When you sign up for an account on LinkedIn, you will be immediately prompted to begin filling out your profile. Building a strong LinkedIn profile is important because it will be available 24/7 for employers and other professionals to learn about your experiences and skills.
The content on this page provides tips on each section of a LinkedIn profile. To see examples of each section, follow along with Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn, a profile that was developed by the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills for educational purposes only.
Jump to different sections of your LinkedIn profile:
INTRO
The “intro” section of your profile refers to the first box at the top and includes information such as your name, pronouns, photo, headline, location, and contact info. You will be prompted to fill out some of this information when you first create your LinkedIn account, but you can edit or add to it anytime by clicking the edit pencil in the top right-hand corner.
Name
When filling out your profile, you will be required to include a first and last name. Using your legal name is not required, so if you go by a name that is different than your legal name, feel free to use it. There is also an option to add an “additional name,” which could be used for a nickname or former last name. If you add an additional name, it will appear on your profile in parenthesis between your first and last name, but you have the option to adjust who is able to see this name (i.e. only your connections).
If you are using the LinkedIn mobile app, you can also add an audio recording of how to pronounce your name to your profile, which will be accessible to users if they click a little speaker icon next to your name. This LinkedIn Help article provides an example.
Pronouns
Adding your gender pronouns to your profile is optional. If you do, they will appear in parenthesis next to your name. When filling out your profile, choose from She/Her, He/Him, or They/Them, or add in custom pronouns. You can also choose who is able to see your pronouns, only your connections or all LinkedIn users.
Profile Photo
According to LinkedIn, having a profile photo makes your profile 14 times more likely to be viewed by others. Because of this, we strongly recommend adding a photo to your profile.
The photo you choose does not have to be a professional headshot, though it can be if you have one you like. Either way, your photo should be…
- High-resolution and well-lit, so it’s not blurry or hard to see
- Zoomed in enough to show your face clearly (think shoulders-up or chest-up)
- Just featuring you, as opposed to a group of people, even if you crop them out
- Taken in workplace attire and in front of a non-distracting background, like a wall or outdoor landscape
- Recent, likely taken within the last 3 years
Need a photo for your LinkedIn profile? Visit the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills anytime we’re open to use our free Iris Air Photobooth and receive your photos within minutes.
Background Photo
Having a background photo on your LinkedIn profile is not required, but it adds a nice visual touch. If you decide to add one, you can choose from a set of choices designed by LinkedIn or upload your own. Whichever option you go with, choose a photo that resonates with you and may serve as a talking point with viewers of your profile. It can be related to your career aspirations but doesn’t have to be. Do not use a photo that belongs to someone else without their permission.
Headline
Your headline is an extremely important part of your LinkedIn profile since it is typically the first piece of information viewers see about you in addition to your name and profile photo. When you sign up for LinkedIn, your headline will most likely default to “Student at University of Connecticut.” While this is accurate, it does not feature keywords that quickly convey who you are, what you do, and what you bring to the table. Ideally, your headline should be crafted in a way that draws the attention of like-minded professionals, industry peers, alumni, recruiters, and employers. A strong headline could lead to connections with other individuals with the same or similar career interests as yourself.
Consider updating your headline to include one of the following:
- Your area(s) of study
- Current positions you hold, like internships or roles in student organizations
- Relevant awards or certifications you have received
- Unique or noteworthy skills you have, especially ones related to your industry
- Topics you’re passionate about
- Your future aspirations and/or career goals (using the word “aspiring”)
It may be helpful to look at what other students and professionals in your field have written in their headlines to gather inspiration for what to include in yours. For tips on how to find other profiles for inspiration, see the Using LinkedIn section of this guide.
Lastly, remember that your headline is one of the parts of your profile that likely needs to be updated most frequently. Anytime information in your headline becomes outdated, be sure to swap it out for new, accurate information so viewers always have the most up-to-date information possible. There is no limit on how often your headline (or any part of your LinkedIn profile) can be updated.
Location
On your LinkedIn profile, your location is listed below your headline to let viewers know where you are located. Location is also often used by employers to find candidates to reach out to based on geographic preferences. For that reason, it’s a good idea to list your location as the place in which you are seeking opportunities, even if you haven’t moved there yet. If you are not actively seeking opportunities, you can list your location as where you are currently living.
If you live or are searching in a small town, consider listing your location as the closest larger town or metro area (ex. Greater Hartford). This will increase your chances of showing up in employer search results.
Contact Info
LinkedIn has a built-in messaging feature, but you are also able to include other contact information on your profile. By default, the only contact information provided to viewers is your LinkedIn profile URL (see “Settings” section of this guide for instructions on how to customize your URL). Beyond this, you have the option to add an email address, phone number, physical address, birthday, website, or instant messaging option. None of this information is required.
