Finding New Ways to Highlight Professional Certifications

The following email Q&A is with Dan Shapero, senior product manager at LinkedIn. LinkedIn recently launched its Add To Profile for Certifications feature, allowing users to add professional certifications quickly and easily to their profiles. Further, LinkedIn published a list of its Top 100 Certification providers based on the number of certifications on LinkedIn profiles. Including certification providers like Microsoft, Coursera and HubSpot, the Add To Profile for Certifications Feature is bringing alternative credentials to the forefront. In this interview, Shapero discusses the importance of displaying professional credentials and shares his thoughts on the value such a feature adds for working professionals who engage in professional development.

1. Why is it important for today’s professionals to display and highlight their professional development experience?

Highlighting certifications on your LinkedIn profile has proven to be a powerful way for professionals to attract opportunity—whether that be in the form of a new job, a volunteer or board position, the chance to be a mentor or even an invitation to speak at an industry conference. LinkedIn members with certifications receive 6 times the number of profile views, increasing their chances of being discovered by the right people for the right reasons.

2. How does allowing users to include these experiences on their LinkedIn profile improve LinkedIn’s value both to professionals and to employers?

Certifications allow members to showcase proven evidence of their skills and expertise, which is invaluable to employers looking for talent with particular competencies. That evidence builds confidence between talented professionals and employers looking for talented employees.

3. What impact do you hope the Add to Profile for Certifications feature will have on the professional development industry as a whole?

Add to Profile increases the visibility of certifications to employers, and therefore makes them more valuable to professionals. We expect the professional development industry to thrive the more professionals can get predictable and tangible value from certifications, and for the most valued certifications to increasingly stand out to the global professional community.

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Key Takeaways

• Highlighting professional development experience increases an individual’s chances of being noticed for new career opportunities.
• Particular certifications that deliver certain skills may be of interest to employers trying to fill specific organizational skills gaps.