They will look you up
Assume that between reading your application and replying, someone types your name into a search box. What they find should agree with what you sent. A profile with a different job title, a different span of dates or an empty page raises a question that nobody has time to ask you about.
You do not need to be active or to post. You need a profile that is complete, current and consistent: a clear photograph of your face, your city, the same title as your CV, the same roles with the same dates, and a short about section in plain language.
Proof beats description
An employer who has never met you is being asked to take a risk. Anything they can open reduces it. Proof does not mean a portfolio website. It means one link or one attachment that shows the work.
- Support and admin: a short document showing how you would answer three awkward customer messages, or a simple process you wrote for someone else to follow.
- Bookkeeping and data: a spreadsheet with the workings visible, a small reconciliation, a chart with a sentence explaining what it shows.
- Writing and social: three pieces, whatever they were for, with a line about what each was meant to do.
- Technical and operations: a checklist, a runbook, a log of an issue you worked through from first symptom to fix.
Handle a gap or a change plainly
Gaps and career changes are normal and only become a problem when they are hidden, because hiding them makes a reader suspicious of everything else. One honest line is enough. Left to care for a family member and now returning. Changed direction from teaching to support work and spent that time learning the tools.
Say it once, in the summary or the cover note, and then move on to what you can do. You do not owe anyone the details.