Consider adding an email address if you check your email more frequently than you plan to check LinkedIn and are comfortable with employers reaching out to you that way.
Consider adding a website if you have a personal website or portfolio you would like employers to have access to.
“Open to”
This newer feature of LinkedIn allows users to indicate to others when they are open to finding a new job, hiring, or providing services.
When you are actively seeking a job or internship, you can select “Open to finding a new job” and a green banner will appear on your profile photo to indicate your readiness for new opportunities to employers. This feature will also allow you to share some of your search criteria, including job titles you are seeking, location, on-site/hybrid/remote preferences, start date, and type of employment (full-time, part-time, internship, etc.).
If you are a freelancer, independent contractor, or other service provider, you can select “Open to providing services.” You will be asked some detailed questions about the types of services you provide, and this information will appear in the intro section of your profile. Some people use LinkedIn to find service providers, so adding this information to your profile will help them find you.
CORE
The “core” section of your profile includes the most common sections employers seek and therefore the sections we strongly recommend including about, experience, education, and skills. To add any of these sections, click the “Add profile section” button below your name and select the section you would like to add.
About
The about section serves as a way for you to introduce yourself to viewers of your profile who have never met you before. It should be 1-2 paragraphs in length, written in a more narrative tone than bullet points to make it more personable, and focus on information that is not included elsewhere on your profile. Often, hiring managers turn to LinkedIn and read a candidate’s about section to learn more about them beyond what is found in their resume. Consider including some of the following:
- How/why you became interested in your field of study
- A few key highlights from your past or current college-level experiences with an emphasis on the skills you’ve learned
- A recent accomplishment you are proud of
- Your current career-related goal (find an internship, expand your network in a certain field, etc.)
- Your long-term career goals
You are also able to add up to 5 “top skills” to the about section of your profile. There are other areas of your profile where you can also feature skills, but these should be the 5 you most want to be known for and can feature a combination of technical and transferrable skills. Consider choosing your top strengths and/or skills related to your industry. These skills can be changed anytime, so be sure to come back and change them (along with the content of your about section) if your career goals or the information you want featured to viewers changes.
To see an example about section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
Experience
When filling out the experience section of your profile, think about any experiences you’ve had that you want to feature to employers. The name of this section is intentionally broad so you can include a wide variety of experiences, including jobs, internships, leadership roles, organization membership, case competitions, shadowing, career breaks, and more.
When adding an experience, you will be asked for your title, company or organization, start and end date, location, and a description. These elements of an experience should sound familiar, as they are the same ones you should include on your résumé. Feel free to copy and paste the content from your résumé into your LinkedIn profile or write new descriptions to feature on LinkedIn. In addition to the information on your résumé, you’ll also have a chance to tag up to 5 skills you demonstrated in this role and add media, such as links or attachments that showcase examples of your work.
If you took time off before starting or during college and want to reflect that on your LinkedIn profile, you can add a career break. This is not required but is an option for you to share with viewers what you did during that time. When adding a career break, the only required information to include is the dates. You will have the opportunity to add a type, if you are interested. Types include caregiving, bereavement, layoff, relocation, and travel, among others. You can add as much or as little information about a career break as you’d like.
To see an example experience section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile. Note that Jonathan’s profile does not include a career break.
Education
The education section of your profile is where you can provide information about your current and past educational endeavors. Start by adding UConn if you haven’t already, and consider adding any previous degrees you have earned or study abroad programs you have participated in. High school can be included, but we recommend featuring only your college experiences by the end of your sophomore year.
When adding to your education section, you should include the school, degree (if applicable), field of study (if applicable), and start/end dates. Optionally, you can add your GPA, activities and societies you participated in*, a description of your studies, up to 5 skills you learned from the program, and media showcasing examples of your work. If you have a concentration or minor, we suggest adding those in the description of your studies.
*As you proceed with building out your LinkedIn profile, you will notice there are multiple sections you could use to display your activities and societies. Each section offers unique amounts of space to explain each activity or society, so it is up to you to decide which section(s) to use based on how much detail you want to include. The education section is best for activities and societies you just want to mention but not explain in detail. See “Experience” and “Organizations” for other options.
To see an example education section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
Skills
The skills section of your profile collects skills from the other sections where you have tagged them (about, experience, and education) but can also be added to independently. Users can add up to 100 skills to their profile, however only the first two will be displayed before a viewer has to click “show all” to see the rest. Be sure your two most important skills are listed first. This can be done by clicking the edit pencil at the top of the skills section, then selecting ”reorder” from the settings and dragging each skill to move it.
Similar to the headline, it may be helpful to look at what other students and professionals in your field have included in their skills sections to gather inspiration for what to include in yours. Just be sure each skill you add is one you truly have and could demonstrate to an employer. If you’re still not sure what skills to feature, check out this article about the most in-demand skills on LinkedIn.
