Are LinkedIn Certifications Worth It?

LinkedIn doesn’t only offer its users a featureful platform where they can connect with businesspersons all over the world and boast their own professional achievements but also helps them learn new skills to create a stronger profile. This is done through LinkedIn Learning which offers LinkedIn Certifications.

LinkedIn Certifications enhance your resume by validating the expertise of your skills and essentially help you bag better jobs and contracts by creating an attractive profile.

However, to unlock LinkedIn Certifications, you need to buy LinkedIn Premium which comes at a fairly expensive price. 

This begs the question- are LinkedIn Certifications worth it? 

The short answer is that it depends. For many professional fields, LinkedIn certifications can be a highlighting addition to your resume, whereas, for other industries, these certifications could simply go ignored by employers.

Want to know if LinkedIn Certifications are the right step for you? Today, we will explore exactly this by understanding what LinkedIn Certifications are, if they are the right step for you, and how to get the best LinkedIn Certifications in your field.

Let’s get started.

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LinkedIn Certifications Explained

LinkedIn Certifications come from LinkedIn Learning where you can take part in online courses and learn new skills. These courses are taught by industry experts in the form of videos that you can watch and learn from, following a similar pattern to other online course platforms like Udemy or Skillshare.

Only once you have watched all the videos in a course playlist, you are eligible for a LinkedIn certification.

LinkedIn certifications aren’t accredited certifications, however, in many fields, they can give you a good bang for your buck.

At the end of the day, these LinkedIn Certifications can be added to your LinkedIn profile and resume. 

Currently, LinkedIn Learning offers certifications in over 5000 courses taught by industry pioneers in over 7 languages. As of yet, over 27 million LinkedIn users proudly boast LinkedIn certifications on their profiles. 

How Valuable Are LinkedIn Certifications For Your Resume

Now comes the technical part. Whether you’re a beginner or an intermediate in a professional field, are LinkedIn certifications worth enough to have a good value on your resume?

Well, as mentioned before, this mostly depends on the field that you relate to. In layman’s terms, if your professional field is highly reliant on academic degrees, LinkedIn Certifications may not provide you an amazing value.

However, for other creative fields that are mainly reliant on a person’s skills, for example, graphic designing or digital marketing, LinkedIn Certifications can be a featureful way to hone your skills.

My personal advice would be to browse through the profiles of professionals relating to your industry and see if they’re boasting any LinkedIn certifications in their resumes. If yes, there’s a high chance these certifications have a good worth in your field. 

Another benefit of LinkedIn Certifications is that they act as validation. For certain fields, for instance, Content Writing, there’s not really a professional way to validate your expertise and knowledge in your skills except for having a portfolio which isn’t really the most attractive way to fascinate employers.

With a LinkedIn certification, the top employers present on LinkedIn can easily put their trust in you seeing you boast a LinkedIn Certification, and be assured that you know damn well what you’re doing.

At the end of the day, the biggest variable that makes a LinkedIn profile stand apart is still the professional’s own marketing technique.

If you know how to market yourself on LinkedIn, you can definitely shine bright by creating a strong network and engaging with top experts in your field and not having the need for a LinkedIn certification.

Pros And Cons Of LinkedIn Certifications

To put things in perspective and help you make the final decision if LinkedIn Certifications have a good worth for your career or not, let’s go through an extensive list of Pros and Cons relating to LinkedIn Certifications.

Pros

• Once you unlock LinkedIn Learning, you can access ALL LinkedIn courses for free.
• LinkedIn Certifications can easily be obtained from the comfort of your home, with many certifications requiring effort for only a day or two.
• Since there are no strict deadlines, you can go through the course at your own pace. Preferably, you should always implement and try the new skills that you learn first before jumping onto the next video.
• Comparatively, LinkedIn Learning can be accessed at a cheaper price than many other online courses available on the internet.
• The UX of LinkedIn Learning automatically analyzes your profile and recommends the best courses tailored to your attributes.
• LinkedIn Learning is extremely easy to use with no learning curve that you have to follow.
• Students can communicate with the course’s instructors and ask questions if they face a query.
• LinkedIn Certifications can be seamlessly integrated into your LinkedIn profile as soon as you complete the course.

Cons

• LinkedIn Certifications aren’t accredited by any official educational body. This means top organizations may not find these any worth.
• LinkedIn Certifications may be cheaper than many courses, however, there are certainly many courses that you can find at an even cheaper price.
• There is no strict curriculum or mechanism for the courses. People can simply leave these course videos playing idly and learn nothing yet still get a certification.
• Some LinkedIn courses are criticized for not being up-to-date or of satisfactory quality.

How To Apply For LinkedIn Certifications

In order to unlock LinkedIn Certifications, you need to complete a LinkedIn Learning course. LinkedIn Learning is a special feature that is only available for premium users.

LinkedIn Premium has 4 different packages you can choose from, however, if you’re just interested in bagging some LinkedIn Certifications, you should get the LinkedIn Premium Career which comes at a price of $29.99. 

Additionally, you can also unlock LinkedIn Learning for free by getting a Free Trial month for Premium Career. This can help you try these courses out before actually needing to pay.

7 Best And In-Demand LinkedIn Certifications Of Today

Feeling overwhelmed by the wide variety of courses available on LinkedIn Learning? Since every field can have a plethora of courses assigned to them, I have created a list of the most popular LinkedIn Certifications that have an outstanding worth being displayed on your resume.

1. Data Science and Analytics: Data Science Foundations or Data Science and Machine Learning Bootcamp with R is a popular choice for data science students to hone their skills.
2. Digital Marketing: Whether you’re a beginner or an intermediate, Online Marketing Foundations and Google Analytics Essential Training are a must to build a strong foundation in Digital Marketing.
3. Web Development: HTML Essential Training and Full Stack Development are most students’ go-to for acquiring skills to develop websites and web apps.
4. Software Development: Become a Software Developer is the best beginner course while Python Essential Training is recommended for intermediates.
5. Business Analysis: Business Analysis Foundations or Certified Business Analysis Professionals (CBAP) can provide you with a strong validation for your business understanding technical skills.
6. Leadership and Management: Leadership Foundations or Strategic Thinking are the most popular courses for business management professionals.
7. Microsoft Office Suit: Excel Essential Training and PowerPoint Essential Training can help you master Microsoft Office tools that are often used in almost all organizations.

Conclusion

In summary, the worth of LinkedIn Certifications mostly depends on the type of field you operate in. My advice would be to see for yourself if the experts of your industry present on LinkedIn have these certifications or not and follow their lead. Before jumping into LinkedIn Learning, don’t forget to make use of the Free 30 Day Trial for LinkedIn Learning that unlocks all LinkedIn premium features.

Interested in more? Check out How To Cancel LinkedIn Premium (6 Steps Guide).

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