How to Create a LinkedIn Banner for Your Dubai Job Search

Why do you need a LinkedIn banner image for your Dubai job search?

If you have ever driven down Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, you'll have no doubt noticed the huge advertising billboards.

They are are passed by around 130,000 vehicles every single day, as well as Dubai metro users, and showcase some of the most recognised brands in Dubai.

Companies in Dubai understand the importance of brand recognition and they pay good money to advertise in these locations, It’s an effective brand-building strategy that often delivers high ROI.

Your LinkedIn banner image is like your own personal Dubai billboard

Think about your LinkedIn banner image like a digital billboard, premium advertising real estate that could, in theory, be seen by hundreds, it not thousands, of people each and every week.

Your LinkedIn banner image is exclusive advertising space that ‘brand YOU’ can use to tell Dubai recruiters and Dubai hiring managers how great you are and what you have to offer.

A well designed LinkedIn banner image can convey a wealth of important information in a split second.

Just take a moment to consider the numbers below, once you’ve digested the incredible reach that LinkedIn now has, you’ll hopefully begin to see just how powerful this piece of advertising real estate is.

• 216M+ users in the EMEA region alone

• 95 job applications are submitted on LinkedIn every second

• 6 people get hired on LinkedIn every minute

• 830M+ people use LinkedIn globally

On top of all this, I know from experience that most Dubai recruiters use LinkedIn to source candidates for roles. As a Dubai job seeker, you should do everything you can to ensure that your LinkedIn is up-to-date and fully optimised for the Dubai job market.

When a Dubai recruiter visits your LinkedIn profile, your banner image is one of the first things that they are going to see.

Your LinkedIn banner image is featured prominently at the top of your profile and also shows up in other areas across LinkedIn, such as in 'suggested connections'.

So, if you want to be contacted by Dubai recruiters and also grow your professional Dubai network, your LinkedIn banner image is a great place to start.

Get Access to 20 Top Dubai Recruitment Agencies

Plus everything you need to successfully land a job in Dubai

How do you add a LinkedIn banner to your LinkedIn profile?

Before we dive straight into designing your LinkedIn banner image for your Dubai job search, let's briefly look at how to add a Linkedin banner image to your profile.

Step one for adding a LinkedIn banner image

Click on the ‘me’ icon that’s situated in the top right corner of your LinkedIn profile and select ‘view profile’ from the drop-down menu.

How to add a LinkedIn banner image to get noticed by recruiters in Dubai

Step two for adding a LinkedIn banner image

Click on the pen icon at the top right corner of the LinkedIn profile banner space.

Create a LinkedIn banner image that gets you noticed by Dubai recruiters

Step three for adding a LinkedIn banner image

Hit ‘change photo’ and select the file for your new LinkedIn profile photo and hit apply.

How to get noticed by recruitment agents in Dubai with a LinkedIn banner image

How to create the perfect LinkedIn banner photo for your Dubai job search

If you want to make this as simple as possible, you could just find an image that you like, maybe an image of Dubai or preferably one that at least has something to do with your industry and quickly upload it to your LinkedIn profile.

This is better than leaving the space blank, after all, there is nothing uglier than a bare billboard.

But if you really want to harness the power of your LinkedIn profile to get noticed by Dubai recruiters and hiring managers, you'll need to do a little more than this!

I’m going to tell you how to create a unique and professional looking LinkedIn banner for your Dubai job search using Canva.com

Canva is free to use and has a ton of images, elements and templates that make it the perfect tool for creating your Dubai LinkedIn banner image.

How to use Canva to make a LinkedIn background photo for Dubai

Click here to access Canva.com

Step One for creating a LinkedIn banner using Canva

Firstly, click on ‘create a design’ on the top left of the screen.

How to create a LinkedIn banner image for Dubai on Canva

Step Two for creating a LinkedIn banner using Canva

Type 'LinkedIn banner' into the search bar and select the correct size.

Create a LinkedIn banner image on Canva.com

What size LinkedIn banner should you use for your Dubai job search?

There are two LinkedIn background sizes to choose from

• The size for a business LinkedIn banner is 2000 x 600 px

• The size for a personal LinkedIn banner is 1584 x 396 px

In this article we're talking about designing a personal LinkedIn banner photo, and so we’re going to select the 1584 x 396 px option.

Selecting a LinkedIn banner design

Canva will now offer you a large selection of templates that can be personalised to best communicate what you need to say for your Dubai job search.

Narrow down your options by typing your job title or industry sector into the search bar. This will bring up a list of designs that have been created with your specific industry in mind, unless you’re a rocket engineer, Canva has yet to get their heads around that one!

Begin by adding a few of your favourite templates into your workspace and designing a few options before picking the best for your LinkedIn profile.

If you are really serious about attracting the right attention from Dubai recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn, try testing each of your LinkedIn banner image designs for a week or two at a time and see if you notice any difference in the number of Dubai recruiters who connect with or reach out to you.

A/B testing is a standard practice in marketing and advertising and the same process will help you to optimise your profile to the full potential.

