Why Your LinkedIn Profile is Being Ignored

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January is always a bit of a whirlwind. It is that time of year when most of you decide to take a proper look at where you are headed. Inevitably, that leads to a rather awkward scroll through your own LinkedIn profile. What I notice lately, especially with those of you aiming for senior leadership, is that this digital version of yourself often feels like a stranger. A couple of years ago, I reviewed the profiles of 100 CEOs within my own network. Most of them were quite bleak. They felt cold and distant, offering almost zero insight into the person behind the job title. It was as if everyone was terrified of looking too human, yet in 2025, that is exactly what the market asks for.

We are no longer in that “Great Resignation” era where anyone with a decent CV could land a role. We have landed in what economists call a “soft landing” market. It sounds gentle, but for job seekers, it is actually quite sticky. Companies are clinging to the talent they already have, and hiring speed has dropped significantly. Monthly job gains fell from an average of 251,000 in 2023 to around 180,000 as we moved into 2025. If you work in tech, finance, or marketing, you feel that squeeze even more because the growth just is not happening there. There are fewer seats at the table and the competition for them is noisier than ever.

This brings us to why so many of you feel invisible right now. It is not because your experience suddenly lost its value. It is because the way people assess you has fundamentally changed. Your LinkedIn profile is no longer just a digital filing cabinet for your career history. It is now the primary tool used to judge your leadership potential before you even get a chance to speak. In fact, including a clickable LinkedIn link on your CV increases your interview chances by nearly 10 percentage points. However, the first reader of your profile is rarely a person. Over 70% of recruiters now use AI or automated screening tools to decide if you are worth a human’s time. We are stuck in a loop where we have to satisfy a machine’s logic while still looking like an authentic leader to the person who eventually reads it.

How AI is screening your LinkedIn profile

When you write “I managed a team” on your profile, you know exactly what that implies. You think of the cultural shifts you steered, the difficult performance reviews, and the pride of seeing a direct report get promoted. The problem is that the automated screening tools and AI that are reading your profile have zero interest in your memories. They do not see the pressure or the context (something it is trying to improve on). Instead, it treats your career like a data-matching exercise.

Recruiters and executive search firms are increasingly using these tools to find specific markers. If a role is scoped using modern job architecture or leadership frameworks, the AI looks for very specific vocabulary to match it. If your profile uses “legacy” language or feels a bit too vague, you simply do not register as a match. This is why so many highly experienced leaders feel invisible on LinkedIn. It is not that your experience stopped being relevant. It is that the language on your profile is no longer being read in the way you think it is.

To get past this first digital gatekeeper, you have to become what I call “AI Literate”. This means explicitly using the keywords that search firms care about right now, such as “P&L Management,” “Digital Transformation,” or “Change Management”. It might feel a bit functional, but if you do not satisfy the machine’s hunger for these terms, a human will never get the chance to read about your vision.

How do recruiters use LinkedIn to assess leadership potential?

Once you clear the AI hurdle, you meet the second reader, the human. This is where the assessment gets deeper. In 2025, the expectation of a leader has moved beyond what you can do behind closed doors. Employer advocacy is now a prominent expectation of senior executives. Organisations have realised that people trust other people far more than they trust corporate company pages.

Look at PayPal as an example. They recently hired a “Head of CEO Content”. That role exists because a CEO with a strong, authentic voice on LinkedIn can attract more investors, better talent, and more customers than a standard press release ever could. Building your brand is no longer an act of vanity. It is an act of leadership. When you share how you think, explain the “why” behind a decision, or talk through a challenge you faced, you are demonstrating your ability to communicate a vision.

This shift means your profile has to do more than just list your historical data. While the machine needs those keywords to find you, the human reader is looking for executive presence and board-readiness. They want to see a narrative arc that explains your leadership philosophy and your strategic vision for the industry.

The most effective senior profiles move away from functional tasks. Instead of writing “I managed a team,” you should be talking about how you lead organisational transformation. You have to justify your seat at the table by showing your unique value proposition and how you handle a crisis. By using a specific voice, like the “Sage” for data-driven wisdom or the “Hero” for results, you ensure your tone remains consistent and authentic

How do I write for the algorithm without losing my human authority?

The mistake I see most leaders make is trying to choose between writing for a machine or writing for a person. They either create a keyword-stuffed document that reads like a manual, or they write a poetic summary that the algorithm completely ignores. The real strategy lies in a double-layered approach. You treat your profile as a technical asset and a narrative tool at the same time.

