Optimize your Experience section

Checklist

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✅ Clean the past experiences list to show the most important ones (if you have more than 5)
✅ Focus on impact in numbers, not tasks
✅ Add 3–5 skills per role for better search visibility
✅ Attach media to make your work tangible
✅ Use the Contract or Career Break options if they are relevant to you
✅ Keep your current role active if it supports your goals

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How to optimize your experience section

Many visitors scroll past your About section and go straight to Experience. Recruiters do it. Hiring managers do it. Potential customers do it.

Why?
Because your About section is self-reported, but your Experience section feels like a structured, factual track record.

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Think which roles should appear first

LinkedIn only shows the first 5 roles by default and hides the rest behind “Show all”.

If you have more than 5 roles, your profile might be unintentionally hiding your best work.

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Focus on impact, not responsibilities

The biggest mistake people make is listing tasks instead of results.
Responsibilities tell what you were assigned to do.
Impact tells what you actually achieved.

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Stronger Experience bullets use:

• Numbers (“Oversaw $2M in assets and improved allocation efficiency”)
• Scope (“Led a team of 200 employees during an operational restructuring”)
• Scale (“Managed 5,000+ orders daily across three regions”)
• Transformation

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Focusing on impact should also be a leading aspect of your content posting strategy.

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Add 3–5 relevant skills to each role

LinkedIn lets you attach skills to each job entry. These act as SEO signals for recruiter searches and strengthen the credibility of each experience block.

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How to add skills:

• Open the Experience section
• Click the pencil icon on the role
• Scroll to Skills
• Click Add a Skill
• Choose the most relevant skills for that position

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Best practices:

• Add 3–5 skills only
• Match them to the responsibilities of that role
• Avoid adding highly generic or irrelevant skills
• Reorder them so the most important ones appear first

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Attach media

Your Experience section becomes far more persuasive when you attach real proof like:

• Product screenshots
• Portfolio items
• Slide decks
• Articles that mention your work
• GitHub repositories
• Case studies
• Campaign results
• Press coverage

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To add media:

• Open a job entry
• Scroll to Media (right below Skills)
• Add the relevant files or links

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For Service Providers and Fractional Professionals

If you work with multiple clients on a contract basis, your Experience section can double as a client portfolio.

Best practices:

• Ask clients for permission before naming them
• Use titles like:
  • “Fractional Full Stack Developer”
  • “Fractional CMO”
  • “Marketing Consultant”
  • “Data Engineering Advisor”
• Set Employment Type to Contract

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How to update Employment Type:

• Click the pencil icon on a job entry
• Go to Employment Type
• Select Contract

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Add Career Breaks when relevant

LinkedIn now has a dedicated Career Break category that adds clarity and removes stigma.

You can use it to describe:

• Parental leave
• Caregiving
• Travel
• Relocation
• Education retraining
• Health recovery
• A sabbatical

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Decide if to keep the las job active while searching for new opportunities

Some people wait with listing their last job as “ended” even if they left it, until they secure a new one. showing current employment makes you appear more active or desirable to recruiters.

Consider keeping the role active if:

• You’re job-hunting
• The employer doesn’t mind
• It benefits your narrative

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What to optimize next

Next, optimize your Education section