Welcome to Get Her Hired’s Excited to Share Newsletter where we talk about what is actually happening in the market, what smart women still get stuck on, and how to make stronger career decisions without wasting time on outdated rules.
Writing a LinkedIn About Section That Does Not Sound Like a Corporate Hostage Note
Your About section is one of the few places on LinkedIn where you actually get to sound like yourself.
That matters.
Because people are not just skimming your profile for job titles and keywords. They are deciding whether you feel clear, credible, interesting, and worth reaching out to. They are deciding whether you sound like someone with real value or just another woman on LinkedIn trying to behave correctly in public.
And too many smart women blow this section because the minute they try to write about themselves, they get weird and corporate.
The minute smart women try to write about themselves professionally, everything gets beige
You know exactly what I mean.
These are brilliant women. Accomplished. Strategic. Funny. Sharp. The kind of women you would trust to lead the room, fix the mess, calm the client, drive the thing forward, or tell the truth nobody else is saying.
And then they sit down to write their LinkedIn About section and suddenly it is:
“Results-driven leader with a proven track record…”
I’m sorry, where did you go?
It is not that women do not have substance. It is that the second they try to sound “professional,” especially on LinkedIn, they start sanding off everything real.
No thank you.
Your About section is not a paragraph version of your resume
Your About section has a different job.
It is not there to rehash your Experience section in complete sentences. It is not there to list every responsibility you have ever had in a slightly more polished font. It is not there to prove that you know how to use words like strategic, collaborative, innovative, or dynamic in a sentence.
It is there to help people get you.
What are you known for? What do people trust you with? What kind of problems do you solve? What changes because you are in the room?
That is what people are trying to figure out when they land on your profile. Not whether you can write a respectable paragraph about stakeholder management.
A strong About section gives people the throughline. It helps them understand the bigger story of your career, not just the sequence of jobs. It makes your value easier to spot and your fit easier to imagine.
That is why it matters.
This is where you stop sounding polished and start sounding true
I think a lot of women have been taught that professionalism means sounding slightly less alive.
Less direct.
Less specific.
Less bold.
Less like themselves.
So they overwrite. They over-explain. They soften. They hedge. They swap out real language for LinkedIn language and then wonder why the whole thing feels dead on arrival.
But the About sections that actually work do not feel like that.
They feel clear.
They feel grounded.
They feel like a real person with a brain, a point of view, and a track record wrote them.
That does not mean sloppy. It does not mean casual in a way that undercuts your credibility. It means human. It means saying something real enough that the right person can recognize your value quickly.
And yes, you still need keywords. Obviously. We live in a search-based world and I am not suggesting we all go feral. But there is a difference between being discoverable and sounding like you swallowed a job description.
Use the keywords. Just do not let them steal your personality.
Say the thing you actually want people to know
If your About section is trying to say everything, it is probably saying nothing.
This is where a little bravery helps.
Lead with the thing. The thing you are known for. The thing you are especially good at. The thing people keep coming to you for. The thing that makes the right reader think, oh, I get exactly where she fits.
Then talk about the kinds of problems you solve, because that is what people hire. Not your adjectives. Not your intentions. Not your “passion for excellence.”
The problems.
What do you build?
What do you fix?
What do you steady?
What do you grow?
What do you make easier, smarter, stronger, or more effective?
That is where your value starts to come into focus.
And then, for the love of God, back it up. Not with a giant block of metrics or a dramatic monologue. Just enough proof that I believe you. Tell me what got better because you were there.
That is what makes an About section feel credible instead of merely polished.
If your LinkedIn sounds dead inside, come fix it with me
If your LinkedIn About section currently sounds like a corporate hostage note, I am teaching a webinar for exactly that.
Join me Thursday, April 2 at 11:00 AM for:
Stop Sounding Like a Corporate Hostage: How to Write a LinkedIn About Section That Actually Sounds Like You
We are going to talk about how to stop sounding generic, stop hiding behind buzzwords, and start writing an About section that feels true, sharp, and compelling.
Because the goal is not to sound more professional in the blandest possible way.
The goal is to sound like the clearest, strongest, most credible version of yourself.
Registration required.
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