LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. As a professional networking site, LinkedIn allows users to create profiles highlighting their work experiences, education, skills, and accomplishments. However, as one’s career progresses, their LinkedIn profile can become cluttered with outdated or irrelevant work experiences. This raises an important question – should you delete old work experience from your LinkedIn profile?
There are pros and cons to removing old positions from your LinkedIn profile. On one hand, deleting outdated experiences can declutter your profile and tailor it more closely to your current career stage. On the other hand, completely removing positions can look suspicious to recruiters and hiring managers.
In this article, we will explore the key considerations around deleting old work experience on LinkedIn and provide best practices to keep your profile up-to-date.
Why You Might Want to Delete Old Work Experience
Here are some of the main reasons you may consider removing outdated work details from your LinkedIn profile:
To Keep Your Profile Focused
As you move through different jobs and career stages, your LinkedIn profile can become bloated with irrelevant or dated details. For example, highlighting short-term jobs from over 10 years ago may not align with your current career trajectory. Pruning old positions keeps your profile focused on your most relevant skills and qualifications.
Your Profile is Cluttered
LinkedIn only provides enough space for a few bullet points per position. Keeping too many old jobs on your profile can clutter your work section and bury the important details. Removing outdated roles creates more space to expand on meaningful experiences.
Old Experience Doesn’t Reflect Your Abilities
Early career roles often focus on junior responsibilities that may not fully showcase your capabilities today. For example, an accounting manager should highlight their management experience rather than routine bookkeeping tasks from 5+ years ago. Deleting outdated jobs prevents sending the wrong message about your skillset.
You Don’t Want to Be Pigeonholed
If you’ve changed careers or industries, retaining former job details could lead to inaccurate assumptions. For instance, if you moved from teaching to software engineering, you likely want to minimize older teaching roles that don’t reflect your current engineering skills.
You’re Pursuing a New Direction
When pivoting to a new career path or industry, outdated jobs may incorrectly imply that you’re still searching for the right fit. Removing irrelevant history presents you as focused on a clear goal rather than meandering.
Old Jobs No Longer Apply
Some work experiences like short internships, volunteer roles, or college jobs naturally expire in relevance after a few years. Keeping decades old student or volunteer positions could give the impression that you lack more meaningful professional experience.
You Were Fired or Want to Disassociate
In rare cases like being let go or wanting to disconnect from an employer, deleting the role from your profile may be appropriate. However, it’s usually better to be upfront if asked in interviews rather than appearing deceptive.
Why You May Want to Keep Old Work Experience
While there are benefits to removing irrelevant jobs, there are also good reasons to keep your full work history on your profile:
It Demonstrates Work History Depth
Displaying a long chronological work history illustrates professional maturity and commitment, even if roles were short-term. This can provide positive signals, especially for more senior positions.
It Showcases Career Progression
Early career details display how your responsibilities and capabilities have expanded over time. Highlighting humble beginnings can build an impressive career growth narrative.
Gaps Raise Questions
Large gaps between jobs from deleting positions can appear questionable to recruiters. Keeping a full timeline avoids gaps that may need explaining.
Verifies Employment Dates
Many recruiters cross-reference resume dates with LinkedIn to check for accuracy. Removing positions can raise red flags around potential employment gaps if roles do not line up.
Provides Wider Network Reach
Former colleagues from old jobs represent valuable network contacts. Deleting positions narrows your 1st degree connections for outreach.
Signals Career Stability
Frequently hopping jobs can seem unstable. Keeping a longer list, even if roles were short-term, illustrates consistency and commitment.
Hiring Managers Value Experience
While not directly relevant, broader experience still provides wider perspective. More work history demonstrates valuable exposure even if outdated for current goals.
May Be Required to List
Some job applications or background checks require listing all previous employment. Removing positions from public profiles while submitting a full history separately creates inconsistencies.
Best Practices for Managing Old Work Experience
Rather than deleting positions entirely, there are balanced approaches to maintaining an up-to-date LinkedIn profile:
Keep All Positions Listed with Details
For optimal transparency, keep your full work history listed but focus details on the most relevant experiences. List outdated roles only by title/company/date while elaborating more on current or applicable positions.
