Your words, arranged and counted
Your role, your strengths, your proof — arranged and counted against both the field limit and the shorter length that actually survives a search result.
Your words, arranged and counted
Your role, your strengths, your proof — arranged several ways, each counted against the field limit and against the shorter length that actually survives a search result.
About the character counts
LinkedIn stores 220 characters in the headline field. It displays far fewer: search results, message previews and connection requests truncate at varying widths, and around 120 characters is what reliably survives.
Characters are counted the way the field counts them — as UTF-16 code units — so an emoji or an accented character can cost two.
These are LinkedIn's limits, not ours, and they change without notice. If the field rejects something that counts as fitting here, believe the field.
The headline is read in a list, not on your profile
Most people who see it are scanning search results or a list of connection requests. They see the first line and decide whether to click.
That is why the plain arrangement — role, then what you are good at — usually beats the clever one. It survives truncation and it reads the same in every context.
Proof gets checked
Putting a figure in the headline is the strongest option available, and it is the first thing anyone will ask about. Use it only where the number is yours, current, and something you can talk about for five minutes.
"Open to work" is a temporary line
Stating what you want is useful while you are looking. It reads oddly once you are not, and profiles rarely get updated. Worth a note in your calendar.