How do I add more than one type of income-producing skill on Linked In

June 7, 2013 12:21 PM

Everyone in my industry uses Linked In, so though I can't figure it out for the life of me, I had to create a profile. But I don't have just one job - I'm also a freelancer in a couple of different fields. I'd like to list them too.

Right now my profile gives the name of the company where I have a full time job, and lists my position as my, well, job. But I'm also a freelance illustrator, and I write for online magazines as well. How on earth do I add these things?

Is this one of those things where I'm going to have to buy the premium version of Linked In in order to create an accurate profile? Gah...

posted by cartoonella to Work & Money (6 answers total)

You can add a second job, as something like "Freelance Writer/Illustrator," list the company as "Self," and then put the dates as the date you started doing those things through the present. Then, in the description part, list some of the more impressive jobs you've had or the specific skills you bring to the table.

You might also consider changing your headline to reflect that you're an active freelancer, if you're hoping to use your LinkedIn to solicit for work.
posted by decathecting at 12:27 PM on June 7, 2013

I'm a career freelancer and my profile says that. I just list clients and projects and ignore their timeline set up. My Current says : Freelance whatever and the Previous says: Freelance whatever
and then I have Background, and then Experience.

I don't think you need to upgrade to make this work for you.
posted by Ideefixe at 12:27 PM on June 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

I do it the way ideefixe does it.
posted by Lynsey at 12:46 PM on June 7, 2013

If you aren't comfortable adding them as jobs, you can add them as "Projects." Then you can also add people who worked with you on that project as well, if you want to connect and network.
With a project, you can link the project name to a website URL which helps with the portfolio aspect of freelancing.

In addition, you can move fields around on your linkedin profile. So you can have projects right below "jobs". Or even above Jobs, or instead of jobs if you want.

(My profile links to my LinkedIn if you want - I have changes to add/work on in the upcoming days on there, but you can get the basic idea of what I'm talking about.)
posted by Crystalinne at 1:02 PM on June 7, 2013

My fiance did some writing/marketing consulting for a while, and he has that listed as a job on his LinkedIn. He has written articles that were published in big-name online publications, and he has those listed as publications.
posted by radioamy at 1:10 PM on June 7, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for these great responses, guys!
posted by cartoonella at 9:26 AM on June 10, 2013