How to Win an Interview In 8 Seconds on LinkedIn

I know a professional LinkedIn headline matters when it comes to capturing the attention of recruiters. I know that personal branding matters. I know you should optimize your LinkedIn profile for recruiters to find you. I get all that. But here is the hard truth that many so-called career experts or job search gurus don't tell you.

You get interviewed and hired by human beings.

When these human beings browse your LinkedIn profile, they want to feel welcome. They want to see that you are human. They want to feel as if you know the subject matter you are talking about.

Your recruiters don't care about how many certifications are listed on your profile. Before you stuff your LinkedIn profile with certifications, remember that actual humans have to read these profiles to navigate your authenticity, credibility and trustworthiness. If your LinkedIn profile is not written in a friendly and inviting manner, your recruiters will go somewhere else.

A 2015 study of Canadian media consumption by Microsoft, found that the average human attention span had dropped to just eight seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. This is 2025 and that number has probably dropped even lower. This study argued that the mobile revolution had resulted in humans having a shorter attention span than a goldfish. That means you have around eight seconds to engage your recruiters on LinkedIn before they look elsewhere. Even if you manage to grab their attention, it still takes eight seconds or less to lose the same recruiters after the initial contact with your personal brand. If your LinkedIn profile is not speaking to their needs and wants, they will leave.

No matter how you feel about this study, at the end of the day, your recruiters don't need scientific data to decide what they should do with their attention, they follow their emotions.

You can manipulate them to click the headline of your LinkedIn profile. You can manipulate them to get to your LinkedIn page. But as soon as they realize that you are full of hype and are just trying to fluff up your profile, they will leave and bounce away to a more humane and friendly profile.

I know getting noticed on LinkedIn is a big deal. But if you want to succeed in the bigger scheme of things, you have to balance between catering to your personal needs and the needs of your recruiters.

Even though our attention span has fallen as Microsoft concluded in their study, I strongly believe the way our attention actually functions hasn't changed that much. We just happen to have more choices in how we allocate that attention.

I believe our attention span has fallen not because we don't have the capacity to prolong it if need be. We have just become smarter at identifying what we want or don't want to engage with. If I feel bored by your LinkedIn profile, I simply go somewhere else where my emotional needs are respected.

There is a science to all this. Our brains have a Reticular Activating System (RAS) that acts like a filter for unnecessary information. This RAS is the portal through which nearly all information enters the brain and it affects what we pay attention to. It rejects useless content and focuses on what is important to our physical and emotional needs. That means, your LinkedIn profile needs to appeal to your recruiters emotional needs to have any chance of getting them hooked.

Unfortunately, in the rush to get noticed, many job seekers have lost focus on why they are trying to have recruiters notice them - which is to get recruiters to engage with you, interview you, and hire you.

I don't care how many certifications you list on your profile or that you have the most qualifications. I care about how engaged your recruiters are. I care about how many strong job leads you have generated through that engagement. I care about how many of those leads end up hiring you. I care about how many of those recruiters keep coming back for more. And to get there you need more than just clever headlines or profiles. You need to truly engage.

Now, more than ever, recruiters’ hunger after something genuine. Recruiters are looking for candidates that are more authentic. Just having a LinkedIn profile is no longer enough. Stuffing your LinkedIn headline with keywords may get you noticed by a recruiter, but it may not be enough to get you engaged recruiters and interviews.

Authenticity more than anything else is what gets you engaged recruiters and interviews. As the great jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker said, "If it ain't in your heart, it ain't in your horn." You can't fake authenticity. You have to believe it. You have to feel it yourself before your recruiters can. You need a legitimate back story. Your LinkedIn profile has to mean something and stand for something. You don't need to be perfect. Your recruiters are not looking for perfection. They just want to know who you really are, what you are good at, what you care about the most, and what's in it for them.

So, be authentic and don't make your LinkedIn profile simply about increasing your contacts or getting hired. Your recruiters don’t want to be sold to. They want to be engaged in authentic ways. Before you put anything out there, you need to plan for authentic engagement. Here are a few questions to start with.

Who is my audience?

What is important to them?

What is their level of understanding about my skills or qualifications?

How do I want my audience to feel?

What do I want the message to be?

The more specific you can be about your goals before you start engaging your recruiters, the stronger and more compelling your profile will be and the more likely your recruiters are to connect with you and probably make an interview offer. And every eight seconds that you are not authentic, original, genuine, bold, fresh and humane, the less likely they are going to stick with you.

If you are ready for more as a job seeker and want help building the joyful, passionate, and profitable career you deserve, sign up for my job search program, The Willing Student Method. In this program, I’ll help you get clear on who you really are as a job seeker, be more confident about your unique brand voice, and empower you to expand the quality of your presence and influence in the global workplace and marketplace. You’ll know how it feels to build your career differently and pursue the right goals. You’ll stop wasting your time on employers who don’t value you or people you can’t make a difference to.