LinkedIn profile badges are icons that appear on your LinkedIn profile and signify achievements, skills, and certifications. Displaying relevant badges can enhance your professional brand and help you stand out to recruiters and hiring managers. This comprehensive guide will walk you through everything you need to know about getting LinkedIn badges added to your profile.
What are LinkedIn profile badges?
LinkedIn profile badges are icons that appear under your name and headline on your LinkedIn profile. They signify professional achievements, skills, and certifications that LinkedIn has validated. Some examples of LinkedIn badges include:
- Skill badges – Indicate proficiency in top professional skills based on your experience and endorsements
- Course certificates – Show completion of LinkedIn Learning courses and other eligible online course providers
- Industry credentials – Display professional certifications and qualifications from select credentialing institutions
- Education badges – Denote your verified college degrees
- Veteran indicator – Highlights your status as a former military service member
- Open to work badge – Signals that you are actively seeking new job opportunities
Displaying relevant LinkedIn badges gives your profile extra credibility and helps you stand out. LinkedIn research indicates profiles with at least 5 skills badges are discovered up to 17 times more in searches. Badges act as visual validation that you actually have those skills, credentials, and achievements.
Why should I get LinkedIn profile badges?
Here are some of the top benefits of adding LinkedIn profile badges:
- Boost your discoverability – LinkedIn considers badges as they rank profiles in search results, so skills badges make you more findable for relevant opportunities.
- Showcase your expertise – Badges immediately signal your capabilities to visitors without them having to read through your full profile.
- Add credibility – Third-party validated badges showcase you have legitimate skills, training, and credentials.
- Differentiate yourself – Not all LinkedIn users have badges, so they help you stand out.
- Expand your reach – Some badges (like skills) make you eligible to appear in new sections of LinkedIn.
- Spark engagement – Profiles with badges tend to gain more profile views and connection requests.
In short, LinkedIn badges provide visual shorthand for your expertise, abilities, and professional development. Wearing your achievements like badges of honor can enhance your personal brand and open new opportunities.
How do I get LinkedIn skill badges?
One of the most popular and impactful types of LinkedIn badges are skill badges. Here is how you can unlock skill badges to display on your profile:
- Add skills to your profile – Make sure any relevant professional skills are on your LinkedIn profile in the skills section.
- Get endorsements – Ask connections to endorse you for skills they can vouch for. You need at least 3 endorsements per skill to qualify for the badge.
- Consider taking skills quizzes – Completing LinkedIn Skills Quizzes can count as endorsements toward earning a skill badge in some cases.
- Check your eligibility – LinkedIn will notify you once you meet the criteria for new skill badges to add.
- Enable skill badges – Go to your profile and settings to turn on visibility for your earned skill badges so they will appear.
Focus on skills closely aligned with your goals and experience. The more niche and specialized the skills you can get endorsed for, the more unique value you provide.
How many LinkedIn skill badges should I have?
There is no fixed number of skill badges all profiles should aim for. The right amount depends on your professional background and goals. Most experts recommend highlighting between 5-10 skills badges that strongly represent your core competencies.
A good rule of thumb is to curate your skill badges so they:
- Convey your most proficient and niche skills
- Align with your target industry, job function, and dream roles
- Complement the rest of your profile brand and messaging
Choose quality over quantity when it comes to which skill badges to display. A few highly relevant skill badges will be more powerful than an excessive number of minor skills.
How do I get a LinkedIn course certificate badge?
Adding LinkedIn Learning course certificate badges is a great way to showcase your commitment to continuous learning. Here is the process to earn them:
- Take LinkedIn Learning courses – Complete courses relevant to your career goals and interests. You can access over 16,000 courses for free with a basic LinkedIn account.
- Pass the course assessment – To earn the certificate, you must pass the assessment at the end of each LinkedIn Learning course.
- Enable public display – Configure your settings to publically display your course certificates on your profile.
- Add badges to profile – Once earned, you can add your LinkedIn Learning certificates as badges in your accomplishments section.
LinkedIn Learning courses provide an easy way to build your skills portfolio and earn credentials. Be sure to only display certificate badges for your most relevant and impactful courses.
Do course certificates from other platforms qualify?
In some cases, yes. LinkedIn allows you to add certificate badges from select online education providers besides LinkedIn Learning. Some examples include:
| Online Course Platform | Eligible for LinkedIn Certificate Badge? |
|---|---|
| Coursera | Yes |
| edX | Yes |
| FutureLearn | Yes |
| Udacity | Yes |
| Udemy | No |
| Skillshare | No |
| Khan Academy | No |
Check LinkedIn’s list of qualifying course platforms before investing time in a certificate program. Then follow similar steps to enable certificate badges from eligible providers.