To see an example skills section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
RECOMMENDED
The “recommended” section of your profile includes 5 sections that LinkedIn suggests you add to your profile if you have content that would make sense to include in them: featured, licenses & certifications, projects, courses, and recommendations. To add any of these sections, click the “Add profile section” button below your name, expand the “Recommended” menu, and select the section you would like to add.
Featured
The featured section of your LinkedIn profile is a place where you can pin content that you have previously posted on your news feed. Typically, anything you post is circulated among your network immediately, then gradually circulates less and less as time passes. If you post something that you want your network to have access to beyond its initial circulation, you can pin it to the featured section of your profile, and anyone who visits your profile will have a direct link.
If you haven’t posted anything yet or don’t want anything you posted to remain available to viewers of your profile, you can skip this section.
To see an example featured section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
Licenses & Certifications
If you have any licenses or certifications that are relevant to your field, there is a special section to add those to your LinkedIn profile. When adding one, you will be asked for the name of the license or certification and the issuing organization. You can optionally add the issue/expiration date, credential ID, credential URL, skills, and/or media. We recommend tagging at least one skill to each credential and uploading a PDF copy of a certificate in the “media” section if you have one.
If you don’t have any licenses or certifications related to your field, you can skip this section.
To see an example licenses and certifications section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
Projects
The projects section of your profile is a chance to feature relevant projects you have worked on individually or as part of a team that you are particularly proud of. These can be projects from courses or outside the classroom.
When adding a project, you will be asked to include the project name and a description. We suggest writing the description in the same format you would use to explain an experience (use bullet points and focus on describing what you did, how you did it, and why you did it). You can also add start/end dates, skills, and media.
If you are adding a team project, you can invite your team members to be identified as contributors to the project if they also have LinkedIn profiles. If they accept, the project will appear on their profiles and you can all benefit from having the project displayed as well as being associated with one another.
If you don’t have any relevant projects to include, you can skip this section.
To see an example projects section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
Courses
If you have taken any courses at or outside UConn that you want to feature to employers, you can add them to the courses section of your LinkedIn profile. We don’t recommend adding every course you’ve taken, just a handful that are most relevant to your career aspirations. These may include higher-level courses in your major or unique electives. It may be helpful to look at what other students in your major or field have included in their courses section to gather inspiration for what to include in yours.
The only required information to add a course is the course name. You can optionally add the course number, but it’s not needed since course numbers typically are not universal across different schools and likely won’t mean much to an employer.
If you haven’t taken any courses you’d like to feature to employers, you can skip this section.
To see an example courses section, visit Jonathan Husky’s LinkedIn profile.
Recommendations
Most sections on your LinkedIn profile are filled out by you, but the recommendations section is an exception. Recommendations are short notes from others that serve as an endorsement of your skills, experiences, and/or personal qualities. Think of them as short recommendation letters. Recommendations often come from professors, supervisors, advisors, co-workers, and others you have interacted with through your educational and work experiences. Because they come from people who know you well in a professional context, recommendations are valued highly by employers.
If you are interested in adding a recommendations section to your profile, we recommend asking one or more people you know if they would be willing to write a strong, positive recommendation for you. For tips on asking someone for a recommendation, check out our resource on how to request a letter of recommendation. If they say yes, you can send a recommendation request to anyone you are already connected with directly via LinkedIn. When sending the request, you’ll need to include your relationship with the recommender, the position you held when you worked with them, and a personalized message.
There is no perfect number of recommendations to have, but 2-3 is a great number to start. If you don’t have anyone you feel comfortable asking for a recommendation at this time, you can skip this section and develop a plan to build strong relationships with a few key people that you can ask in the future. If you would like assistance developing a plan, we encourage you to schedule an appointment with a career coach.
ADDITIONAL
The “additional” section of your profile includes volunteer experience, publications, patents, honors & awards, test scores, languages, organizations, causes, and interests. These sections are not required but are available to add to your profile if you have relevant content. To add any of these sections (except for the interests section, which is explained below), click the “Add profile section” button below your name, expand the “Additional” menu, and select the section you would like to add.
Volunteer Experience
While volunteer experiences can be added to the broader experience section of your profile, they can also be separated out into this section, which will appear lower on your profile. It’s up to you to decide which section to include volunteer experiences in depending on how prevalent you want them to be on your profile. You can split your volunteer experiences between the two sections, but we do not recommend listing the same volunteer experience in both sections.
This section appears very similar to the broader experience section. When adding a volunteer experience, you will be asked for the organization, role, and dates. Optionally, you can add the cause the volunteering was supporting, a description, and/or media.
Publications
If you have publications, you can add them to your profile in this section. Publications could include peer-reviewed journal articles, books, magazine or newspaper articles, blog posts, or any other piece of your writing that is available publicly. When adding, you will be asked for the title (required), publisher, date, URL, and a description. If there were other authors on the publication, you can invite them to be identified as authors if they also have LinkedIn profiles. If they accept, the publication will appear on their profiles as well.
