How to Rearrange LinkedIn Profile Sections

Your LinkedIn profile isn’t just a simple resume, it’s the top result when someone Googles your name and serves as the central hub of your professional brand. Knowing how to rearrange the sections on your profile gives you crucial control over the story you tell, allowing you to highlight your most compelling qualifications first. This guide will walk you through why this matters, what you can rearrange, and how to create a strategic layout that helps you meet your career goals.

Why Rearranging Your LinkedIn Profile Matters

The default layout on LinkedIn is logical, but it’s an all-purpose template that might not serve your specific goals. Taking a few minutes to customize the flow of your profile can make a huge difference in how recruiters, potential clients, and industry connections perceive you. The goal is simple: put your most impressive, relevant information "above the fold" or as close to the top as possible.

Here’s why it’s worth your time:

• Control the Narrative: You decide what viewers see first. Are you an established expert with tons of recommendations? A prolific creator with amazing projects? Or a recent grad with a highly relevant certification? You can lead with your strongest assets.
• Capture Short Attention Spans: Most people will scan your profile for only a few seconds. A strategic layout helps you make an immediate impact by showcasing your best work before they lose interest and click away.
• Tailor for Your Goals: The ideal layout for a software engineer seeking a job at a FAANG company is different from the ideal layout for a freelance writer trying to attract content marketing clients. Personalization signals what you value and what you offer.

The Honest Truth: What You Can and Can't Rearrange

One of the biggest points of confusion around organizing a LinkedIn profile is what you actually have control over. LinkedIn has changed its system over the years, and some advice you find online is outdated. Let's clear that up right now.

The Fixed Foundations: Your Core Blocks

LinkedIn has a set of core sections that form the backbone of your professional story. For the most part, the order of these major blocks is non-negotiable. You cannot drag and drop your entire "Education" section above your "Experience" section. Everyone's profile follows this general flow:

1. Intro Card: Your photo, name, headline, location, and contact info will always be at the very top.
2. Featured Section: If you use it, this appears just below your intro card.
3. Activity: Your recent posts, comments, and shares.
4. About: Your professional summary.
5. Experience: Your work history.
6. Education: Your academic background.

While this might seem restrictive, it actually creates a level of consistency across the platform, making it easier for people to find the information they expect. The real customization doesn't come from moving these entire blocks around, but from organizing content within them and organizing the sections that follow.

Flexible Sections: Where You Have Control

Below the core sections, you have a high degree of control over the supplemental sections. This is your opportunity to shine. The sections you can currently rearrange include:

• Licenses &, Certifications
• Projects
• Volunteering
• Publications
• Recommendations
• Honors &, Awards
• Organizations
• Courses

This is where your strategy comes in. If a recent certification is the most relevant credential for the job you want, you can move "Licenses &, Certifications" to the very top of this flexible group. If client testimonials are your key selling point, you can place "Recommendations" front and center.

The Real Power Move: Reordering *Within* Sections

Perhaps the most powerful (and underutilized) customization feature is the ability to reorder the individual items within some of your core sections. You can control the order of:

• Your individual job roles within the Experience section.
• Your top three skills in the Skills section.

This means you can pin your most advanced skills to the top of your skills list or move an incredibly relevant (but older) job to a higher position within your Experience section to catch a viewer’s eye. Note: Chronological order is still the default and often makes the most sense. However, for freelance or contract roles that happen concurrently, ordering by relevance can be very effective.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Rearrange Your Profile Sections

Ready to make some changes? The process is straightforward, but remember, it can only be done on the desktop version of LinkedIn, not the mobile app.

1. Log in to LinkedIn and navigate to your personal profile page.
2. Scroll down past your main sections (About, Experience, Education) to the first flexible section you want to move, such as “Licenses &, Certifications” or “Projects.”
3. Find the Reorder Icon: To the right of the section title, you'll see a four-line "hamburger" icon or similar click-and-drag handle. Your cursor will change to a four-way arrow when you hover over it.
4. Click and Hold: Click and hold this icon. The entire section will appear to "lift" off the page.
5. Drag and Drop: While holding the mouse button, drag the section up or down. As you move it, other sections will shift to show you where it will land.
6. Release: Once the section is where you want it, release the mouse button. The change is saved automatically.