Reorder Experience Based on Relevance
Place your most important jobs first rather than chronological order. Bury outdated details at the bottom since LinkedIn displays top items first. You still maintain full history without highlighting irrelevant roles.
Remove Very Short Term Positions
Prune anything less than 3-6 months like short internships or temporary roles. However, keep at least 2-3 positions per time period to avoid large gaps.
Keep Without Details
For roles with little relevance, list only company name, position title and dates. Avoid details that may misrepresent your current abilities while still showing position history.
Focus on Accomplishments Over Responsibilities
For older positions, emphasize measurable accomplishments that still demonstrate valuable capabilities vs day-to-day responsibilities that may appear outdated or junior level. Tailor details to align with current goals.
List Company, No Position Title
For experiences like college jobs or volunteer roles with limited relevance, list only organization names to confirm general time periods. Omit position details that detract from more meaningful history.
Add a Profile Summary
Rather than deleting jobs, add a “Profile” or “Professional Summary” section highlighting your most relevant qualifications. This focuses attention on skills versus specific employers.
Key Factors to Consider Before Deleting
If you do decide to prune previous positions, keep these considerations in mind:
– Will removing the experience leave a large, unexplained gap in your work history? Be prepared to address any timeline gaps.
– Do you have enough remaining roles listed to appear meaningfully experienced for your career level? Avoid deleting too many positions.
– Does the experience demonstrate skills that you still want to showcase, even if not a direct industry match? Some transferable abilities remain relevant.
– Were any of the positions you want to remove pivotal to your career progression? Key roles may still be worth highlighting.
– Is outdated experience concentrated in a particular time period, company, or industry you want to deemphasize?
– Will advanced positions seem disconnected from early career steps if you remove relevant preceding roles? Illustrating progression may have value.
– Do you have connections, recommendations, or credentials associated with the experience you may lose by deleting?
– Does very early experience show valuable persistence in your first roles out of school? This may still impress some employers.
– Will removing short-term jobs create doubt or confusion around reasons for leaving roles?
– Can you provide alternative verification of employment dates if questioned based on resume discrepancies?
Alternatives to Deleting Work Experience
Rather than removing positions entirely, some additional options include:
– Expanding your profile with sections like Skills, Accomplishments, Projects etc. to create more balance between roles versus demonstrated capabilities.
– Adding examples of major achievements under each position to highlight transferable skills versus just routine responsibilities.
– Including volunteering, leadership roles, speaking engagements, awards, publications or other items to showcase well-rounded experience.
– Stating you are open to “Career Opportunities” or recruiting in your headline to clarify your goals versus seeming potentially aimless if you remove positions.
– Adding an “About” section to summarize your background rather than relying just on position details to define your experience.
– Including alternative sections like Courses, Test Scores, Credentials, Patents or Languages to illustrate valuable expertise beyond specific job roles.
– Listing expired Certifications with just title and completion dates rather than details to occupying space and illustrating skills.
Should You Ultimately Delete Old Positions?
Here is a quick checklist covering when it may be advisable to remove outdated work details from your LinkedIn profile:
– The experience was more than 10-15 years ago and not critical to illustrating career progression.
– The role was very short-term such as an internship under 3-6 months.
– The position does not showcase transferable skills applicable to your current career goals and abilities.
– The role may create inaccurate perceptions about your qualifications or interests.
– The experience could raise questions or doubts if prominently highlighted on your profile.
– The position is unrelated to your target industry and not required for a background check.
– You have at least 2 other positions listed for the same period to avoid an unexplained gap if removed.
If the experience doesn’t meet most of the above criteria, you may be better served by retaining but deemphasizing the details.
Conclusion
Managing your LinkedIn profile is an ongoing balancing act as your career develops. While removing very old or irrelevant work experiences can tighten your profile, excessive deletions also carry risks.
Evaluate each position carefully based on factors like relevance, progression demonstration and gap creation. Ideally, take a nuanced approach by retaining but deprioritizing outdated roles while emphasizing details for applicable experiences.
Aim for a profile that accurately reflects your capabilities without overrepresenting past jobs unlikely to recur. Most careers contain some twists and turns that require thoughtful curation to showcase the most relevant parts over a complete blow-by-blow history. With strategic positioning of key details, you can keep your LinkedIn profile fresh and compelling throughout your working life.