When I search for an enterprise account executive for a software vendor that sells into defence and the public sector, I have around a hundred names within a few minutes. Some of the best salespeople I know in that market are not on the list. Their experience is fine. Their profiles simply don't contain the words I type into the search bar.

With some of the people who do make the list, I can tell within ten seconds which decade they started their career in. Before I have seen a single one of their numbers.

This guide is for experienced salespeople over 45 who want their LinkedIn profile to get found by recruiters, without the profile giving away their age before anyone has read a result. It draws on 19 years in executive search at Nordh Executive Search and 25 years before that on the other side of the table, as an enterprise salesperson, sales leader and country manager.

How do recruiters actually search LinkedIn?

If you sell B2B, you know Sales Navigator. You build an account list with industry, headcount, region and a few keywords. A company that doesn't make it through those filters never gets a call from you.

LinkedIn Recruiter works the same way. This time you are the account on the list.

And just like in your own pipeline, there are two stages: first the list, then qualification. Experienced salespeople lose conversations they deserved at both.

Right now that is expensive. Since 2022, defence has moved from a niche topic to one of the fastest growing segments in European technology. Governments are raising defence budgets, and software, AI and security vendors are building teams to sell to ministries of defence, armed forces and the defence industry. That market rewards exactly what experienced people bring: relationships built over many years, an understanding of public procurement and often a security clearance. The demand is there. Many of those profiles just don't show up in the search.

Why don't experienced salespeople show up in recruiter searches?

Because recruiters search for nouns, and most senior profiles are written in adjectives. Nobody types "results-driven", "experienced" or "passionate" into LinkedIn Recruiter. I search for roles, technologies and markets. Account executive or key account manager. Defence, public sector, government. AI, zero trust, sovereign cloud. And for defence roles, almost always: security clearance.

A surprising number of candidates who hold a clearance don't mention it anywhere. Check with your security officer what you are allowed to state publicly. Just don't leave it out by habit.

Build your LinkedIn headline from five job ads

The most important field for recruiter search is the headline under your name. For many experienced salespeople it shows a title and an employer, something like "Senior Key Account Manager at a large systems integrator". Accurate, but it reads like a business card. It doesn't tell me what you sell, or to whom.

Take five job ads for the role you actually want. The terms that keep coming up belong in your headline, spelled exactly the way the ads spell them. Then add a part that shows what you deliver. For example:

Enterprise Account Executive, Defence and Public Sector | Software and AI for ministries of defence and government agencies | New business across the Nordics and DACH | Three years in a row over plan

Write your profile in the language of the job ads

Across most of Europe, tech vendors write their job ads in English, even for roles based in Paris, Munich or Stockholm. If your profile only exists in German or French, you are missing a large share of the searches. LinkedIn lets you add a second language version of your profile, so you don't have to choose one over the other.

Fill the skills section, because recruiters filter by it

Recruiters can filter by skills. If a skill isn't listed in that section, you can drop out of the filter even when the same term appears in your work history. Take the hard terms from your five job ads: technologies, methods, markets. MEDDPICC, Salesforce, public sector, public procurement, framework agreements, defence, NIS2. Twenty to thirty-five entries are plenty. Each time, pick the term from LinkedIn's suggestion list, because that is the version people search for. Then set your five most important ones as top skills in your About section.

What does a recruiter check in the first ten seconds of your profile?

Once you are on the list, I open your profile. I don't read, I scan. I look for three things: what you sell, to whom, and with what result. I call it the ten-second scan. If those three answers aren't visible near the top, most recruiters move on to the next name.

Many About sections open like a biography: "Seasoned sales professional with more than 25 years of experience." That first line takes the most valuable space on your profile and gives away your age on top. Start with what you do instead: "I sell AI and data platforms to large manufacturers and industrial groups across Northern Europe. Fourteen new logos in the last two years." A recruiter reads that paragraph to the end.

The experience section has the same problem. "Responsible for key accounts, managing existing customers, forecasting." Those are duties. What you achieved isn't there. Write three lines per role and start each one with a number: quota attainment, new logos, largest deal, tenders won. Use only numbers you are allowed to share. Percentages are almost always safe, customer names often aren't, and in defence that goes double.

I cover the headline, header and About section in more detail in The Four Levers That Make Recruiters Notice Your LinkedIn Profile, and the view from Director and VP level in Get Found on LinkedIn in DACH.

Which signals give away your age on LinkedIn?

