First of all: Congratulations!

By joining Braintrust, you’re joining a user-owned Talent network that provides access to high paying jobs with no fees, career advancement, and opportunities to develop ownership within the network.

In other words, you’re taking ownership over your career — and we’re honored to be a part of that journey.

Your profile is critical to your success on Braintrust, showing clients who you are and why you would be the best fit for the roles you’re applying for.

This macro guide focuses on how to maximize your profile for success — if you want a full breakdown of how to start applying for jobs and get approved, please read our “Becoming Approved Talent” macro guide.

In this guide, we’ll give you some of our best tips for maximizing your profile to land high-quality work from top enterprises, including Fortune 1000s, startups, and Web3 projects.

Table of Contents

• The Basics: Completing Your Profile.
  • Why am I required to finish my profile before applying?
  • How do I get started?
    • Add a full Name/add a location
    • Add role/role skills
• The Next Level: Upgrading Your Profile
  • Tell Your Story
    • Your profile should feel human.
    • Invest in a great profile picture.
    • Highlight passion and achievements in your Bio.
  • Keep it Short and Sweet
    • Keep your skills focused.
    • Tailor Superpowers to super gigs.
    • Add certificates to validate your skills.
  • Prioritize and Organize Your Projects.
  • Sell Yourself.
    • Own your expertise.
    • Match the timeline.
    • Use the ‘6-years’ rule.
  • Show and Tell.
    • Don’t make clients search.
    • Paint a picture — and provide one!
    • Give them a glimpse into your mind.
• Additional Resources

The Basics: Completing Your Profile.

We believe filling out your profile is so important that we’ve made it a prerequisite for applying to your first job on the network.

Why am I required to finish my profile before applying?

As a user-owned community, it’s in all of our best interests that Braintrust remains a great place for both Talent looking to find work and clients looking to fill jobs.

Having Talent with only partially completed profiles hurts the entire network because it lowers the overall level of quality for clients as they search for Talent. If that experience is poor, they will be less likely to post jobs on Braintrust in the future … meaning less opportunities for Talent.

You know your story better than anyone else. By fully filling out your profile, you can share that story, your skills, and your expertise, giving you the best chance at landing quality work with great clients.

How do I get started?

After you’ve verified your email, you should now be in the Braintrust app. You can immediately start exploring new opportunities: see the “Search Jobs” bar. And, most importantly, you’ll see a progress bar showing that your profile isn’t yet complete.

You’ll need to get your profile to 100% before you can start applying to jobs.

Add a Full Name/Add a Location

When you add your full name, you’ll also have the opportunity to add your location, as well as your personal website, LinkedIn, Github, Twitter, and other user handles.

Add your Role or Skills

Choose from a number of roles and skills, from Engineering and Design to Product, Sales, or any of the other listed skills. Once you’ve selected skills, you can define the “type” of role from a list of dozens of professions.

What if I have experience in multiple roles?

Set the role that best fits your current career interests and the types of jobs you would like to apply for — you will still be able to apply for other roles on Braintrust, regardless!

What if my role isn’t listed?

We try to cover as many roles as possible in the profile completion process, but recognize that some may not be included. Try to find the role that is most similar to your current role, or the types of roles you are most interested in applying to on the platform.

Why can’t I submit my own unique role?

Braintrust is committed to building a vibrant community of Talent and clients. If a certain role isn’t listed, it might be because we don’t yet have enough of those types of jobs or Talent to ensure a successful partnership for all involved … but stay tuned, as we are rapidly expanding opportunities within our network!

Add your skills and select your top skills.

Select at least 5 skills from those listed, and define your top 3 skills as “Superpowers.” Make sure to press save when you’re done! Adding more skills makes it more likely you will show up in certain job searches that incorporate those skills.

Add your work experience and years of experience.

Just as you would on your resume, go ahead and list some of your past jobs, including your title, company, start/end dates and a description of the type of work you did there.

If you need help on how to position yourself, check out some of our past profile writing guides.

Finally, select your years of experience, and you are ready to start applying for jobs and getting approved!

The Next Step: Upgrading Your Profile.

Of course, simply filling out your profile is just the start. You’re probably here because you want to learn some of the best ways to stand out and fully maximize your potential on the network.

Shirley Yang is the Founder of Muses, one of the initial builders of Braintrust, and the founding VP of Community. As such, she has viewed thousands of Talent profiles over the years.

Here are some of the best takeaways she has for making your profile truly shine.

Tell Your Story.

Your profile should feel human.

Use it as an opportunity to tell your story. You can start by telling potential clients how you got to where you are now.

Invest in a great profile picture.

Choosing a picture of you with a smile or friendly expression will make you come across as someone who is amicable and great to work with.

Highlight passion and achievement in your Bio.

Tell people who you are in a short sentence, then tell them one of your greatest achievements in your field.

Keep it Short and Sweet.

Keep your skills focused.

We would suggest selecting no more than 10-15 skills. Use your “Superpowers” selections to highlight the skills you are most adept at.

Tailor Superpowers to super gigs.

Let’s be real: Some of you have more than 3 superpowers. You can always change which skills are included here. When your dream job comes up, try to match your Superpowers to that job’s requirements!

Add certificates to validate your skills.

Have a postsecondary degree? What about industry certifications? List them in the ‘certificates’ section to showcase the depth and breadth of your abilities, and don’t be afraid to include the most valuable or relevant ones in your Bio.

Prioritize and Organize Your Projects.

The first project you list is the first one your potential client will see, so make sure it’s your most important and the most relevant to the job you’re applying for — again, you can change your profile to fit the job you’re most interested in at that moment!

First impressions are everything. If helpful, follow this framework when describing your projects:

Product: Briefly describe the product that you were working on.

Role: What were your tasks and responsibilities?

Contribution: What outcomes/results did you produce in this role? What was the business impact of your work? Hint: Numbers are great here!

Team: What did you learn? How did you develop as a professional in the context of a larger team? This is a great place to include soft skills.

Sell Yourself.

You’ve worked hard to get to this point in your career, so don’t sell yourself short.

Own your expertise.

When you talk about your skills, instead of saying “I’m comfortable with…” say “I’m great at...” or “I’m passionate about…”

Match the timeline.

Make sure the timeline of your job history clearly illustrates how many years of experience you have with the specific job requirements your potential client is looking for.

Use the ‘6-years’ rule.

When listing your years of experience, if you have less than six years, it’s a good practice to say “several years of experience”. Once you hit six and up, don’t hesitate to give the actual number.

Show And Tell.

Don’t make clients search.

Be proactive and include several links in your Bio. (e.g. portfolio, LinkedIn, GitHub, etc.). If you’re a developer, your Work History section is a great place to list the stack you have the most experience with.

Paint a picture — and provide one!

Always include a thumbnail image in the project showcase to give a visual depiction of your work or the product/company you worked with, even if you’re not a designer.

Give them a glimpse into your mind.

Particularly if you’re a designer, potential clients don’t just want to see the end result — they want to hear about your actual thought process and design approach, because that will help them understand how you go about solving problems.