There’s a lot more to education than a college degree, particularly continuing education and professional development; and it’s all fair game. Show yourself to be a lifelong learner.
This is another area you can repurpose a bit of your resume material, but it doesn’t stop there. Even if you didn’t finish official schooling or just took a few classes, this information belongs in your LinkedIn profile. But don’t worry; there are some really good strategies for covering up any holes.
There are ways to ignore or build this section that won’t hurt your credibility if you have no formal post-secondary education, or even if you didn’t finish high school. There are a lot of successful people out there who are in the same boat. We know: they ask us what to do!
Creatively adding more education to your LinkedIn Profile
List the schools you attended all the way back to high school, to “My Old School” (Steely Dan 1977), as it gives you another place to create bonds with other people. It even helps when you are building your LinkedIn network and inviting others.
List other forms of education too; perhaps professional development training. “I Know a Little” (Lynyrd Skynyrd 1974) adds up to a lot in the minds of others and people LOVE current skills and knowledge, don’t they?
Training sessions, industry seminars, vocational education and the like are all rich places to look when adding more education. Think keywords as well, there are benefits to being found based on this new training you have added.
Which is more important in 2011, Mike’s Industrial Engineering degree from 1983 or the SXSW event in Austin in 2010? It depends on the reader’s point of view, but most would probably go for #2.
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