Now the uncomfortable part. I say this as someone with more than forty years of working life behind him. Many experienced profiles reveal the owner's age before a recruiter has seen a single number. Most people removed their graduation year long ago. There are four other age signals, and they weigh more.

1. The career museum

Every role since 1992, each with five bullet points. The reader doesn't have to do the maths, because the profile does it for them.

A lot of American advice says to delete everything before 2010. For Europe I would be more careful. In Germany and Austria in particular, a career that suddenly starts in 2010 looks like a gap. And some early roles carry real credibility, especially if you worked for a vendor that defined a whole category. My advice: the last ten to fifteen years in detail, everything before that on one line per role. Title and company, no description.

2. Outdated vocabulary

"Seeking new challenges in a dynamic environment." "Proven track record." "Synergy." "Win-win." That sounded professional in 2005. To a recruiter born in 1996 it reads like a text from another era, and after twenty years you no longer hear it yourself. Read your About section out loud once. Any sentence a thirty-year-old colleague would never say comes out.

3. Nothing since 2020

Lotus Notes and Siebel in the skills section, and not a word about what is happening now. Every vendor today has an AI story. A salesperson whose profile doesn't mention AI at all looks as if they missed it. You don't have to be an expert. But if you use ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot for account research and call preparation, say so. The same goes for your customers' topics. If you work with government, that means sovereign cloud and public procurement.

4. The silent profile

The last activity is a reshared press release from your employer in 2023. You don't need to become an influencer. One concrete observation every week or two is enough, for example what is changing in defence procurement right now. No customer names, but taken from your real work.

For the wider picture of how algorithms and AI screening treat older candidates, read Age Discrimination 2.0 and How to Overcome Age Discrimination in the Job Market.

Example: the defence account executive who wasn't in the search

One case from this year. An enterprise account executive, mid-fifties, almost twenty years in the public sector, with government agencies and the armed forces as customers, and a security clearance. I had a role with a US software vendor that is building its defence business in Europe, starting in Germany. He didn't show up in my search. I only knew him from an earlier assignment.

His profile: "Senior Key Account Manager" and the name of his employer in the headline. Every role back to 1993, all described in detail. Teamwork and Microsoft Office in the skills section. Defence, armed forces, the clearance: none of it appeared anywhere.

The client's VP of Sales, late thirties, looked at the profile before the first interview. Afterwards he told me that if he had only seen the profile, he wouldn't have invited him. In the interview, he was the strongest candidate of the entire process.

We rebuilt the profile in one evening. New headline, three numbers per role, everything before 2008 on one line. He got the job. And for the first time in years, recruiters he didn't know started contacting him.

What should you change on your LinkedIn profile this week?

• Build your headline and skills from five job ads for your target role, in the language the ads are written in.

• Replace duties with results in your About section and in every role, with a number at the start of each line.

• Remove the timestamps. Early roles on one line, old vocabulary out, current topics like AI, defence or sovereign cloud in, and a sign of life in your feed now and then.

Your experience is your strongest argument. But it only works once someone finds you and sees within the first few seconds that you are relevant today. Vendors across Europe are looking for people who have known ministries, agencies and armed forces for years. Make sure your profile gets you into the conversation. That's where experience usually wins.

FAQ: LinkedIn profiles for candidates over 45

Should I remove old jobs from my LinkedIn profile if I'm over 50?

Not in the DACH market. German and Austrian readers see a career that starts in 2010 as a gap. Show the last ten to fifteen years in detail and reduce everything earlier to one line per role with title and company only. You keep the credibility of the early roles, and your profile stops reading like a timeline of your age.

Should my LinkedIn profile be in English or German?

Write it in the language of the job ads you are targeting. For senior sales roles with software, AI and cybersecurity vendors, that is usually English, even for positions based in Munich, Vienna or Stockholm. You can add a German version as a second language profile so recruiters find you in both searches.

Should I mention a security clearance on LinkedIn?

For defence and public sector sales roles, recruiters search for it directly, so leaving it out can keep you off the list. Check with your security officer what level of detail you may state publicly, then add it to your headline or About section.

Review your profile with a headhunter

I'm Jan Nordh, founder of Nordh Executive Search in Munich. For 19 years I have placed senior sales and GTM leaders with vendors in cybersecurity, enterprise software, AI infrastructure and data centres across DACH and the Nordics. If you'd like to go through your profile once with a headhunter's eyes, or you're planning your next move in software, AI, cybersecurity, defence or the public sector, get in touch on LinkedIn or at nordh.de.

This article is based on an episode of the Nordh Executive Search Podcast.