How do I move a job from basic to promoted on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 660 million users worldwide. It allows professionals to connect, share insights, discover opportunities and grow their careers. One key feature on LinkedIn is the ability to list and promote your work experience and skills on your profile. By default, when you add a new position to your LinkedIn profile, it starts out as a “basic” listing. However, you can choose to upgrade it to a “promoted” job which gives it more visibility and exposure on your profile. Moving a job from basic to promoted is easy to do and can help you stand out and highlight your most relevant professional experiences.

Why Would You Want to Promote a Job on LinkedIn?

Here are some of the main reasons you may want to promote a job on your LinkedIn profile:

• Increased visibility – Promoted jobs appear at the top of your experience section so they are more likely to be seen by people viewing your profile.
• Shows importance – Promoting a job conveys that it was a significant and valuable professional experience.
• Professional branding – Promoted roles can help reinforce your personal brand and skills.
• Career highlights – Draws attention to crucial jobs you want to showcase to tell your career story.
• Relevance – Can highlight your most relevant and recent position for networking opportunities.
• Applications – Promoted roles stand out on profiles so recruiters and hiring managers notice them.
• Advertising – Promoted jobs allow you to attach rich media like photos, videos, presentations, etc.

Promoting key jobs is an impactful way to control what experiences stand out on your LinkedIn profile. Strategically choosing which roles to promote can help convey your personal branding and career progression.

How to Promote a Job on LinkedIn

Moving a job from the basic listing to promoted status only takes a few simple steps:

1. Go to your LinkedIn profile and click on “View profile”
2. Find the job you want to promote in your experience section
3. Click on the 3 dots icon next to the position and select “Promote this position”
4. Choose the duration you want to promote the job
5. Click “Promote” to confirm

The job will now appear with a promoted tag and move to the top of your experience section for the duration of time chosen.

Setting Duration for Promoted Job

When you promote a job on LinkedIn you can choose the duration:

• 1 week
• 1 month
• 3 months
• 6 months
• Until you turn feature off

Select the time frame based on how long you want the job to stand out. Shorter durations (1-3 months) are best for temporary highlighting. Choose “Until you turn off” if you want an ongoing permanent promotion.

Promotion Frequency

You can only promote 1 position at a time on your LinkedIn profile. Once you’ve promoted a job, you’ll have to wait a few months after the promotion ends to highlight another role. This limits how often you can change promoted jobs to avoid excessive profile adjustments.

Tips for Promoting Jobs

Here are some best practices to make the most of promoting positions on LinkedIn:

• Highlight recent roles – Promote your current or most recent job to showcase your latest experience.
• Tailor to opportunities – If applying to roles, promote the most relevant job.
• Rotate strategically – Change highlighted roles every few months to showcase different experiences.
• Add media – Use images, videos, presentations to showcase promoted jobs.
• Maximize visibility – Promote jobs just before big events like conferences or to coincide with company news.
• Highlight achievements – Make sure the job description includes key accomplishments and skills gained.
• Monitor engagement – See who interacts with your promoted job and adjust duration based on its impact.

Additional Benefits of a Promoted Job

Besides increased visibility, promoting a job unlocks additional benefits:

• Expanded job description – Can add up to 2,000 characters about your role.
• Media attachment – Ability to attach photo, video, presentation, PDF, etc.
• Company followers – Followers of your company will see promoted role in their feed.
• Analytics – Get analytics on how many profile views your promoted job receives.
• Improved searchability – Promoted roles are indexed higher in LinkedIn’s search algorithm.

Leverage these perks to create an enhanced, multimedia depiction of your top jobs. The expanded space allows you to detail projects, accomplishments, and skills that aren’t possible in a basic job listing.

Downsides of Promoted Jobs

While there are many benefits, there are a few potential drawbacks to think about when promoting positions:

• Only 1 at a time – You can’t simultaneously promote multiple roles so other jobs won’t stand out.
• Temporary – Promotions eventually expire so jobs won’t be highlighted indefinitely.
• Frequency limits – Can only promote a new job every few months as LinkedIn limits changes.
• Pay upgrade – Promotions are part of LinkedIn Premium Career so require a paid account.
• Ongoing effort – Need to actively manage and refresh promoted jobs.
• Emphasis on promotion – Heavily promoting one job may undervalue your other experience.

The right promotion strategy that rotates highlighted jobs can mitigate some of these concerns.

LinkedIn Premium Career Account

In order to move jobs from basic to promoted status, you need a LinkedIn Premium Career account. This is LinkedIn’s paid subscription offering aimed at job seekers and professionals. Here are the key features included with a Premium Career account:

• Promoted job listings – Ability to showcase top roles.
• Expanded profiles – More space for profile summary, experience, etc.
• Profile badges – Display credentials, courses, volunteer work.
• Salary insights – See salary ranges for desired positions.
• Skill assessments – Take tests to validate proficiencies.
• Interview preparation – Get tips and practice for job interviews.
• Resume review – Submit resume for feedback from LinkedIn.
• Professional learning – Guided courses for career development skills.
• Career coaching – 1:1 coaching sessions with a LinkedIn career expert.

These features focus on helping LinkedIn members stand out in their job search, get hired faster, develop skills, and build their professional brand.

Premium Career Pricing

LinkedIn Premium Career is available through these paid monthly and annual subscription options:

University pricing is discounted for students and recent graduates. Group and corporate pricing is also available for Premium Career subscriptions.

Conclusion

Promoting jobs is an impactful way to showcase your most important professional experiences on LinkedIn. Moving roles from basic to promoted status takes just a few clicks but can significantly improve the visibility of your top positions. Take advantage of promotion frequency limits to rotate highlighting your current, recent, and relevant jobs. Pair promotions with expanded job descriptions and rich media to control and enhance the key experiences you want to feature on your profile. With a Premium Career account, you can fully utilize job promotions to build an engaging LinkedIn presence.