How do I display industry credentials on LinkedIn?
Certifications from accredited institutions and trade groups carry significant weight. Follow these tips to add industry credential badges on LinkedIn:
- Earn credentials – Obtain respected certifications that apply to your field from reputable associations and governing bodies.
- Confirm eligibility – Make sure the credentialing institution has a formal partnership with LinkedIn to enable badge display.
- Add to profile – In your accomplishments section, add the certifications you want to showcase badges for.
- Display badge – For eligible certs, LinkedIn will prompt you to enable a badge to represent the credential on your profile.
Examples of LinkedIn industry credential partners include the Project Management Institute (PMI), American Marketing Association (AMA), and Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI).
What are the certification badge requirements?
To unlock a certification badge on LinkedIn, your credential must meet the following requirements:
- Issued by an officialLinkedIn partner organization
- Validated through an administered exam or assessment process
- Requires ongoing education/renewal to maintain status
- Represents specialized professional expertise
Certifications that meet these criteria are eligible for a LinkedIn badge. Partners are continually being added, so check if new organizations relevant to your industry have been onboarded.
How do I showcase my education with LinkedIn badges?
Adding education badges to highlight your college degrees is a simple process:
- Add schools – Make sure all your completed higher education degrees are listed in the education section.
- Confirm your email – Verify the email associated with your LinkedIn account matches the one associated with your schoolrecords.
- Enable badges – LinkedIn will automatically display education badges next to the applicable degrees.
Education badges only appear for confirmed undergraduate and graduate degrees. You can choose to hide badges for any schools you don’t want displayed.
Why isn’t my degree showing the education badge?
If your degree isn’t displaying the LinkedIn education badge, it likely means your student email hasn’t been verified. Reasons your email may not be confirmed include:
- Your LinkedIn email doesn’t match your student email address.
- Your school isn’t partnered with LinkedIn for education badges.
- You graduated too long ago for your student records to be available.
- You need to manually request verification from your university.
Confirm whether your school participates in education badge verification. If they do, reach out to your university’s alumni office for help getting your student email validated.
How do I add a veteran indicator badge?
Veteran members of the military can add a special indicator badge on their LinkedIn profile by:
- Confirm eligibility – You must have served on active duty, in the reserves, or National Guard.
- Enable visibility – In your profile settings, turn on the veteran attribute under demographic information.
- Add badge – LinkedIn will automatically display the veteran indicator badge based on your profile visibility settings.
The military service badge appears as a shield icon and signals your veteran status to your network. You can toggle the badge on or off at any time.
Can I show multiple military badges?
Currently LinkedIn only displays one standard veteran indicator badge. It does not distinguish between different military branches or convey length of service.
To highlight specifics of your military background, be sure to include details like your branch, rank achieved, and active duty time period in your LinkedIn profile summary or work experience section.
How do I display the Open To Work badge?
The Open To Work badge is a great way to discreetly signal recruiters you are seeking new opportunities while still employed. Here is how to enable it:
- Indicate interest – Go to your LinkedIn settings and toggle on the “Open to opportunities” option.
- Set visibility – Choose whether you want the badge visible to your entire network or just recruiters.
- Display badge – LinkedIn will now show the “Open to Work” badge on your profile page.
The badge appears under your profile photo and name. You can customize the associated job search preferences and disable the badge at any time.
Should I show the Open To Work badge while employed?
Here are some pros and cons of displaying your openness to new opportunities while currently employed:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| – Discreetly explore options – Passive recruiting – Control outreach volume |
– Viewed negatively by some employers – Requires careful positioning – Can attract irrelevant offers |
Consider your goals, priorities and current role before toggling the badge visibility. Customize the job preferences connected to it and keep your broader network in mind if enabling the Open to Work badge.
Conclusion
LinkedIn profile badges provide viewers quick insights into your expertise and credentials. Most badge types are automatically added once you meet LinkedIn’s eligibility criteria for a given skill, course, or certification.
Prioritize badges that align with your target industry, dream job, and professional brand. Curate a purposeful mix of 5-10 badges that reinforce your capabilities and value proposition. With the right badges displayed, your LinkedIn profile can gain new exposure and serve as a stronger personal marketing tool.
