How do I add sections to my LinkedIn profile?

Adding sections to your LinkedIn profile allows you to showcase your skills, experience, education, and other credentials. Structuring your profile with relevant sections makes your profile more robust, helps you stand out in searches, and gives viewers a comprehensive understanding of your background and qualifications.

Why add sections to your LinkedIn profile?

Here are some key reasons to add sections to your LinkedIn profile:

• Shows viewers your areas of expertise – Sections enable you to delve into details about your skills, knowledge, and experience in specific domains. This helps establish you as an authority in those areas.
• Highlights important credentials – You can use sections to showcase certifications, licenses, education, publications, honors and awards. These details can set you apart from other candidates.
• Improves your visibility in searches – Recruiters and hiring managers often search for candidates based on skills, job titles, education, etc. Sections optimized with relevant keywords can help your profile surface in those searches.
• Paints a fuller picture – Without sections, your profile only shows your current position and job description. Sections allow viewers to understand your qualifications, achievements and background.
• Lets you customize – You can add and organize sections in a way that best represents your unique background to distinguish yourself from others.

In short, sections allow you to tell your professional story, showcase your fit for opportunities, and control how you present your personal brand on LinkedIn.

What sections can I add?

Here are some of the most popular profile sections you can add to your LinkedIn profile:

About

The About section provides a summary of your professional background, capabilities, accomplishments and goals in your own words. You can highlight the value you provide in roles.

Experience

Detail your work history and roles held at companies and organizations. List responsibilities, achievements, and skills built in each position.

Education

Showcase academic degrees, courses, certifications and other educational credentials you’ve earned. Listing education establishes your knowledge base.

Skills

Highlight important skills relevant to your professional profile and qualifications. This includes hard skills and soft skills like leadership, communication, etc.

Accomplishments

Provide an overview of major accomplishments like publications, awards, honors, projects completed, professional milestones and other achievements.

Volunteer Experience & Causes

Share volunteer roles, community service activities, and causes you actively support. This conveys your values and identity beyond work.

Certifications

List any professional certifications you’ve attained to demonstrate your specialized knowledge, training and abilities.

Courses

Detail relevant online courses, seminars, conferences and other training or professional development activities you’ve completed.

Projects

Showcase important projects you’ve contributed to or led, describing your specific role and the impact delivered for employers.

Publications

List any published papers, articles, books, or other writing showcasing your subject matter expertise. Links to full publications are helpful.

Languages

Identify foreign languages you speak, along with your proficiency level. This is especially relevant for global companies and roles.

Recommendations

Request recommendations from managers, colleagues, professors or others who can endorse your skills, qualifications and professionalism from experience working with you.

These are just some common profile sections to consider. You can add other sections like Test Scores, Organizations, and Interests as well. Prioritize sections that specifically support your goals.

How do I add sections to my LinkedIn profile?

It’s easy to add sections in your LinkedIn profile using the user interface. Just follow these steps:

1. Go to your LinkedIn profile page
2. Click on the “Add profile section” box under your introduction
3. Choose the desired section from the dropdown menu options
4. Fill in details for the section
5. Click the “Save” button to add the completed section

You can add as many sections as you like through this process. To reorder sections, simply click and drag a section’s title bar to organize it where you want under “Featured” and “Background” categories.

Tips for adding strong profile sections

• Place your most important sections near the top
• Keep descriptions concise and impactful
• Quantify your achievements and impact with metrics
• Align sections with your target role’s requirements
• Optimize sections with relevant keywords recruiters search for
• Use bullet points to break up large blocks of text

Also, remember you can edit and reorganize sections at any time to keep your profile updated.

Examples of LinkedIn profile sections

Here are a few section examples to illustrate best practices:

Skills Section Example

Digital Marketing | Search Engine Optimization | Google Analytics | Social Media Marketing | Email Marketing | Lead Generation | Pay Per Click Advertising | A/B Testing | Data Analysis | Campaign Strategy

About Section Example

Innovative problem solver passionate about generating growth through strategic digital marketing campaigns. 8+ years experience driving user acquisition, traffic, leads, and revenue through SEO, email, social media, and paid channels. Skilled at leveraging data insights to optimize conversion funnels. Strengths in project management, budget optimization and executing integrated cross-channel campaigns. Aspiring marketing director eager to advance business impact through creative digital strategies.

Leadership Program Certification Section Example

Conclusion

Adding sections makes your LinkedIn profile much more robust and effective. The right mix of sections allows you to tell your story, demonstrate your fit for opportunities, and stand out from other candidates.

Focus on including sections that highlight your skills, qualifications, credentials, achievements and professional capabilities. Prioritize sections that align with your target roles and personal branding. Keep descriptions concise and impactful.

With a complete, optimized LinkedIn profile, you can maximize your professional presence and opportunities on the world’s largest professional network.