Lesson Introduction
Your current position is shown prominently on your LinkedIn Profile, much more so than Past Experiences that we will cover in the next lesson. So it’s worth taking the time to optimize it and make it pop to increase discoverablity and visibility.
Where to Find These Settings
- Click your photo
- Click View profile
- Scroll to Experience Section
- Click + to add a new experience
- Click pencil icon to edit existing experience
Expert Tip
If you have held multiple positions in the same organization: Be sure to tag the same company and set the Start and End Dates as appropriate.
This will ensure your career path in the organization is shown correctly on your Experience Section.
Action
Complete the instructions in the following step-by-step walk-through.
Title
- Starting typing your job title
- Select one from the prompted suggestions
Expert Tip
Unless you have a really great reason to make up your own Position Title, I recommended you choose one of the suggested Position Titles prompted when you start typing.
This plays into the LinkedIn algorithm and will improve the visibility and discoverability of your profile.
This is particlularly important if you are looking to attract recruiters, clients, or followers.
Employment Type
Choose from the list:
(There may be more or less options depending on your country location)
- Full-time
- Part-time
- Self-employed
- Freelance
- Contract
- Internship
- Apprenticeship
- Temporary
Company Name:
- Start typing the Company Name
- Select the Company from the suggested list
Expert Tip
If the company has a Company Page on LinkedIn it is important to tag the correct company so that it shows properly in the header section.
This will increase your LinkedIn Profile discoverabliity and visibility to current and former colleagues, and followers of the company page.
Location
Enter the location.
Current or Past Position?
Choose the approiate next step below.
Current Position?
- Tick box if you currently work in this role
- Enter Start Date
- Tick boxes to end current positions already listed if applicable
OR
Past Position?
- Enter Start Date
- Enter End Date
Industry
- Starting typing
- Select one from the suggestions
- Choose the one that best represents your personal industry
Frustratingly, there are bunch missing.
Expert Tip
The industry you select has a significant impact on where and to whom my LinkedIn Profile is shown and suggested. It matters, so what’s your Industry?
I am the Digital Marketing Director for an International Publishing Company. Most would say that it is in the Publishing industry. I agree. But it’s not my industry!
My whole professional career has been about Marketing. So my personal industry is set to Marketing Services.
Description
2000 characters to describe the position.
Expert Tip
- Avoid creating a huge wall of text.
- Use bullet points and start with an Action Verbs like Manage, Lead, Increase, Deliver, and Develop.
- Use short paragraphs.
- Showcase core responsibilities.
- Showcase achievements and accomplishments.
- Use keywords.
I’m not job hunting, so I keep my job description really brief and more about my reponsiblities rather than the specific tasks.
My Example:
– Develop and implement game-changing digital strategies.
– Build, lead, and manage a Digital Marketing team.
– Manage and optimize multiple websites to enhance visibility and engagement.
– Engage an international audience of 1.7 million+ monthly B2B readers.
– Lead LinkedIn content strategy for 50+ team.
Note the use of keywords that help the profile appear in search results:
develop, digital strategies, lead, digital marketing, optimize, engagement, audience, content strategy
Profile Headline
It should be prefilled with the optimized headline that you created in Course One of this series.
Expert Tip
Do get in to the habit of reviewing your headline regularly, remembering that you have 220 characters to catch peoples attention.
Skills
Pick the Top 5 Skills associated with this role.
- Click + Add Skill
- You will be presented with all of the skills you added to your Skills Section in Course Two of this series
- Tick the Top 5 Skills
- You can also add new skills if required
Expert Tip
This is where your activity from the Skills Section course really pays off.
Anymore than 5 skills will clutter your profile, but it’s up to you.
Media
Here you can make your Experience Section REALLY POP! by adding Links and/or Images:
LINKS:
You can link to websites, documents, or videos.
PHOTOS / IMAGES:
The optimum size of images is 1200 pixel by 630 pixels.
Expert Tip
I highly recommend adding links to provide tangible proof of your skills and accomplishments.
- Presentations
- Reports
- Portfolios
If you don’t have a website I recommend setting up a FREE linktr.ee landing page. They’re very useful for anyone that doesn’t have website.
For each of my colleagues I have created our own version of a landing page on our corporate website.
CONCLUSION
That’s it, You have optimized your current or most recent postion.
In the next lesson I have some suggestions regarding optimizing your past experiences for maximum affect.
