Create Your Profile in Our Member Directory

Grow Your Business by Optimizing Your CDI Profile

CDI offers members four ways to stand out to job seekers, and chances are you aren’t yet taking advantage of them:

1. Customizing your Member Profile
2. Becoming a CDI expert guest blogger.
3. Promoting your book to job seekers in the CDI job seeker section.
4. Getting featured in our Ask the Expert Q&A articles.

The links to blogging, Q&A features and listing your book are above, and easy to follow. So our focus here is on your member profile. 

WAIT! Even if you have set up your profile before, please take a few moments to read this because there is probably much more you can do to stand out.

First off, here’s what we see when job seekers contact us for referrals and we go to the Find a Career Pro search to help direct them: 

75% of members have never even set up their profile and are completely missing client opportunities!

That means when a job seeker plugs in criteria, you might not even show up at all! Even if you’ve earned a CDI award or credential, if you haven’t created a profile, you aren’t displayed.

15% of members have done the bare minimum of selecting searchable categories which doesn’t help them stand out from the competition. 

OK, it is great you picked categories like engineering, executives, etc. But you are still going to come up with everyone else who picked those categories.

If you haven’t filled out your profile data then a job seeker is going to move on to someone who shares information. Don’t expect a job seeker to reach out to you because you are one of 151 professionals who work with executives in technology. You need more than just categories to stand out. That’s like a job seeker picking skill sets in an online job board profile but not uploading a resume. 

8% of members have profiles that tell but don’t sell. 

When your profile is out there but it isn’t optimized, it can do as much harm (or more) as no profile at all. What we see over and over again are lists of skills and or qualifications or no overview bio at all!

This is your chance to share marketing copy — your ideal clients, process, and why you are the one they want to email or call. Think resume writing — you brand the top with bottom-line value to encourage the employer to want to go deeper. If your profile isn’t doing this then job seekers will move on. 

2% of members can stop reading this because their profile is awesome. 

Ok, 2% may be generous here but it is a really low number of members who have taken the time to maximize their profile and what might be the first look a job seeker gets to take. Remember, just like the resume, you’ve got seconds to make an impression!

While you can boost your visibility with a CDI resume certification, career certification, or a TORI award, the fastest and easiest thing you can do is spend 30 minutes logging in and making your profile GREAT! 

So just what should you focus on with your profile?

All you have to do is click on “Edit Profile” above or in your dashboard. 

Then, here are the helpful, easy steps: 

1. Check the personal information you added when you registered. Is it correct? Has your email address changed? Do you need to add your website address and social media handles?
2. Select the professions/specialties you work with. Keep in mind that while you can select the “all” or “any” feature in this and the next few categories, this option is here to really let you tailor to reaching your ideal clients. 
3. Select the services and products you offer. 
4. Select the client employment levels you serve. 
5. Create or update your biography. This is where the “MAGIC” happens! This is your one chance to sell yourself to a job seeker. Your opening should be a lot like the top of a resume or a website squeeze page: you need to speak directly to your ideal client so that they see the fit and are compelled to click. They need to understand why you are the ideal person to resolve their pain. Don’t just tell but sell!
6. Add or update your image avatar. Just like you wouldn’t have a social profile without a professional looking headshot, you need to have an image for your CDI profile. Most will use professional looking photo headshots but some use logos. I recommend a headshot that is true to your brand and personality. 
7. Be sure to hit update at the bottom to save your changes! 

That’s it! If you have great copy on your website or LinkedIn about section already it can be just a few minutes of clicking categories, cutting, pasting, and uploading an image. This process won’t take you long but it will pay off!

Remember the Find a Career Pro search database won’t work for you if you don’t take advantage of it fully! 

NOTE: Again, yes you can boost your searchability with a CDI resume certification, career certification, or a TORI award. Those are highly searched categories in the database. But you still have to market yourself and have a call to action to stand out from others with the same certifications and awards. 

Here’s to more savvy marketing, greater visibility, and more prospects by just taking the time to complete or update your CDI member profile!