Your headline follows you everywhere on LinkedIn. It appears under your name in search results, in comment threads, in connection requests and in the notification somebody gets when you view their profile. It is read far more often than your profile is, which is why the default job title is a waste of the most visible line you have.
The headline has one job: telling a stranger whether you are relevant to them. That means the words other people would search for should be in it, in plain language.
Job seekers
- Marketing Manager, open to roles in Manchester or remote
- Data Analyst (SQL, Python, Power BI), available from October
- Registered Nurse looking for a permanent post in paediatrics
- Recent graduate in Civil Engineering, seeking a first role in structures
- Operations lead, 12 years in logistics, currently interviewing
- Customer Support Manager, open to remote, happy to talk
- Software Engineer, backend, actively looking after a restructure
Freelancers and consultants
- Freelance copywriter for B2B software companies
- I fix slow Shopify stores
- Fractional CFO for businesses between one and ten million in revenue
- Brand designer working with independent food brands
- Freelance video editor, YouTube and short form
- HR consultant helping small companies write their first handbook
- Photographer for interiors and hospitality
- I help accountants get off spreadsheets
Founders and business owners
- Founder at Northgate Tools, we make things for tradespeople
- Building a booking system for small clinics
- Co-founder, hiring a first sales person
- Owner of a family bakery, second generation
- Founder, ex-engineer, currently talking to a lot of customers
Corporate and in-house roles
- Head of Product at a fintech, mostly working on payments
- Engineering Manager, platform teams, 30 people
- Senior Recruiter, technical hiring in Europe
- Finance Business Partner supporting commercial teams
- Programme Manager for infrastructure projects in the North West
- Head of People at a company going from 40 to 120
Career changers
- Teacher moving into instructional design, halfway through the transition
- Ex-hospitality, now three months into a data analytics course
- Retraining as a paralegal after 15 years in retail management
- Nurse moving into clinical software, learning fast
- From accountancy to product management, and enjoying it
Adding context or personality
- Product Manager. I write about the boring parts of the job.
- Structural engineer and unreasonably enthusiastic about bridges
- Recruiter who replies to every applicant
- Lawyer, plain English only
- CTO, still writing code on Fridays
- Marketing lead, ex-journalist, still asking too many questions
Short and plain
- Financial Controller
- Frontend developer, React and TypeScript
- Occupational Therapist, NHS
- Account Executive, cybersecurity
- Mechanical Engineer, automotive
- Copy editor and proofreader
- Project Manager, construction
Contractors and interim roles
- Interim Finance Director, available for 6 to 12 month engagements
- Contract QA engineer, currently on a project until March
- Interim Head of Marketing for companies between funding rounds
- Freelance project manager, construction and fit-out
- Available for short consulting engagements, two days a week
Writing your own
Put the searchable role first. Recruiters and buyers search job titles and skills, so a headline that opens with a slogan will not be found by either. After the role, add one qualifier that filters: a location, a specialism, an industry, or an availability. That second half is what turns a generic title into a headline that tells a stranger whether to click. Cut the emoji separators and the stacked keyword lists, since a line reading like six job titles separated by bars reads as unfocused. If you are job hunting, say so in words rather than relying only on the green badge, because the badge does not travel into comment threads. LinkedIn gives you a generous amount of room here, up to 220 characters, but the whole thing is rarely shown, so keep the first 60 or so doing the work. If you are rewriting a whole profile rather than just this line, a general AI bio generator covers the headline and the About section in one pass. An AI LinkedIn bio generator is useful for getting five drafts to react to.