Set 02 · Profile & Banner · LinkedIn
The About section, in first person.
Most About sections are a resume summary pasted into a box, written in the third person, and abandoned after two sentences. It is the one place on LinkedIn where you can sound like a person rather than a record, and the first two lines are all that show before "see more". Three samples: mid-career, career changer, and a fresh graduate.
SamplesThree, complete
FormatCopy kit — paste directly
ReadingFree, no signup
Limit2,600 characters
Sample OneEmployed · Quietly open
Written in first person, opening with a concrete claim rather than a job title. The first two lines are doing all the work.
Bilal Ahmed
Senior Accountant · Lahore
The two lines that show before "see more"139 chars
I cut a three-entity month-end close from twelve days to six — not by working later, but by fixing the reconciliation nobody had looked at.
LinkedIn truncates the About section after roughly 2-3 lines on desktop and less on mobile. Whatever is above that fold is the only part most people read.
The full section1,180 chars
I cut a three-entity month-end close from twelve days to six — not by working later, but by fixing the reconciliation nobody had looked at.
That is roughly how I work. I am a senior accountant at a textile group in Lahore, six years in, and most of what I have been useful for has come from finding the step in a process that everyone had stopped questioning.
Some of it has been unglamorous and worth real money. A reconciliation audit in 2023 recovered PKR 3.2 million in duplicate vendor payments that had been going out for two years. Nobody asked me to look; I just could not make two reports agree and kept pulling the thread.
Day to day I own month-end close for three entities, accounts payable, and sales and income tax filing — three years now with no penalties. I supervise two accounts officers, one of whom was promoted last year, which I am more pleased about than any of the numbers above.
ACCA finalist, two papers remaining. SAP FICO, QuickBooks, and more Excel than is strictly healthy.
Happy to talk to anyone working on close processes, payables automation or audit readiness — including if you are just stuck and want a second opinion.
What each paragraph is doing
1 — A result with a mechanism. The hook.
2 — How you work, in one sentence. Your actual pattern.
3 — The best story you have, told properly.
4 — What you do day to day, with the numbers.
5 — Qualifications and tools, listed flat for search.
6 — An open door that costs nothing.
Why this one works
- First person throughout. "I cut", not "Bilal is a results-driven professional who". Third person in an About section reads as a press release about yourself.
- The hook is above the fold. The first 139 characters contain the whole argument, because that is all most readers will see.
- One story is told, not summarised. The duplicate payments — including that nobody asked him to look and that he kept pulling the thread. That detail is what makes it a person.
- The proudest thing is a promotion, not a number. "Which I am more pleased about than any of the numbers above." One human line changes the temperature of the whole section.
- The close invites conversation, not jobs. "Including if you are just stuck" — the offer is easy to accept and generates far more messages than "open to opportunities".
Sample TwoExplaining the move without apologising
The About section is the right place to explain a career change — the headline has no room and the experience section cannot tell a story.
Hina Rauf
Learning & Development · Lahore
The two lines that show first147 chars
I spent seven years teaching mathematics to teenagers. It turns out that is very good preparation for teaching engineers, and nobody warns you.
The joke does a lot of work here — it acknowledges the odd career shape before anyone else can, and makes the reader want the next line.
The full section1,290 chars
I spent seven years teaching mathematics to teenagers. It turns out that is very good preparation for teaching engineers, and nobody warns you.
I now design and run corporate learning programmes. Most recently I built the onboarding curriculum used for all sixty new engineering hires at a software firm in Lahore, and took first-attempt assessment pass rates from 68% to 91% across four cohorts.
What transferred was not the mathematics. It was knowing that people learn in different sequences, that assessment tells you whether the teaching worked rather than whether the learner is clever, and that a room going quiet usually means you have lost them rather than that they are concentrating.
Before this I was a senior teacher and head of a maths section — 140 students, five sections, and a remedial programme that the school still runs. I mentored six junior teachers, three of whom are now heads of department elsewhere.
Certified in training management and instructional design. I work in Articulate Rise, and I am comfortable being the person in the room when nobody wants to be there.
If you are building a learning function from nothing, that is the problem I most want to work on.
The principle
Do not explain what you are leaving. Explain what transferred.
The third paragraph is the whole section: it names three specific things the old career taught, in the new field's language. That is far more convincing than any sentence beginning "I am passionate about transitioning into..."
Why this one works
- The opening is disarming rather than defensive. Naming the odd career shape first, with humour, removes it as a question.
- Evidence comes second, immediately. Sixty engineers, 68% to 91%. The joke buys attention and the numbers spend it.
- The transfer is specific. Three concrete things teaching taught her about learning. This is what "transferable skills" means when it is actually done.
- The old career is stated with its own numbers. 140 students, six mentored, three now heads of department. It reads as a real career, not a false start.
