I finally got around to updating my LinkedIn after years of it sitting there with a profile photo from a job I don't even have anymore, and staring at the "About" section blank box made me want to just delete the account instead of write something.
What actually worked was the same approach that helped with my resume: giving an AI chatbot my real work history in plain language — sales across several industries, currently delivering packages, previous casino dealing experience — and asking it to help me write an About section that sounded like an actual person, not a string of buzzwords like "results-driven professional."
It picked out the actual throughline in my background — comfort with rejection, quick thinking under pressure, adaptability across very different work environments — and helped me write that in plain sentences instead of corporate-speak. It also suggested a headline that said what I actually do instead of a vague title that doesn't mean anything to anyone scrolling past it.
I edited it more than I did my resume, honestly, because LinkedIn is more public and I wanted it to sound unmistakably like me, not like it came out of a template. But having a real starting point instead of a blinking cursor on a blank box got the whole thing done in an evening instead of the months I'd been avoiding it.
Most LinkedIn profiles read the same because most people copy the same buzzword formula out of not knowing what else to do. Starting from your actual work history instead of a template is what makes yours sound like a person instead of a form.
If you want the slow, no-jargon version of all this — the stuff I wish someone had handed me before I fumbled through it myself — that's exactly what I built On Ramp AI for. Check it out here.