyone.
One number you can defend. Growth, scale, budget or volume — whichever is most relevant to the roles you want.
What you are known for beyond the job: what you write about, teach, build or care about professionally.
Product Manager for B2B SaaS · Grew engagement 38% across two years · Writing about product discovery
Bold shows what survives truncation on mobile and in comment threads. Everything after it still counts for search.
Every one front-loads the searchable title and keeps the proof in the middle.
Illustrative examples written for this build. Every figure shown is invented — replace it with one you can defend.
The situation: No job title yet, so the default formula has nothing to lead with.
Where to start: Lead with your field of study and the direction you are heading, then name one project or society role.
The situation: A degree and one internship, competing with a whole cohort for the same roles.
Where to start: Put the target role first, then the internship and the tools you used. Specificity is the differentiator.
The situation: A headline that says your job title and nothing else.
Where to start: Add the audience and one number. Two clauses turn a label into a reason to click.
The situation: Your value is now the team you run, not the tasks you do.
Where to start: State scope — team size or remit — then one outcome the team delivered.
The situation: Readers want scope and sector within a glance.
Where to start: Two clauses is plenty. Function and market first, then a single board-level result.
The situation: You are selling a service, not applying for a post.
Where to start: Use the problem-led format: who you help and what changes. Put the offer where the title would be.
The situation: Your current title points at the field you are leaving.
Where to start: Name the transition in the first clause so nobody has to infer it from your history.
The situation: You want recruiters to find you without broadcasting the search.
Where to start: Optimise for the target role rather than the current one, and use the platform’s private open-to-work setting.
In the headline, only if you're openly searching. If your current employer doesn't know, use the platform's private setting that shows the signal to recruiters only.
220 characters. All of them count for search, but only around the first 60 are visible in comment threads, search results and mobile views, so front-load the important part.
Yes. Writing, previewing and copying are free with no account and no card.
A recognised job title, the audience or industry you serve, one proof point, and optionally what you are known for. In that order.
No. The title alone is findable but forgettable, and it uses a fraction of the space. Keep it first for search, then add who you help and one result.
Yes. It is one of the fields recruiter search weighs most heavily, which is why the searchable job title needs to appear in the words recruiters actually type.
Only if your search is public. If your current employer does not know, use the platform’s private setting that shows the signal to recruiters only.
You can, but separators like a middle dot are safer. Emoji render inconsistently across devices, can interrupt screen readers, and date quickly.
When your role, target or proof point changes. Frequent edits push update notices to your network and get noticed for the wrong reason.
They should share the facts, not the wording. The summary gets three lines and is read by people who chose to read it; the headline gets one line and is read by everyone.
Name the transition in the first clause. A reader who has to infer it from your job history usually stops trying.
Yes. The structure is the same across the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Europe. Match your spelling to the market you are applying in.
Not in this build. Generation is not connected — the tool structures and previews what you type, with a live character count. When it launches it will be optional and clearly marked.
Yes — it's one of the fields recruiter search weighs most heavily, which is why the role title should appear in the words recruiters actually type, not an internal job title only your company uses.
When your role, target or proof point changes — not weekly. Frequent edits push profile-update notices to your network, which gets noticed for the wrong reason.
220 characters, front-loaded for search and written for the people who only ever see the first sixty.