- The close names the exact problem she wants. "Building a learning function from nothing" is specific enough that the right person self-identifies.
Sample ThreeNo employment yet
The hardest one, because there is no career to describe. It works by being concrete about what actually exists and honest about what does not.
Hamza Yousaf
Mechanical Engineer — Graduate · Lahore
The two lines that show first132 chars
I built a gearbox fatigue test rig for PKR 180,000 that runs 34% faster than the one my department had been using for nine years.
A graduate with one real thing should lead with that one real thing. The rig is more interesting than the degree and every recruiter has seen the degree before.
The full section1,120 chars
I built a gearbox fatigue test rig for PKR 180,000 that runs 34% faster than the one my department had been using for nine years.
That was my final year project at UET Lahore, where I graduated this year with a first in mechanical engineering. I led a team of four, we delivered on schedule, and it is now used by the department — which I did not expect and am still slightly pleased about.
The other useful six weeks of my education were at Nishat Mills, shadowing the maintenance team across two production lines. I logged breakdown data on forty-odd incidents and helped build the weekly downtime report. Mostly I learned how much of maintenance is deciding what not to fix today.
I am PEC registered, work in SolidWorks and AutoCAD, and have a working rather than expert grasp of ANSYS — I would rather tell you that now than in an interview.
I am looking for a graduate trainee position in plant maintenance or manufacturing, in Lahore or Faisalabad, and I am available immediately. If you have five minutes to tell me what a first-year engineer at your plant actually does all day, I would take that too.
What makes it work
One real thing, described properly.
One honest limitation.
One small ask that is not a job.
A graduate About section that lists coursework and adjectives is indistinguishable from ten thousand others. One project with a budget, a team and a number is not.
Why this one works
- It leads with the rig, not the degree. Everyone applying has the degree. One person built that rig.
- The honesty about ANSYS is the strongest line. "Working rather than expert — I would rather tell you now than in an interview." Nobody expects mastery from a graduate; they do notice accuracy.
- The internship reflection is specific and slightly wise. "How much of maintenance is deciding what not to fix today" shows he was paying attention, not just present.
- The ask is small and answerable. Asking for five minutes about what a first-year engineer does all day is easy to grant and starts more conversations than asking for a job.
- Location and availability are stated. Practical, and it saves a message.
The first two lines
LinkedIn cuts the About section after roughly two to three lines on desktop and less on mobile, behind a "see more" link that most people never click. Everything you write below that fold is read only by someone who has already decided you are interesting.
Which means the opening is not an introduction — it is the whole pitch. Put your single strongest concrete fact there, in the first sentence, and make it a fact rather than a claim.
The three openings on this page are a result with a mechanism, a joke that names an awkward career shape, and a built object with a budget. None of them begin "I am a results-driven professional with X years of experience", which is where the majority of About sections start and stop being read.
Write as a person
The About section is the only field on LinkedIn where voice is possible, and almost nobody uses it. Three rules.
- First person, always. "I cut", not "Bilal cut" and certainly not "Bilal is a dedicated professional who". Third person reads as a press release written about yourself.
- Tell one story properly rather than summarising five. The detail is what makes it yours — that nobody asked him to look, that the room going quiet means you lost them.
- Include one human line. A preference, a mild joke, something you were pleased about. It costs one sentence and it is the difference between a profile and a record.
What to avoid entirely: "passionate", "results-driven", "proven track record", "team player", "seasoned professional", and any sentence you would be embarrassed to say aloud to someone at a conference.
The six-paragraph shape
All three samples use the same skeleton, and it works from graduate to director.
- Hook. One concrete fact, above the fold.
- Context. Who you are and how you work, in a sentence or two.
- The story. Your best example, told with the detail intact.
- The day job. What you actually do now, with numbers.
- Credentials and tools. Listed flat — this paragraph is for the search index.
- The open door. What you want to talk about, framed so it is easy to start.
Between 1,000 and 1,500 characters is the useful range. The limit is 2,600 and using all of it is almost always a mistake.
It is also indexed
The About section is searchable text, both inside LinkedIn Recruiter and by Google, which indexes public LinkedIn profiles. So it has to be readable and findable at the same time.
The way to serve both is to put the personality in the narrative paragraphs and the keywords in a plain list near the end. "ACCA finalist. SAP FICO, QuickBooks, and more Excel than is strictly healthy" carries three hard search terms and still sounds like a person.
Do not keyword-stuff. A paragraph of comma-separated skills at the top kills the reading experience and gains nothing that the Skills section — which holds fifty and is directly searchable — does not already give you.
The people above are illustrative examples written for teaching purposes.
Names, employers, registration numbers and figures are invented and should not be copied
into a real application — use them as a shape to pour your own verified numbers into.