Why edX Certificates Can Help Your Job Search and How to Add Them to Your LinkedIn Profile.

On the hunt for a new job? Looking to switch careers? If you’re actively searching and applying to jobs, adding an edX certificate to your LinkedIn profile can help highlight to future employers your latest skills and achievements.

With an increasingly competitive job market, it’s important to set yourself apart from the other applicants and a good strategy to increase your chances of standing out is by adding the MOOCs and programs you have completed to your LinkedIn profile. (If you’re interested in learning about the benefit of adding certificates to your CV, check out this post.) Below, we’ll review the top three questions from our learners about adding Verified Certificates and MicroMasters Credentials to their LinkedIn profiles.

1) Why should I add an edX certificate to my LinkedIn profile?
The use of social media for job recruitment has grown 54% in the past five years. A recent SHRM study found that 84 percent of organizations are now recruiting on social media, including LinkedIn. Showcasing an edX certificate on your LinkedIn profile demonstrates that you have a valuable set of skills and have taken the initiative to learn. If you have completed a program or courses on edX, this shows a deep knowledge in a specialized field, which can help you stand out as a candidate.

2) What’s the value of a certificate to employers?
Completing an online course and showcasing a certificate demonstrates personal drive and discipline, curiosity, and a strong willingness to learn: all of which are important to employers. In a recent survey of edX learners who earned verified certificates in career-oriented courses, 47% of respondents have highlighted their certificate on their LinkedIn profiles, and 45% have included it in their resumes. 83% of the learners in the same survey said they learned a new skill in an edX course, and 43% said the course helped them advance their career (promotion, raise, new job, career change, etc.)

3) How do I add my certificates and studies to my LinkedIn profile?
You can choose two spaces on LinkedIn to display your edX achievements; the education section or as a certificate. The education section showcases that you are a lifelong learner. While highlighting individual certificates shows your distinct accomplishments. We recommend adding to both sections if you are a continuous learner on edx.

Education section: If you’ve studied multiple Digital Marketing courses, you can add “Digital Marketing” as a field of study to the education section of your profile:

Certificates: If you want to display individual courses to highlight a specific skill set to an employer, you can add the course name to the certificate section of your profile. Learn how here.

When you’ve completed your course (with a path towards a verified certificate) just click the LinkedIn button shown in the image below. Read more about uploading certificates to your LinkedIn profile here.

Looking for more career-advancing options? Check out our newest MicroMasters Programs, a new category of Master’s-level online education to advance careers in the most in-demand fields—from UX and artificial intelligence, to global business management and Android development—while also offering a pathway to credit to an accelerated Master’s degree.