Update your profile with your latest achievement

You've put in the hard work and it's finally been recognised. Congratulations on landing that promotion! Now that the celebrations are over and you've settled into your new desk, it's time to update your LinkedIn profile to reflect your new status. In this article, we're looking at how to add a promotion to LinkedIn to ensure your profile continues to reflect your stellar career. 

How do I add a promotion on LinkedIn?

To add a promotion to LinkedIn is much like adding a new job. LinkedIn itself will format your profile so that the promotion is clear. These are the steps you need to take: 

  • Open your profile: When you first open LinkedIn, you're taken to your feed. To open your profile, click on your photo (if you don't have a photo on your profile, check out this article about why you need one and how to take a good headshot!)

  • Start editing: Scroll down to the Experience section and click on the plus icon next to the pencil in the top right corner to edit your career history. 
  • Add your new position: Click “Add Position” and fill in the boxes as follows:

Title: Add the job title for the position you've just been promoted into.

Employment type: You can select the most appropriate position from the drop-down menu, or alternatively leave this section blank.

Company or organization: Make sure you type the company name exactly as per the previous role on your LinkedIn profile, so that LinkedIn can recognize it as a promotion and group the roles accordingly. For large businesses, you'll want to use the official name of the business so that the official logo appears next to the role on your profile. You don't need to do anything to get this, as long as the company has its own LinkedIn page. 

Dates: Leave the check in the box for “I am currently working in this role” and add your start date in the fields below. 

Quit your previous role: Check the box for “End current position as of now” and LinkedIn will automatically change the end date of your last job to the start date of your new job.

Location: There's no need to fill out the location or location type unless you want to but, if you do, don't add more than simply the state or the country you worked in. 

Description: This is the most important part! Give an outline of the remit of your role, quantifying whatever you can – for example the number of people you manage or your budget. It's still early days in this new role, so don't forget to come back to update this section as the role develops. As soon as you have any notable achievements, make sure you add those too! 

Profile headline: Your headline is the only part of your profile visible in a search, apart from your photo. LinkedIn usually defaults your headline to your current job title, but you can change it to something much more compelling to hook readers into viewing your full profile. If you're stuck for ideas, read this article about how to write a good LinkedIn headline.

Where did you find this job?: There's no need to select anything from this drop-down. 

Skills: You can add five relevant skills to this role, but you can add up to 100 in the Skills section so don't worry if you can't fit everything in here that you want. 

Media: It may be too soon to have any relevant media to add, but as you progress in the role you can come back to add to this section. It could be anything from a sales presentation, a link to a news article, an infographic, or anything else that will position you as an expert in your field. 

And you're done! Hit the save button and have a check on your profile that everything looks as it should. Don't forget to proofread the details of the new position, too. 

Expert tip: Review your LinkedIn profile at least every six months to ensure it still accurately reflects your role, successes, and current career aspirations.

Broadcast your promotion to your network 

Now you know how to show a promotion on LinkedIn, why stop there? We know that LinkedIn is all about networking and building connections, and the best way to do this is to create your own posts that people can engage with. A promotion is a great way to share your success and engage with your network, and there are two ways you can do this. 

  1. Use the “Notify Network” slider: You may have noticed when you clicked “Add position” in the steps above that, at the very top of the pop-up box, there was a slider labeled “Notify Network.” Slide this to the On position and, when you input your details and click Save, you'll see the option to share the update with your network – click Next and Post to share the update as it's displayed on your screen. 

  2. Create your own post from scratch: From your feed, you can create your own post, using your own wording and image. You keep it simple with a brief “I'm pleased to announce I've been promoted to the position of Arch Nemesis at Acme Corp,” or you can go for the full-on Oscars speech with an expression of gratitude, an outline of your new role, and a list of people you'd like to thank. The choice is yours – we'd suggest finding a happy middle ground!

Keep your profile updated to land new opportunities

It's worthwhile figuring out how to add a promotion on LinkedIn, because an up-to-date profile and regular engagement on the platform means that when the time comes to move on, you're in a strong position to attract recruiters and hiring managers. 

Is your resume up-to-date and showing off your promotion too? Why not send it for a free resume review to ensure you're well positioned for your next move? We can help with your LinkedIn profile, too! 

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