Crafting an Impactful LinkedIn Experience Section - TK LinkedIn Challenge

Why should you complete the experience section?

The experience section on your LinkedIn profile is your time to shine! It allows visitors to see what positions you've had, what companies and organizations you've gained experience from, and what your wins and responsibilities have been. It can highlight work experience, academic and research experience and any other instances that showcase your impact. It's a big part of validating your brand and skills.

Tip 1: Be sure to link your roles

Getting your experience on your profile is a great start - but linking your roles to a company or organization can provide more clarity about your responsibilities and more avenues for connection (from coworkers and peers, others interested in learning more about your experience, etc). It acts as a reference point for those looking to better understand your experience.

Tip 2: Don't just copy your resume bullets

While your resume is sure to have all the metrics and details for your positions, your LinkedIn work experience entries can be less detailed. You'll want to summarize your roles and wins and give an overview of your experience, not create bulky bullets tailored to specific jobs. It's completely fine to use "I" and take a less formal/story telling approach.

Where your resume may say:

• Conducted routine and random audits for 10+ dining halls on a bi-monthly basis to ensure high quality service and food safety practices for more than 20,000 students and faculty

• Enhanced inventory management practices to better store and track food use, reducing food waste and increasing profit by 25% and 7%, respectively

• Created a front-end assessment system to log customer feedback increasing satisfaction rates more than 34%

Your experience summary may say:

This position introduced me to data gathering and analysis! Responsible for auditing 10+ dining locations, I recorded and enforced health and safety policies for establishments servicing 26,000 people, leading to a 41% decrease in violations over a 2 year period. I enhanced inventory management practices to better store and track food use, reducing food waste and increasing profit by 25% and 7%, respectively. I also increased customer satisfaction rates more than 34% with a front-end assessment system I created to log customer feedback.

Tip 3: Highlight your impact

The experience section on LinkedIn is another opportunity to showcase your brand and your skills, so you want to be sure that you're highlighting the impact you had in your position. Most professionals in your field/industry will know what your daily responsibilities are, so there is no need to add them to your resume or LinkedIn profile. Be sure to use action words such as:

- spearheaded

- streamlined

- championed

- developed

- restructured

- managed

- created

- increased

- consolidated

Tip 4: Add supporting info

Another great way to highlight your impact and accomplishments in your role is by adding supporting info. LinkedIn gives you the option of adding links, photos, videos, portfolios, presentations and other files to each of your experience in the Media section. This is a great way to promote your brand, any projects you've been working on, any awards you've received or panels you've been on.

Tip 5: Link other relevant sections

When you add an entry to the experience section of your LinkedIn profile you can also link it to other accomplishments, projects and memberships in other LinkedIn sections. For example, Volunteer Experience, Courses, Honors & Awards, Projects and Organizations. So if you receive an award or join an employee resource group or work on an extra special project you can reference the proper position and role.