A recruiter opens your LinkedIn profile. Within seconds they've decided — not about your qualifications, not about your university, not about how many connections you have. About one thing only: do you look like someone worth messaging, or like everyone else they've already scrolled past today.

Most candidates lose that moment for a single reason. They sound like everyone else. This is fixable, and it has nothing to do with your CV.

I'm Jan Nordh, founder of Nordh Executive Search. Nineteen years placing senior and executive talent in cybersecurity, enterprise software, AI infrastructure and data centers across the DACH region and the Nordics. Before that, 25 years on the other side of the table — enterprise sales, sales leadership, country management, launching US technology vendors into Europe.

This is the practical half of a two-part story. The first part covered why the public availability signal backfires at senior level — Should You Use the #OpenToWork Banner on LinkedIn?. That was the why. This is the how.

LinkedIn is a search engine, not a social network

Start here, because everything else follows from it. A recruiter types a job title, a few skills and a region into the search bar, and the system returns a ranked list. If your profile isn't built for that search, you don't appear on it. You can be the best seller in the market — if you don't show up in the search, you don't exist for that recruiter.

You already know this dynamic from your own work. There's a difference between a landing page that converts and one nobody understands. Your profile is your landing page. The recruiter is the buyer, making the same fast call a customer makes on a website: do I stay, or do I click away? Most of that decision happens at the very top of the page — headline, photo, banner — before anyone scrolls. If that section reads like everyone else's, it's over before it started.

Four levers control whether you get found and whether you get messaged. None of them require new experience.

Lever 1: A headline built as role, keywords, impact

Your headline is the single most important part of your profile. Build it in three parts, separated by the pipe symbol.

Role — the job you want, not the one you have. If you're targeting an enterprise sales role in cybersecurity, write exactly that. Not "open to work," not "experienced sales professional."

Keywords — two or three hard terms recruiters actually type. For an enterprise account executive: net-new logos, SaaS, DACH. If those words aren't in your headline, you don't surface in the search that contains them.

Impact — one short line on what you move. That turns a list of keywords into a person.

Put together: Enterprise Account Executive, Cybersecurity | net-new logos, SaaS, DACH | builds pipeline across complex buying centers. Role, keywords, impact. That alone puts you ahead of most people on the platform.

Lever 2: A header that signals "serious"

Photo and banner sit next to the headline as the first thing anyone sees. The common mistakes: a cropped group photo, a selfie, a busy graphic with your name splashed across it, or worst of all, the grey silhouette with no photo at all.

What you want is a clean, professional headshot — dressed the way you'd show up for the job — and a calm, professional banner. No stock photo, no self-promotion billboard. The header should carry one message: this person is serious and knows what they're doing.

Lever 3: An About section written as a story, not a CV

This is where most people lose the recruiters who do scroll down. The mistake is pasting in your CV, or leaving it blank. Both are wasted space. Instead, tell a story in five steps:

• Origin — why this field, where it started.

• Background — the path you've taken.

• Development — what shaped you.

• Today — what you're working on now.

• Future — the roles you're targeting next.

Load that text with the same keywords as your headline. LinkedIn pulls from your About section into the search too, so the terms earn their place twice.

Lever 4: Set Open to Work to recruiters only

This is the lever that connects back to part one, and the one most people get wrong. They switch on the public green banner. Instead, set it to recruiters only. Then only people with a LinkedIn Recruiter licence see that you're open. The software surfaces you in exactly the right searches without half your network reading your job search first.

Update your target roles, regions and availability once a week, and keep it tight — not every role under the sun, just the ones you actually want. This one setting brings more relevant inbound without the price the public banner costs.

What changed for one account executive

An example, anonymised. An experienced account executive with a strong track record in software sales came to me, unable to understand why nobody reached out. His profile was the classic case: headline read "sales professional, open to work," About section empty, banner default. He'd been applying for months, got barely a reply, and was convinced he lacked experience.

We changed nothing about his experience — only how it was presented. New headline with role, keywords and impact. An About section that told his story and carried the right terms. Photo and banner cleaned up. Open to Work set to recruiters only.

A few weeks later the messages came in, this time from the right people. One recruiter wrote, roughly: your profile jumped out at me in the search — you sound like someone who knows exactly what he sells. Same person, same experience. Finally visible to the right ones.

Three things to do this week

• Fix your headline today. The role you want, two or three real keywords, one line on impact. If it currently says "open to work" or just "sales professional," change it.

• Rewrite your About section as a story. Five steps, origin to future, keywords woven in.

• Switch Open to Work from public to recruiters only. One click that turns loud searching into targeted getting found.

This isn't about shouting louder. It's about being findable by the right people. A recruiter decides fast — make those seconds work for you, not against you.

FAQ

How do recruiters actually search for candidates on LinkedIn?

They search, they don't browse. A recruiter enters a job title, two or three skills and a region, and LinkedIn returns a ranked list built from your headline, About section and experience. If your profile doesn't contain the terms they type, you never appear — regardless of how strong your track record is.

What should a LinkedIn headline for a sales role contain?

Three parts: the role you're targeting (not your current title), two or three hard keywords recruiters actually search for (for example net-new logos, SaaS, DACH), and one short line on the impact you create. Role, keywords, impact — separated by the pipe symbol.

Should I use the public Open to Work banner or the recruiters-only setting?

For most senior candidates, recruiters only. It surfaces you in recruiter searches without broadcasting your job search to your whole network and your current employer. The public green banner carries a signalling cost at senior level that the private setting avoids.

About Nordh Executive Search

Nordh Executive Search places senior and executive talent in cybersecurity, enterprise software, AI infrastructure and data centers across the DACH region and the Nordics. If you have questions about your own positioning, reach out on LinkedIn or at nordh.de.