LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 850 million members. As a professional social media platform, LinkedIn allows you to create an online resume to showcase your skills, endorsements, experience and accomplishments.
One of the most important sections of your LinkedIn profile is the Experience section, where you can highlight your work history and achievements. A strong Experience section establishes your credibility and helps you stand out to recruiters and hiring managers.
With LinkedIn’s intro of the “Featured” section in 2017, you now have the ability to showcase your most relevant or impressive work experiences at the top of your profile. This allows you to strategically stack your experience to tell your professional story and strengthen your personal brand.
Why You Should Stack Your LinkedIn Experience
Here are some of the key reasons to purposefully stack your experience on your LinkedIn profile:
- Draw attention to your most relevant or impressive roles
- Emphasize career progression and growth
- Demonstrate increasing leadership responsibility
- Highlight specialized skills, achievements or certifications
- Tailor your profile for specific job searches or opportunities
- Build a cohesive professional narrative
Thoughtfully organizing your experience helps guide viewers and directs them to what you want to showcase most. This allows you to take control of your personal brand and make an impact.
How to Stack LinkedIn Experience
Follow these steps to stack your experience effectively on your LinkedIn profile:
- Pin your current position or most relevant position as a “Featured” experience by clicking the pushpin icon.
- Organize your remaining experience from most to least recent.
- Move your most important, impressive or relevant positions to the top under Featured.
- Keep position titles clear and descriptive. Include keywords that are relevant to your industry.
- Use 2-3 bullet points for responsibilities and highlight key achievements.
- Tailor content and bullet points for each position to complement your narrative.
- Remove irrelevant, outdated or redundant positions.
- Check that dates align chronologically without gaps.
- Review the entire Experience section to ensure consistency and impact.
- Customize URLs with your name to strengthen branding.
Additionally, you can reorder Featured positions to create the right hierarchy and draw attention to your most compelling accomplishments first.
Examples of Effective Experience Stacking
Here are some examples of how to strategically stack your LinkedIn experience:
Career Progression Focus
Stack to highlight upward career trajectory:
- Job Title 1, Company 1
- Senior Job Title 2, Company 2
- Manager Job Title 3, Company 3
- Director Job Title 4, Company 4 (Featured)
Industry Transition
Stack to emphasize a transition between industries or functions:
- Job Title 1, Consumer Products Company
- Job Title 2, Technology Company (Featured)
- Job Title 3, Technology Company
- Job Title 4, Technology Company
Specialized Experience
Stack to highlight specialized experience and skills:
- Job Title 1, Company 1
- Job Title 2, Company 2
- Certification or Credential
- Specialized Job Title 3, Company 3 (Featured)
- Specialized Job Title 4, Company 4
Carefully organize your experience section to tell your story in the best possible light.
Tips for an Impactful Experience Section
Here are some additional tips for making your Experience stack stand out:
- Showcase numbers, metrics and concrete results in bullet points.
- Use keywords and industry terms that would resonate with potential employers.
- Keep bullet points succinct – 3-4 lines max.
- List key skills gained in each position relevant to your goals.
- Mention special projects, awards or promotions.
- Quantify your accomplishments with numbers and percentages.
- Focus on results over responsibilities in bullet points.
Curate relevant skills, assess which to highlight, and remove outdated information periodically to keep your profile fresh and results-oriented.
Common LinkedIn Experience Mistakes
Some common mistakes to avoid when stacking your LinkedIn experience include:
- Gaps between positions without explanation
- Short-term roles without context
- Disorganized structure
- Listing irrelevant experience
- Highlighting responsibilities instead of achievements
- Excessive or unrelated skills listed
- Outdated, non-recent information
- Spelling or grammar errors
- Lacking metrics and quantifiable details
Proofread carefully and check your profile thoroughly to avoid these mistakes and present your best professional image.
Conclusion
Strategically stacking your LinkedIn experience allows you to take control of your personal branding and create an impactful narrative. Curate which roles and accomplishments you feature to customize your profile for your career goals.
By organizing your experience effectively, adding metrics and quantifiable achievements, and keeping your profile updated, you can establish credibility and enhance your visibility with recruiters and hiring managers.
Consistently refining your LinkedIn profile and taking the time to properly showcase your skills, achievements and career progression is a valuable investment in standing out in the modern job market.
