By You earned the new title. Now your LinkedIn profile needs to catch up, because that profile is what recruiters, prospects, and future colleagues check first. This guide shows you exactly how to add a promotion to LinkedIn so your roles stack neatly under one company, you control who gets notified, and the announcement post (if you write one) actually lands.
Quick answer: To add a promotion on LinkedIn, open your profile, scroll to the Experience section, click the + icon, and choose Add position. Enter your new title, select your company from the dropdown, set the start date, and save. When the company matches your previous role, LinkedIn groups both positions under one company entry.
Add a promotion to LinkedIn: the steps
A promotion should be a new position on your profile, not an edit to your current one. Editing the old entry overwrites your history; adding a new one shows progression. Here is the desktop flow, per LinkedIn's official guide to the Experience section:
- Click Me โ View Profile at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
- Scroll to the Experience section and click the + icon.
- Select Add position.
- Enter your new job title, then pick your company from the dropdown suggestions rather than typing it freehand.
- Set the start date of the new role, and end your previous position so the dates line up.
- Add a short description of your new scope, attach relevant skills, and click Save.
On the mobile app
The flow is nearly identical: tap your profile photo, open your profile, scroll to Experience, tap the +, and choose to add a position. Fill in the same fields and save.
Make the roles stack under one company
The detail most people miss: LinkedIn only groups your old and new roles under a single company logo when both entries point to the same company page. That means selecting the company from the autocomplete dropdown, not typing a slightly different spelling. Keeping the dates continuous (previous role ends when the new one begins) helps the entries read as one career track rather than two disconnected jobs.
Watch out: if you type the company name manually instead of picking it from the dropdown, the new role won't link to the company page, won't show the logo, and usually won't group with your earlier position. If your promotion is showing as a separate entry, this is the most common cause โ edit the position and reselect the company.
Decide whether LinkedIn notifies your network
LinkedIn can announce job changes to your connections as a feed post, in-app notification, or email. Whether it does depends on one setting: Settings & Privacy โ Visibility โ Share profile updates with your network. According to LinkedIn's help page on sharing profile updates, job updates can take up to two hours to reach your network once shared.
Check this toggle before you save the new position. Turn it on if you want the congratulations thread. Turn it off if you'd rather update quietly โ for example, if the title change is part of a restructure you don't want to spotlight, or you prefer to announce it yourself with a proper post instead of an automated card.
Update the rest of your profile to match
Adding the position is step one. A promotion usually changes how you should present yourself across the whole profile:
- Headline. Your headline doesn't reliably rewrite itself when your experience changes. Review it so the title people see in search results and comment threads matches the new role. LinkedIn covers this in its guide to updating your current position in the introduction section.
- About section. If your scope changed โ a bigger team, a new function, P&L ownership โ say so in the first two lines.
- Skills. Add the skills the new role actually demands (people management, budget ownership, a new domain) so you surface in the right searches.
- Featured section. If the promotion came with shippable proof (a launch, a published result), pin it.
How to announce a promotion without the cringe
The automated "X was promoted" card is fine, but a short post in your own words does more. The trap is sounding like you're reading your own press release. Research covered by Harvard Business Review points to a useful tactic called dual promotion: credit the colleagues and managers who were part of the win while sharing your own news. It raises how warm you come across without making you look less competent.
A simple structure that works:
- One line of news: the new title and what you'll own.
- One or two lines of credit: the team, manager, or mentor who shaped the work that got you here.
- One line of direction: what you're excited to build next, stated concretely.
Why this matters beyond the likes: a promotion post is one of the highest-engagement things most people ever publish on LinkedIn, and the comment thread puts you back in front of dormant connections. If you do outbound or sales from your profile, that visibility window is a good week to be active.
Common mistakes when adding a promotion
| Mistake | What happens | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Editing the old role's title instead of adding a position | Your history disappears; the profile shows no progression | Add a new position and end the old one |
| Typing the company name instead of selecting it | No logo, no link to the company page, roles don't group | Edit the entry and pick the company from the dropdown |
| Leaving a date gap or overlap between roles | The entries can read as two separate stints | End the previous role the same month the new one starts |
| Saving before checking the notification toggle | Your network may be notified before you wanted them to be | Set "Share profile updates with your network" first |
| Updating Experience but not the headline | Search results and comments still show your old title | Rewrite the headline right after saving the position |
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Frequently asked questions
Should I add a promotion as a new position or edit my existing one?
Add it as a new position whenever the title or scope meaningfully changed. Editing the existing entry erases the record of your earlier role. Reserve edits for small corrections, like a typo or a refreshed description of the same job.
Why isn't my promotion grouping under the same company?
Almost always because the two positions point to different company records. Edit the newer position and reselect the company from LinkedIn's dropdown so both roles link to the same company page, and make sure the dates are continuous.
Will LinkedIn automatically tell my network about my promotion?
Only if "Share profile updates with your network" is switched on under Settings & Privacy โ Visibility. When it's on, LinkedIn says job updates can take up to two hours to be shared. When it's off, nothing is broadcast and you can announce on your own schedule.
Do I need to write an announcement post?
No, but it's usually worth it. The automated notification shows a bare title change; a short post lets you frame the new scope, thank the people involved, and restart conversations with connections you haven't spoken to in a while.
How do I show multiple promotions at the same company?
Repeat the same process for each role: one position entry per title, all linked to the same company page, with continuous dates. LinkedIn displays them as a stacked timeline under a single company heading, which reads as a clear progression.
The two-minute version
Add the promotion as a new position, pick the company from the dropdown, close out the old role's dates, and decide on the notification toggle before you hit save. Then spend five more minutes on the headline and About section, because that's what people actually see when you comment, connect, and sell. A profile that reflects your real title is table stakes for anyone doing serious outreach on LinkedIn.