4 Places to Add Awards & Honors to Your LinkedIn Profile

OK, you haven’t won an Oscar (yet), but it’s still good to know how to add awards and honors to your LinkedIn profile. 

Why Should You Add Awards to Your Profile?

Because they serve several purposes:

• They provide quick proof of your achievements.
• If done right, they give your reader visual relief from walls of text.
• They give viewers a sense of your personality.

Types of Honors & Awards to Share on LinkedIn

To operationalize this, you might use what LinkedIn calls rich media. Examples include:

• Uploading a photo of yourself or your team receiving an award
• Sharing a video of yourself presenting at an industry conference
• Adding a flattering picture of you holding your award
• Uploading a shot of your staff giving you a “World’s Best Boss” mug

You get the idea.

Now, the 4 places to add awards and honors:

1. Add Awards to Your Featured Section

In 2020, LinkedIn added a Featured section to the profile. It’s a terrific place to share a BIG award.

What do I mean by “BIG” award?

Well, one of my clients was featured by a leading publication in his industry. They called him the King of X. So, we added a link to that article to his Featured section.

It displays on his profile showing his company’s name and his title. Plus, it says he’s the best X in the US and calls him the King of X. It doesn’t get any better than that.

We made the article the only item in his Featured section. That ensured there was enough room for LinkedIn to display all that information. We also avoided diluting the impact of his great honor with less compelling media.

LinkedIn has a detailed FAQ on using the Featured section. Or, if you prefer video, Viveka von Rosen has you covered here:

2. Add Awards to Your Experience & Education Sections as Rich Media

In addition to Featured, you can add rich media to your Experience and Education sections.

As mentioned above, less is more:

• I limit rich media under any job or degree to 1 item.
• Doing so ensures that it displays well — more than 1 results in a cluttered look and zero impact.

Jennifer Chenoweth has a quick, “how-to” video on the mechanics of using rich media here:

3. The Honors & Awards Section

Your profile also has an Honors & Awards section. Use rich media as described above for your most impressive honors and awards. Then, use this section for other recent accolades.

I like to keep awards fresh (no more than 3 or 4 years back). Anything older, and you might look as though you’re living on past glories.

4. Add Awards & Honors as Accomplishment Bullets

You can also present awards and honors as accomplishment statements in narrative text.

Here’s a sample accomplishment statement:

Recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Data Integration Tools Leader 2020 through 2022.

Closing

Take advantage of the opportunities LinkedIn provides to share your honors and awards. They help you differentiate yourself.

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Updated January 2023

© 2014 – 2023, Donna Svei. All rights reserved.

Donna Svei

Donna Svei, an executive resume writer and former C-level executive, retained search consultant, and CPA, authors all of AvidCareerist’s posts.

She is a Fast Company Contributor and has written for and been quoted by 100+ business and general media outlets, including Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, CNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, Time, US News & World Report, CBS, the BBC, Lifehacker, Social Media Today, IT World, and Business News Daily.

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