How To Add Interests on LinkedIn (2023)
Even though adding interests on your LinkedIn profile is one of the quickest and easiest ways to connect more personally with recruiters and hiring managers, I rarely see this section being used to its fullest potential. Instead we focus only on our headlines, banner images, and about sections. While these are crucial to telling your career story, adding your interests to LinkedIn will give you that strategic marketing boost you’re looking for. Let’s talk about how to do it!
Why Spend Time Adding Interests on LinkedIn?
All brains use mental shortcuts (called cognitive biases) to process information and make decisions based on what they perceive. Every day LinkedIn is used by millions of professionals looking to make new networking connections, to find jobs, to search for qualified job candidates, and more. Those searches are made by human brains looking for a spark - something that feels familiar to them.
This shortcut is called affinity bias. LeanIn.org defines affinity bias as “...gravitat[ing] toward people like ourselves in appearance, beliefs, and background.” We need to watch out for this because it leads us to discount people who are different, giving opportunities to only those who are like us. The result: less diversity and if you know me, you know I’m all for more diversity.
On the flip side, affinity bias can be used to your advantage - to bridge differences and get our foot in the door. That “familiar spark” are your common interests. It might be an influencer or group you both follow. It could be the name of the company you’re applying to that they’re connected with or work for. It could be a school or program you both attended. It could be a programming language or specialized skill.
So it makes sense to spend a few minutes making sure your interests section represents the professional you are and want to be.
Where is the interests section on my LinkedIn profile?
If you already have a profile set up on LinkedIn, view your profile (upper right corner under “Me”). You’ll find your interests section all the way at the bottom. It will look something like this (if you’ve ever followed an influencer, company, group, or school).
When you click “See all” - you get a pop up that lists them by category.
This is what my interest section looks like expanded by clicking “See all”:
I have a LinkedIn profile but I don’t have an interests section yet. How do I set one up?
Once you have a profile, it’s easy to add interests to LinkedIn. While you can’t add interests directly from your profile, there are two main ways to do it:
When you are first setting up your LinkedIn profile, the last step you’ll go through is to select the people and companies you’d like to follow. That’s a great place to start.
The way you’ll do it after you set up your initial profile is by using search bar and typing in an interest. For example, if you are looking for opportunities in “Event Marketing,” type that into the search and you’ll get a list of results that includes people, companies, groups, events, jobs, and posts.
Once you’ve found something you want to follow, click on it. If it’s a company page, you’ll see the +Follow button.
If it’s a group, you’ll see a Join button (if it’s public) or Request to Join (if it’s private). Note: only public groups will be visible on your interests section on your profile.
LinkedIn also has Influencers you can follow. They are selected each year through an invite-only process. For example, Melinda French Gates is someone you can follow and will show up on your interests section. All you have to do is search for the person and see if they have a follow button. This type of following is different from, say, following me on LinkedIn (because I’m not a LinkedIn Global Influencer - yet!)
How to get ideas for adding interests on LinkedIn to optimize your profile.
One of the easiest ways to get ideas for interests is to look up the profiles of people you admire and look at their interest sections. Start with the thought leaders you follow for information and see who and what they’re following.
Looking for a new job? Check out the interest sections of the people you may be interviewing or working with. Say, for example, you’re interested in a Product Designer position at the fintech company, Digit.
You’d type in “Digit” into the search bar, see their company page pop up, and click “follow” so it appears in your interests section.
Then, you’d click on their company page and go to the list of employees.
You can search by role or scroll through to see if you can find a Product Designer, the Director of Product Design, Head of Talent, Chief People Officer, etc.
Click on an employee profile that looks related to the role and scroll down to check out their interests section. Don’t forget to click “see all” for an expanded look into the what they’re into.
Make sure to audit your interests on LinkedIn at least once a quarter.
Your professional goals will evolve over time and overtime that may dilute the impact of your interests section on LinkedIn. You can end up looking like someone who has no focus or career theme. To avoid this happening to you, block 30 minutes each quarter to review your LinkedIn profile interest section and make sure it represents what you want the world to see.
How do I remove a group from my interests section without leaving the LinkedIn group?
If there’s a group you participate in on LinkedIn that you no longer want to show up publicly on your profile, there is a way to remove it while still remaining a member of the group. Here’s how to do it:
Go to the group’s page.
Click on the three dots at the top and choose “Update Your Settings.”
From there, you’ll see an option to “Display group on profile” and you can toggle it off.
You’re good to go!
Final thoughts:
My hope is that you’ll give a bit more thought to one of your LinkedIn profiles’s most underutilized features - the interests section. Instead of thinking of it as a useless add-on section, think of it as another way of optimizing your LinkedIn profile.
The bottom line is this: you never know what will grab a person’s attention, so do yourself a favor and represent yourself the best way you can through your interests section.
