From the course: Rock Your LinkedIn Profile

Incorporate career breaks into your LinkedIn profile - LinkedIn Tutorial

From the course: Rock Your LinkedIn Profile

Incorporate career breaks into your LinkedIn profile

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- Have you stepped away from traditional employment recently? Maybe you've dedicated time to caring for a loved one, prioritizing your health and well-being, or full-time parenting. You're not alone. LinkedIn introduced career breaks to flip the script and break the stigma around taking time away from traditional work. Now, you can highlight your career breaks right in your Experience section by sharing what you did, why it mattered, and the skills you gained along the way. Let's take a look at how to add a career break with our friend James. We'll scroll down to his Experience section. To add his career break, James will select the + icon and then choose Add Career Break. Next, he'll specify the type of career break. In this case, James pressed pause to be a full-time parent, balancing life with his energetic three-year-old and newborn, so he'll select Full-time Parenting. Then he'll add his location. He's based in Sydney, Australia, so he's going to add Greater Sydney Area. Since he's currently on his career break, he will keep this box checked. The start date was actually October of last year, so he'll add that in. Next up, James is filling in the details by adding a description. He recently made the big decision to leave his web design career and dedicate himself to full-time parenting, so he'll add that into the description. Then he'll highlight what he actually did during his break and add that in. "I took a career break to focus "on my most important role yet, "being a full-time dad. "With a curious 3-year-old and a brand-new baby at home, "I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity "to be fully engaged in their early years. "Here's what I learned on this break: "Mastered the art of time management, "because toddlers and newborns wait for no one! "Strengthened my adaptability, "constantly pivoting to meet ever-changing needs. "Developed deeper empathy, patience, "and problem solving skills, "and learned to lead with compassion. "This chapter has been both challenging "and incredibly rewarding, "and it's given me a fresh perspective "and invaluable skills that I'm excited to bring back "to the professional world." James can also update his profile headline to reflect this new title or even add any supporting rich media to bring his story to life. In this case, he's skipping that step and hitting Save. And just like that, his career break is now proudly displayed in his Experience section. Nice work, James. Keep these tips in mind when adding a career break to your profile. Showcase your skills. If you picked up new skills during your break, highlight them in your Experience and Skills sections. Many are transferable and can be valuable in future roles. Connect the dots. Make your career break part of your professional story. Consider adding a line or two in your About section to give more context and show how it's shaped your journey. Taking a career break isn't a setback, it's a valuable chapter in your professional journey, offering growth, new perspectives, and new skills that can help prepare you for what's next.

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