How to Make Your Wellfound Profile Stand Out to Recruiters

Editor’s Note: Looking for pointers on how to stand out from the competition when applying for jobs? Wellfound's very own Recruiting Lead, Ruthie Goodell, is sharing her tips & tricks she would give to a potential candidate when applying for jobs on Wellfound. If you’re on the job search, create your free Wellfound profile today.

When applying for new career opportunities, it’s vital to showcase you, your work experience, and your personal brand to really stand out to recruiters. Think of your Wellfound profile as your personal brand. A well-filled out, complete profile is one of the best ways to quickly apply to jobs, and also stand out to recruiters!

Below are a few tips to help focus on important areas within your profile and maximize efforts to increase the likelihood you’ll hear back from recruiters.

Tip #1: Fill out your entire profile

Recruiters on average spend 6-8 seconds per profile.

In that time, we are trying to make a decision as to whether or not 1) your application or profile aligns with what we are looking for, and 2) if we should spend additional time reviewing your profile further.

By spending time upfront filling out all the sections on your profile, you’ll appear in more searches of hiring companies (and hopefully the process of applying to jobs will be faster!).

Want to see what us recruiters see? Review your own profile from the “Public Profile” view to see how recruiters view your Wellfound profile and use the tracker at the top of your Profile section to confirm you have all fields filled out.

Pro Tip: Everything you add to your profile across all sections will be included in the keyword search that we use to source great talent. Any external links/profiles added to the “Links” section when completing your profile page will not be recognized in Wellfound’s sourcing tool, so make sure to add the necessary information/keywords to your angel.co profile!

Tip #2: Highlight Your Work Experience

When deciding how to complete the information across each experience you’ve held, keep it simple and to the point.

Experience sections are limited in the amount of characters, and this is for good reason. A candidate should highlight the best information from that experience with metrics, areas where they excelled, and focus on what they actually accomplished in the role.

By catering your profile to the next position’s areas of focus, you will better stand out in those first 6-8 seconds. If you’re chosen for an interview or phone screen, you can elaborate on your other work experience which may not be directly related to the job posting.

Pro Tip: If you’re looking for a career change and don’t necessarily have the work experience for the specific roles you’re applying for, add the roles you are interested in to the “Open to the Following Roles” section. Be sure to still include your “Primary Role” with the area you have the most experience.

Tip #3: Add Relevant Skills

Many recruiters are tasked with finding specific candidates aligning with the 1) desired work experience needed to best fit the team and role and 2) specific skillsets which we search through keywords.

Recruiters don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to considering you and your profile, so it’s best to list any relevant skills in your profile. That being said, if you can’t speak to the experience of that particular skill with concrete examples (perhaps too much time has passed or you only used it once), it’s best not to include it.

Pro Tip: If it’s a skill you want to go deeper into or have a working knowledge in, you can include that information in “Looking for” section. For example, "In my next role, I’d be very interested to get more exposure to Salesforce and utilize training and mentorship in strengthening that skill."

Tip #4: Update the Preference Sections

The hiring process doesn’t just fall on recruiters. They are not the only one making a decision in the process, and you should be an active participant in selecting a job and company YOU want to work for next.

You might be open and flexible to new opportunities that range in size company, industry, and cultural values, and it’s best to express any desires in both of these sections when filling out your profile. Start the process with clearly communicating your expectations and what you are looking for so that recruiters and others within that company can respect it from the first interaction.

Search for remote jobs and set your remote work preferences from our help pages.

Tip #5: FIll out the Culture Tab

Want to only consider remote jobs moving forward? The Culture tab is the place to communicate that preference. Miss going into the office but also want flexibility to work remotely? Again, communicate that preference. Wellfound wants to help you find your next dream job and any information you can provide upfront to the recruiting team / people holding the recruiting seat within companies will help you get closer to that dream job!

To update your ‘Looking for’ section, follow this help article for additional information.

Don’t Forget! While you’re updating your profile, check out these areas...

While these tips and tricks are some of the most important to consider when building, editing, and updating your profile, don’t forget these quick areas:

1. Make sure the external links you’ve added (LinkedIn, Github, personal site) are working links. Recruiters are pro’s in quickly finding third party information, but not every founder, CEO, etc who might be playing the part of recruiter are as trained or have the time to hunt down working links.

2. Update your resume once a year to keep it relevant as a resource to provide additional context/information. You can use your formal resume to add more information about your previous experience. Your profile is more important to keep updated for keyword search purposes in recruiter sourcing!

3. If a company from your experience has a profile, make sure it’s linked to your job section. If not, adding a website or LinkedIn page could be helpful for recruiters to understand more about that company.

4. Use your preferred name and pronouns! Companies want to try to make the candidate’s experience an enjoyable one while moving through the interview process — help them help you have a great experience and address you properly from the first interaction.

Create Your Wellfound Profile

Whether you are new to the position, career, or seasoned in similar roles, completing your profile will help set better expectations for the role and company you desire and clearly communicate to the recruiting team, which will give you a better experience and waste less time (for both sides!).

Get started with Wellfound and create a free account today. Need some tips on how to start your job search on Wellfound? Check out this blog post.

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Did you land your job from Wellfound and want to be featured? Email [email protected] to share your story.