The first layer is about strategic placement. While you need the right vocabulary to pass the digital gatekeepers, the way you distribute those terms matters. Your headline and your skills section do the heavy lifting for the algorithm. These are the primary data points the “First Reader” uses to categorise you. Instead of just listing your current job title, you use this space to create a map of your expertise that the system can index immediately. This ensures you appear in the right searches without cluttering the rest of your profile with repetitive jargon.

The second layer is about narrative authority. This happens in your “About” and “Experience” sections. Once the technical layer brings a human to your page, you have to keep them there. This is where you move away from the “what” of your career and focus on the “how.” You use these sections to explain your leadership philosophy and your unique approach to solving industry problems. This is not about repeating your CV; it is about justifying your seat at the table.

This double-layered approach triggers a specific metric called Dwell Time. The LinkedIn algorithm now prioritises relevance and professional insight over how recently you posted. When a human recruiter stops to read a well-crafted narrative, the system signals that your profile is high-value. This “Knowledge Sharing” approach is why longer, more insightful summaries are seeing 26% better engagement in 2025. By satisfying the machine’s need for data in your headline and the human’s need for insight in your summary, you turn your profile into an active asset that builds its own momentum.

How can I access the hidden executive job market on LinkedIn?

If you are only looking at job boards, you are missing about 70% of the opportunities available to you. In the executive world, this is the hidden job market. It is where the most strategic hiring happens. By the time a role for a Director or C-suite leader reaches a public site, the organisation is often already overwhelmed or in a rush. The real action takes place in confidential conversations, boardrooms, and through trusted networks before a job description is even drafted. Research suggests that 75% of senior roles are filled through internal promotions, referrals, or passive sourcing long before the public ever knows a vacancy exists.

This is why the double-layered profile strategy is important. Since you cannot apply to a job that does not officially exist, your profile must do the work of a digital proxy. Executive search firms use AI to build “long lists” for these confidential roles by scanning for the technical markers we discussed earlier. If your profile lacks those markers, you remain invisible to the people holding the keys to the hidden market. Companies keep these roles under wraps for very practical reasons. Strategy protection is vital. If a retailer advertises for a “Head of AI Transformation,” they are essentially handing their roadmap to their competitors. Discretion is the currency of high-level hiring. Headhunters do not look for applicants. They look for authorities who are already visible on the platform.

Accessing this world requires a complete shift in how you spend your time. The data shows that a scattergun approach to applications is a mathematical failure for executives. Highest success rates belong to those who focus on a small group of 20 to 39 target companies and invest their energy into building relationships there. You are four times more likely to land a role if you are referred by an existing employee, yet many leaders still spend 70% of their time applying and only 30% networking. Reversing those numbers is the only way to get on the radar of the search firms that manage these unpublished searches.

Even when you do clear the digital hurdles, you must prepare for a more intentional rhythm of hiring. The median time to get a first interview is now 22 days, and a full offer can take around 58 days. This slow pace reflects a market that has become more cautious. Organisations are looking for safety and deep expertise rather than just potential. You cannot wait for the door to open before you start preparing. You have to be visible and ready to move the moment a confidential conversation begins. Navigating this landscape is about moving away from the “Apply” button and toward a strategy of digital proximity.

Try our Executive LinkedIn Profile Auditor

Find out if your LinkedIn profile reflects the level of roles you are aiming for.

Why your reputation is the only career protection AI cannot copy

While technology is busy turning hard skills and technical experience into commodities, it cannot touch the specific way you lead people through a crisis. Your reputation is your only true protection. In a market where 67% of CEOs are appointed from within and external hiring for leadership roles has slowed down, your visibility acts as your insurance policy. If you do not appear in the search results of executive headhunters, or if your profile feels distant when they eventually find you, you are essentially opting out of 70% of the market.

The shift from being a job seeker to a recognised authority happens the moment you start treating your LinkedIn profile as an act of leadership rather than a task for HR. You satisfy the AI with the right language and technical markers, but you win the role by proving to the human reader that you are the operational saviour they need. This is about making sure that when someone scrolls through your history, they see a leader with a clear perspective rather than just another list of responsibilities.

If you feel like your digital presence does not reflect the leader you have become, or if you suspect your experience is being lost in the digital filters, I can help you fix that. I specialise in helping senior professionals bridge the gap between the machine and the human. We look at the data, find the language that registers, and build a profile that does the hard work for you. If you are ready to move from being invisible to being sought after, send me a message and let’s talk about how we can get your experience back on the radar.