LinkedIn is a professional social networking platform that allows users to showcase their skills, accomplishments, and work experiences. One way LinkedIn members can demonstrate their expertise is by sharing projects they have completed or contributed to. However, there are some important considerations when deciding whether and how to share a LinkedIn project.
What is considered a LinkedIn project?
On LinkedIn, a “project” typically refers to a major initiative, campaign, or body of work that an individual worked on as part of their professional role. This could include a website launch, marketing campaign, research study, event, product development cycle, or other undertaking that required significant time and effort to complete.
To be shared on LinkedIn as a project, it should be a substantial piece of work that helped you achieve certain business or career goals. Smaller tasks and deliverables would not necessarily warrant a standalone project. The project should demonstrate skills and competencies relevant to your industry and professional profile.
What are the benefits of sharing projects?
There are several potential benefits to sharing projects on your LinkedIn profile:
- Showcase your skills and abilities: A project can highlight specific hard and soft skills required to accomplish it.
- Demonstrate experience: It shows you have hands-on experience and expertise in a particular area or with certain methodologies.
- Illustrate work products: You can provide concrete examples of deliverables you produced.
- Expand your professional brand: Projects let you go into more detail about your talents and achievements.
- Get discovered: Projects can improve your visibility and help you get found by recruiters or business contacts.
- Support career growth: The projects you share signal the type of work you want to be considered for.
What should you include when sharing a project?
To maximize the impact and value of sharing a LinkedIn project, you generally want to include:
- A brief, compelling overview summarizing the project
- Your specific role, responsibilities, and contributions
- Key objectives and any measurable results achieved
- Major skills utilized
- Links to any publicly shareable work samples or deliverables
- Status—whether it’s complete or ongoing
- Other individuals who collaborated on or approved the project (with their permission)
You typically want to aim for a high-level summary that gets across the most important details and outcomes in 2-3 paragraphs. You can include visual elements like charts, images, or videos to help illustrate the project as well.
Should you share proprietary or confidential information?
When it comes to proprietary details or confidential information, it’s essential to exercise caution and discretion when sharing projects on LinkedIn. You generally want to avoid including:
- Classified details about unreleased products/services
- Any sensistive financial or strategic data
- Trade secrets or intellectual property
- Private customer or employee information
- Anything your employer considers confidential or regulated
It’s smart to get clarity from your employer on what can and cannot be shared publicly. As a rule of thumb, only include high-level overviews of projects using information and results already publicly disclosed by your company.
How can you optimize projects for discoverability?
To help your LinkedIn projects surface in search results and get maximum visibility, consider these tips:
- Include relevant keywords in the project title and description based on what you want to be found for
- Add skills and focus areas that apply to the work so it shows up when people search those terms
- Use rich media like images, infographics, and videos where possible
- Publish shareable links to the project assets or external landing page
- Share the project on your LinkedIn feed when you first add it and highlight milestones
How are LinkedIn projects displayed?
LinkedIn projects appear in a dedicated “Projects” section on your profile, nested under the “Experience” section. On desktop, this Projects section is on the right rail of your profile. On mobile, it is towards the bottom of your profile, after Experience.
In this section, projects are displayed as rectangular cards that include the project title, your role, company, timeline, and overview blurb. People can click on a project to see an expanded view with all the details, media, and links you included.
You can showcase up to 10 projects on your profile. They appear in reverse chronological order by end date. Ongoing projects appear at the top.
Who can see your LinkedIn projects?
The visibility of LinkedIn projects depends on your overall profile settings. There are three options:
- Public: Anyone on or off LinkedIn can see your projects
- Connections only: Your 1st-degree connections can see your projects
- Private: Only you can view your projects
You can control this in your profile settings under “Select who can see your project updates.” The default setting for most users is “Connections only.”
So your 1st-degree connections would be able to see Projects on your profile, but 2nd and 3rd-degree connections or the general public could not.
Can you delete or edit LinkedIn projects?
Yes, you can delete or edit the projects on your LinkedIn profile at any time. To manage projects:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click “See all details” in the Projects section
- Hover over the project and click the “Edit” or trash can icon
- Delete the project or make changes and save
It’s a good idea to periodically review your projects and update or remove any outdated ones. Keeping this section fresh and reflective of your latest work can maximize the impact.
Are there limits on how many projects you can share?
Currently, LinkedIn allows you to feature up to 10 projects on your profile. If you want to showcase more projects, you have a few options:
- Consolidate similar or recurring projects into one encompassing “program”
- Rotate the projects displayed over time
- Link to a project showcase or portfolio site in your profile summary where you detail additional projects
Should you include class or student projects?
Including academic class or student projects on your LinkedIn profile can be appropriate in certain cases, especially if the project demonstrates relevant skills or expertise. However, as a general rule, prioritize sharing work projects over academic ones. Consider featuring student projects if:
- It’s one of your only relevant projects so far
- You had a major, hands-on role in a large-scale initiative
- You produced impressive deliverables you can showcase
- The subject matter aligns closely with your target industry or field
For some types of jobs like design, programming or research, academic projects may carry more weight compared to other fields. Use your judgment based on your goals and the norms of your profession.
Can you share nonprofit or volunteer projects?
Volunteer initiatives or nonprofit projects can certainly warrant sharing on LinkedIn as well. This is a great way to showcase skills and achievements outside of paid employment. Consider featuring a nonprofit project if you played a key role leading significant work such as:
- Organizing a major fundraising campaign
- Coordinating a community service event
- Overseeing communications for an advocacy campaign
- Developing programs or strategy for an organization
If crafted strategically, volunteer projects can highlight just as many transferable skills as paid work. Focus on metrics and outcomes when summarizing the project.
Should you share both completed and ongoing projects?
It’s fine to include both completed initiatives and works-in-progress when sharing LinkedIn projects. Active projects demonstrate what you’re currently focused on. Completed ones show you have seen similar endeavors through from start to finish.
For any ongoing initiatives, be sure to note the expected completion date or your time frame for that stage if it’s a longer-term project. It’s also helpful to specify any results already achieved so far.
Conclusion
Posting projects on LinkedIn can be an impactful way to enhance your professional profile and stand out from other candidates or contacts in your field. By thoughtfully choosing projects that highlight your skills and accomplishments, avoiding confidential details, and optimizing your project descriptions for discoverability, you can maximize the benefits.
Ongoing and completed projects relating to your current or target career path that demonstrate important capabilities and expertise make ideal additions to your Projects section. With the proper strategy, LinkedIn projects can become a valuable component of your personal branding on the platform.