That's it! Repeat this for any other supplementary sections you want to reposition. You can experiment with different layouts until you find one that tells your story perfectly.

How to Reorder Content *Within* Key Sections

Strategically arranging your flexible sections is smart, but don’t forget to curate the content inside them. Here’s how to manage the order within the Experience and Skills sections for maximum impact.

Pinning Your Top 3 Skills

Your skills section often contains dozens of entries, but only the top three are displayed prominently on your profile. Make them count.

1. Go to your profile and scroll down to the "Skills" section.
2. Click the pencil icon (Edit) in the top-right corner of the Skills box.
3. A new window will pop up showing all your skills. Look for the pin icon next to each skill.
4. You can pin up to three top skills. Deselect any currently pinned skills by clicking their pin icon, then select the three you want to feature. These three will now appear first.
5. Click "Save" to confirm your changes.

Pro Tip: Tailor your top three skills to match the keywords in the job descriptions you’re targeting or the services your clients are looking for.

Organizing Your Experience and Education

Within your Experience and Education sections, you can also reorder individual entries. This is useful if you have multiple concurrent roles or want to emphasize a specific degree.

1. Scroll to the "Experience" or "Education" section.
2. Click the pencil icon (Edit) in the top-right corner.
3. Find the four-line "Hamburger" icon next to each job title or degree.
4. Click, drag, and drop the entry into your desired order.
5. Click "Save."

Strategic Layout Examples for Different Career Goals

Now that you know how it's done, which layout is right for you? Here are a few examples tailored to common career goals.

For the Job Seeker

Your goal is to quickly show a recruiter that you meet their qualifications. Your layout should remove all guesswork.

• Top 3 Pinned Skills: Align these directly with the skills mentioned in the job description.
• Licenses &, Certifications: If the role requires specific certs (e.g., PMP, Google Analytics IQ), move this section to the very top.
• Projects: If you have a portfolio of work directly related to the role, showcase it right after Certifications.
• Recommendations: Leave this lower down. Recruiters will be more interested in hard skills first and social proof second.

For the Freelancer or Consultant

Your profile is a sales page designed to build trust and show results. Social proof is your best friend.

• Featured Section: This is prime real estate. Use it for your portfolio link, a video testimonial, or a link to a case study.
• Recommendations: This section should be at the very top of your flexible sections. Glowing reviews from past clients build instant credibility.
• Projects: Turn this into a mini-portfolio. Include brief descriptions of client work and the results you delivered.
• Publications: If you've been featured on industry blogs or published articles, placing this high demonstrates your authority.

For the Founder or Entrepreneur

You need to represent your company, attract talent, and secure partnerships. Your profile should scream vision and leadership.

• Experience: Your role as Founder/CEO should be rich with detail about your company's mission, values, and accomplishments.
• Publications / Honors &, Awards: If you or your company has been featured in the press, put this up high. It lends third-party validation.
• Volunteering / Organizations: If you sit on a board or are active in a key industry organization, this showcases your commitment and network.

Final Thoughts

Rearranging your LinkedIn profile is a simple, no-cost tactic to gain a huge strategic advantage. By taking control of the layout, you're no longer presenting a generic resume - you're guiding your audience through a curated story that highlights your greatest strengths and aligns with your career goals.

Once your profile is perfectly optimized to attract the right people, the next step is keeping them engaged with valuable content. At Postbase, we know that consistently creating and scheduling LinkedIn content on top of managing your other social platforms can be a grind. We built a clean, modern social media tool that helps you plan your content on a visual calendar, schedule posts reliably across all your channels, and manage all your engagement in one place. It streamlines your workflow, helping you capitalize on the attention your newly-optimized profile generates.

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