How to optimise your LinkedIn profile after maternity leave

LinkedIn is a powerful tool. Not just an online CV, it’s a personal brand platform that can communicate your skills, experience, insights and more.

But, mums returning to work often struggle to translate the value of what they have lived and managed at home. A caregiving career break reshapes your identity, and reintroducing yourself professionally can feel daunting. 

It’s common for new mums to try and hide or apologise for the gap. But, career experts say we should be encouraging women to harness their profiles to show their wide range of transferable skills.

Address your mindset

“I think the emotional side of returning to work is massively overlooked,” says Matthew Warzel, president of career coaching platform MJW Careers. “Many women quietly battle confidence erosion, identity shifts, guilt or fear that the market passed them by.”

These internal shifts can make LinkedIn feel intimidating. It’s a space to showcase professional skills that many women feel disconnected from, having been ‘out of the game’ for a period of time. As a result, one of the biggest mistakes Warzel sees is women treating a career break as something they need to apologise for. 

Dr Christiane Schroeter, career strategist and Happy Healthy Hustle podcast host, agrees: “I constantly see apologetic language in women’s profiles. But over-explaining signals that you view it as a liability, and the reader takes your cue.”

The other biggest mistake is freezing your profile in the past, in an attempt to hide the gap. According to Schroeter, an old title, old photo and language from the job you left years ago means you’re treating LinkedIn “like a tombstone for your old career instead of a launchpad for your next one”. But, hiding the break creates a confusing timeline that recruiters notice and trust less.

Rebranding your profile begins with a mindset shift. It’s a misconception that a career gap automatically weakens someone’s value in the job market. In reality, mothers come back with a plethora of highly transferable skills. These include stronger communication, emotional intelligence, adaptability, crisis management ability, prioritisation and leadership maturity, says Warzel.

He adds: “Employers still desperately need capable people who can lead, organise, communicate, solve problems, and navigate chaos calmly - and many mothers have been doing exactly that for years.” 

(Kaboom / Pexels)

Focus on the quick wins

Starting with the quickest and easiest updates can instantly improve the credibility of your LinkedIn profile while making the task feel more manageable. Coaches recommend prioritising the top third of your page, as this needs to earn the scroll from recruiters who scan quickly.

Begin with your headline, rewriting to lead with expertise and not your last job title. Warzel offers this example: “‘Marketing Professional | Content Strategy | Brand Development’ is much stronger and more searchable than ‘Seeking Opportunities’ or ‘Returning to Work’.”

Schroeter also suggests adding a current photo as well as a real banner image: “A blank gray banner signals an inactive account.”

For other quick wins, she advises the following: “Make sure your ‘about’ section is written in first person and present tense. Third person reads like a press release that nobody requested.”

Think about your language

Translating your break into language that employers and recruiters understand requires extra attention, because it’s the most important task. Experts summarise it as this: Don’t explain the gap, reposition the value.

Warzel helps clients reposition their profiles so they stop looking like someone “trying to get back into work” and instead come across as “a professional entering their next chapter with intention, clarity, and confidence.”

“I remind clients that caregiving develops highly transferable skills, including prioritisation, communication, organisation, problem-solving and resilience. The key is helping employers connect those strengths to business outcomes,” he says. “From a keyword standpoint, review job descriptions for your target roles and identify the skills, tools and industry terms that appear repeatedly. Those keywords should naturally show up on your profile.”

"Caregiving develops highly transferable skills, including prioritisation, communication, organisation, problem-solving and resilience."

Matthew Warzel, MJW Careers

When it comes to addressing the career gap, name it without apology. Acknowledge the break, but don’t make it the focal point. Schroeter encourages you to start with who you are now: "I am an operations leader who builds calm, efficient teams’ beats ‘After taking time off to raise my children’ every time.”

LinkedIn now has an official ‘career break’ option under ‘experience’. List the skills you’ve developed as a parent – budgeting, negotiation, scheduling, and crisis management. 

The dreaded word: Networking

Optimising your LinkedIn profile is the priority, but shouldn’t be the end. Career experts warn that a ‘silent’ profile that never posts or comments is limiting. To really harness LinkedIn during your job search, engagement and visibility is what keeps you top of mind.

Kelly Ling, a career coach and founder of Stork & Spark, suggests you start by following people relevant to your industry or pivot, and other things you identify with like parenthood, community or mission-driven organisations. 

“Read their posts and leave comments, or even DM them - this is ‘modern networking’", she says. “Then, start posting: Share ideas, insights and learnings - a mix of professional (where you want your career to go) and personal (makes you human which helps build trust). As people engage with your content, engage back, and build your network from here. There is a very high likelihood your next opportunity will come from this network you're cultivating.”

Optimising and building engagement on your LinkedIn may take some time and practise, but the results are two-fold. It can help you secure opportunities, but also help shift your mindset during a transitional period tied closely to shifts in self identity and cognitive load.

A career break is a chapter, not a confession – remembering this helps you own the narrative.