LinkedIn just released a feature on customizing your profile – you may now alter the default order of the sections.
I’m trying to find a compelling reason to do so or something to say about why this is phenomenal, but I really can’t…
By the book
Ok, in case you’re not looking at a profile, this is the default order:
Summary / Specialties
Applications
Experience
Education
Recommended By
Additional Information
Personal Information
Contact Settings
And frankly, that’s probably the best ordering for most people.
Flexibility if you want it
Say you’re just out of college and you’d like your education to sit atop your experience – now you can do that. When editing your profile, find the four-way arrow at the top of the education section, left click on it and hold, drag it to the new location, and let go – save that, and you’re all set.
I’ll be interested to hear from readers if they end up using this new ability.
Nothing yet within experience
The one section that I have heard people wanting to make a change in – Experience.
Many people would like to alter the “default” order within the experience section. That default says the “newest” positions sit on the top – all currently open positions, and they are in age order. After that, the positions that are no longer current, again from youngest to oldest.
That works fine for a traditional employee.
But not necessarily for someone that works multiple jobs or consults. They’d like to peg a specific position at the top of the experience section.
And this change doesn’t allow that.
Hopefully that is a feature we can look forward to;-)
Explore the uses
Please poke around with this new feature and let me know some ways you’ve thought to use it.
To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock
I like certain ascpects of the new LinkedIn features. On the one hand the Profile Customization feature might seem nice. On the other had, I’m so used to the current format that I know exactly where to scroll down to find a certain section in someone’s profile. If everyone’s profile has the same layout, it’s a lot more “skimmable”. But I can see why some people would rather have their 10-years of experience at the top of their profile, instead of taking up that space with where they went to college a decade ago.
Even if they come up with a feature to change the “default” order within the experience section (i.e. reverse chronological order w/ newest positions on top), people should be pretty careful about using that option. Most people are accostomed to seeing your past experience in reverse chronological order.
It might be a better if there were a section for “other experience”. You could leave your relevant experience where it is, then move your less-relevant experience futher down, so people can still look at it but not be distracted by it.
Or maybe just don’t put “irrelevant” experience on your profile, or just have a really short (or no) description.
On a side note, I hate, hate, hate the new “My Connections” page layout. It’s a beta version, so maybe it’ll get better. But it’s cluttered and cramped and the text is smaller and I have to do a lot more scrolling and clicking and there are these stupid “mini-profiles” that are useless and just take up wasted space. It’s annoying as heck (just like my previous run-on sentence)! If you hate it too, you can send a note to LinkedIn customer service. Supposedly they’re looking for feedback – who knows if they’ll use it.
Just to be nice, I’ll say that I really like the new features in the navigation tabs at the top of the page. The tabs have nice dropdown menus so everything is organized and more intuitive than before.
Betsy,
Don’t hold back now, let us know what you really think;-)
Your position is quite valid – I like the beta connections page because of the tagging, but otherwise, it’s just a different way of viewing the same information.
I was used to the left navigation, but it was redundant.
Thanks for commenting!
steve
Hi Steve!
Any word on order customization in “Experience” for consultants?
The other difficulty consultants experience is that even if a consultant is contractually free to assume multiple positions, it is always awkward to add the next position, knowing that controlling management of the first firm will see the addition and question their priority–especially for strategic consultants or business development consultants.
It would be nice to have the option to select privacy settings by organization or viewer to mitigate this situation (a la Facebook). That said, there is always room for a coding glitch created in a platform upgrade or shared contacts spilling the news, creating an even greater faux pas!
Any thoughts? At a minimum, thank goodness for setting customizations enabling users to prevent the “announcement” of changes and/or additions, propelling the “news” across the network…
Cheers!
Ashley,
No new news in regard to ordering specific positions within experience, and I just went and looked – no “unannounced” changes either.
Yes – it might be awkward to list individual assignments on a profile.
I’d recommend having one position “Independent XYZ Contractor” that acted as a cover for all of the smaller assignments. Then within that one could list different clients that have been worked for.
That way adding a new client is not such a big deal, and the length of that position would look longer. “Yes, I’ve been taking these 10 week assignments for 4 years now – and am quite accustomed to working in this fashion.”
Within my own profile, I list several different positions within Eastman Kodak under one “Kodak” position. But then when I joined Questra, I list my “Senior Systems Architect” position separately from my “Director of Desktop and Network Services” position.
Consider this as an option – and thanks for writing.
steve