You may add publications that are under review as long as that is indicated as part of the title.
Patents
If you have patents, you can add them to your profile in this section. A patent is a property right granted by the government giving an inventor exclusive rights to their invention. In the U.S., patents are granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and similar national patent offices exist in other countries. When adding, you will be asked for the title (required), patent or application number (required), status (issued or pending), issue date, URL, and a description. If there were other inventors on the patent, you can invite them to be identified as inventors if they also have LinkedIn profiles. If they accept, the patent will appear on their profiles as well.
You may add patents that are pending as long as that is indicated as the status.
Honors & Awards
The honors & awards section of your profile can feature academic and non-academic awards that you want to feature to employers. All honors and awards must include a title and can optionally include an issuer, issue date, description, and media. We recommend including a description if the reason for the award is not clear based on the title.
Test Scores
The test scores section of your LinkedIn profile should only be used for tests that are essential for your industry or profession. It should not include any scores on exams from your classes or admissions exams, like the SAT, ACT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, etc.
If adding a test score, you are required to include the title of the test (either the full name or acronym, whichever is more well-known) and your score. We recommend only including tests you passed. You can optionally include a test date and a description.
Languages
If you speak more than one language, you can add the additional languages you are familiar with in this section of your profile. When you add a language, you are also required to list a proficiency level, so you can list languages that you are still learning or are not yet fluent in. Be honest in your proficiency level, as employers may rely on this information when considering you for a role.
Organizations
The organizations section of your LinkedIn profile is a great place to add organizations you have been involved in that you do not necessarily want to feature in the experience section. These can include student, professional, or community organizations.
This section appears very similar to the broader experience section. When adding an organization, you will be asked for the organization, position held, and dates. Optionally, you can add a description, which we do recommend regardless of your position. Feel free to copy and paste the content from your résumé into your LinkedIn profile or write new descriptions to feature on LinkedIn.
Causes
At the very bottom of your LinkedIn profile, you are able to add a short section listing the causes you care about. This may be beneficial if you hope to pursue a career related to one or more of these causes. LinkedIn provides a pre-determined list of 15 causes to choose from and allows you to select as many of them as you’d like.
Interests
The interests section of your LinkedIn profile shows viewers what your interests are in a unique way. Rather than allowing you to fill out this section of your profile the same way as all the others, LinkedIn sources your interests from the companies, schools, groups, and influencers you follow on the platform. Be sure to follow companies, schools, groups, and influencers that you resonate with and accurately reflect your career/professional interests.
To follow someone or something on LinkedIn, simply type their name into the main LinkedIn search bar, visit their profile, and click the blue “+ Follow” button.
SETTINGS
General Settings & Privacy
As many websites and social media platforms do, LinkedIn has a full array of general settings and privacy features related to your account preferences, sign-in and security, visibility, data privacy, advertising data, and notifications. All these settings can be accessed by clicking “Me” in the main menu across the top of the page, then selecting “Settings & Privacy.”
Below are a few key settings we recommend attending to as you are building your LinkedIn profile.
Profile Viewing Options
Did you know that by default LinkedIn sends others notifications when you view their profiles? This is setting can be confirmed and adjusted under the “Visibility” category in the settings menu (select “Profile viewing options”).
Note that whatever option you choose, that is the same information you’ll be able to see about other people who view your profile. We recommend leaving the setting as-is, especially when you are actively searching for opportunities, because it will help you build name recognition and see who is viewing your information. Alternatively, you can choose one of the more private options and limit the information shared about you on LinkedIn to your own strategic decisions.
Profile URL
LinkedIn profile URLs are customizable. By default, you will be assigned a URL that has some combination of your name and lots of random numbers and letters. It’s a good idea to edit your URL to something that is more visually appealing and easier to type in.
To edit your URL, go to the “Visibility” category in the settings menu, then select “Edit your public profile.” In the top right-hand corner, there is an option to edit your custom URL. Follow the instructions provided and note that you will receive an error message if the URL you type in is already taken by another LinkedIn user. We recommend creating a URL largely based on your name and adding a number or two if you have a common name.
Public Profile
On the same page where you can edit your profile URL (see above), you can see and edit how your profile appears publicly. If you are comfortable, we recommend leaving your whole profile viewable to the public, as that will make it easier for employers to find you. However, if you would like to limit the visibility of any aspect of your profile, you can do so using the settings on this page. As you adjust the settings, the preview of your public profile will update accordingly.
Profile Languages
If you are multilingual or are seeking opportunities in a place where English is not the native language, you can create versions of your profile in other languages. To do so, go to your profile and click the edit pencil next to “profile language” in the top right-hand corner. Follow the instructions provided and note that you will need to choose one language to be your default profile.