After all, the goal of creating an eye-catching LinkedIn banner is to generate more visits to your page.

Canva has some fantastic video tutorials that will help you to get the best out of the platform and related tools, just click here.

How to find a job in Dubai

What makes a good LinkedIn banner for a Dubai job search?

For your Dubai job search you should consider adding some of the following elements to your LinkedIn banner. Remember to keep in mind what it is you want to communicate to Dubai recruiters and hiring managers.

Your name

Including your name in a bold font is a great way to stand out and be memorable in the Dubai market, however, this it isn’t essential as you name will already be on your LinkedIn profile.

Job title or target job title

When Dubai recruitment consultants or HR professionals search LinkedIn for talent, they usually have a job title in mind, for example, Project Manager or Cloud Solutions Specialist. Putting your target job title on your LinkedIn banner will tell the recruiter in Dubai that they have found the right person.

Key skills

A Dubai recruiter or hiring manager will also be looking for people with specific skills as companies in Dubai are keen pay to bring the skills and experience that they need into Dubai from overseas. Consider including any specialist skills that you posses, skills that are essential to the jobs that you want to apply for.

Listing 3-4 skills prominently on your LinkedIn banner will quickly catch the viewers' attention and will help re-enforce key messages.

How you can help

A great way to make the most of the space on your LinkedIn banner is to include a statement about how you help companies or clients. This is a very powerful way of communicating to companies and recruiters in Dubai the difference that you can make.

Consider including a statement about how you help companies or clients to achieve their goals, this is a very powerful advertising strategy. It can be as simple as “opening new markets for growing luxury brands” or, “designing logos for ambitious start-ups” or “customer intelligence for growing brands.” Use your LinkedIn banner photo to tell companies and clients exactly what you do and how it can benefit them.

If you’re not sure how to articulate this, consider using the following format – “I help X achieve Y by doing Z”

For example, “I help solo entrepreneurs grow their brands with cutting edge content marketing strategies”.

Add a call to action (CTA)

What action do you want Dubai recruiters and hiring managers to take once they have seen and read your LinkedIn banner? Consider some of the following examples, “connect with me here”, “ask me how I can help”, “reach out to me”, “drop me an email”, “follow me”.

Whatever it might be, think about how you can use your LinkedIn banner to generate more inbound emails, inMails and telephone calls from recruitment companies in Dubai.

Contact details

It's obviously very important to include your most up-to-date contact details. If you include your email address, make sure it's a professional sounding address and not something that you came up with in high-school or college.

It's also worth bearing in mind that Dubai recruitment agents often prefer to contact people who are already on the ground in Dubai, this is not always the case and it depends largely on the role, however, it's always easier, and less risky, to find talent that's already on the ground in Dubai.

With that in mind, it pays to get yourself a Dubai telephone number if you can, if you are planning a visit to Dubai you can easily obtain a sim card from an Etisalat or DU store.

Simplicity

When it comes to design, less is often more. Don't be tempted to make your LinkedIn banner overly complicated or cluttered. It simply needs to look good and convey the most important information.

Anything that distracts from conveying the most important information to a Dubai recruiter should be removed.

Colour

Start by working with 2-3 complimentary colours and no more. Your design needs to be eye-catching, so adding colour can be helpful, however, your LinkedIn background should look professional so try to resist being the next Damien Hurst.

Consider picking out some of the colours from your LinkedIn profile picture, or from your company logo so that the overall look and feel of your LinkedIn profile is cohesive.

Font

Don’t use more than two fonts on your LinkedIn banner. Lots of different fonts can look messy and unprofessional and doesn’t reflect good design.

Ultimately, a great LinkedIn banner image is one that grab the attention of Dubai recruiters and hiring managers and communicates your message clearly.

To make sure that you design a LinkedIn background that will achieve these important goals, write down your answers to these two questions;

• Who’s attention do I want to get?

• What do I want to tell them?

If you are just beginning your job search or are starting to use LinkedIn to attract more customers and clients, sign up for a free trial of LinkedIn Premium and for the next 30-days track who’s looking at your profile.

As you track this, ask yourself these questions;

• Are the right people finding my profile?

• Are they responding to my CTA, are they reaching out to me, connecting with me, etc?

• Is my desired message hitting home?

Examples

Below are some examples that might inspire you, all of these have been easily designed in Canva.

Dubai LinkedIn Banner Image
Project Manager LinkedIn Banner Image My Dubai Career

Don’t forget about the location of your LinkedIn profile picture

One very important thing to remember when designing your LinkedIn banner is the position of your LinkedIn profile picture.

Your LinkedIn profile picture will take up some of the space on your LinkedIn background, so you’ll want to avoid situating important information where your profile picture might obscure it.

Conclusion

You absolutely should upload a LinkedIn banner picture to your LinkedIn profile.

No other section of your LinkedIn profile is as eye-catching and powerful as this one. As they say, a picture paints a thousand words and this is as true of your LinkedIn background image as anything else!

You may also like