LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for professionals to build their online presence and networks. With over 740 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is the largest professional networking site. As more and more employers use LinkedIn to screen candidates during the hiring process, it’s important for LinkedIn members to have accurate and verified profiles.
Why does LinkedIn verify employment?
LinkedIn aims to build trust and credibility within its community. Employment verification helps ensure members provide accurate work histories on their profiles. This prevents exaggerations or false claims about someone’s career. Verified employment adds validity to a member’s experience, skills and accomplishments.
For employers and recruiters, verified employment on candidates’ LinkedIn profiles provides greater confidence in their background. It reduces the risk of making a bad hire based on misleading or fraudulent information.
How does the LinkedIn verification process work?
LinkedIn’s employment verification process relies on two sources of information:
- User reported employment history – Members add jobs to their profiles, listing details like company, title, employment dates etc.
- Employer confirmed employment history – LinkedIn asks companies to confirm or correct employment details on members’ profiles.
By matching these two data sources, LinkedIn can verify if a member’s stated employment history is accurate.
User reported employment
Any LinkedIn member can add employment history to their profile. They simply enter details like:
- Company name
- Job title
- Employment dates
- Location
- Description of role and achievements
Members can also list multiple positions within the same company. Some members choose to only partially complete their employment history. But most members aim to provide a full overview of their career on their LinkedIn profile.
Employer confirmation
LinkedIn asks companies to confirm the employment details on members’ profiles. Companies have administrator accounts that let them verify if employees’ listed job titles, employment dates, and other details are accurate.
This employer confirmation serves as LinkedIn’s main source of truth for employment. If a member’s stated employment matches the company’s records, then LinkedIn considers this employment as verified.
LinkedIn verification badges
Verified employment displays a “Verified” icon on a member’s LinkedIn profile. This appears next to the job title and company name for confirmed employment history. Members can verify some or all of their listed work experience.
Here is an example of how verified employment appears on LinkedIn profiles:
The “Verified” icon provides visual confirmation that the employment has been authenticated. Hovering over the “Verified” icon shows when the verification occurred.
How to get verified on LinkedIn
Members don’t have to actively request employment verification on LinkedIn. The verification process happens in the background without any effort from members.
But there are a few things members can do to increase their chances of getting verified:
- Add employment history – Can’t get verified without first adding your employment history.
- Provide company email address – Linking your company email increases ability to match your employment.
- Keep employment history updated – Make sure to update any new job changes so data stays current.
Beyond that, the verification process depends on LinkedIn securing employer confirmation. So there’s not much an individual member can directly do to trigger faster verification.
Does LinkedIn verify all employment?
LinkedIn does not verify all employment on member profiles. Verification depends on the following factors:
- Active administrators – The company must have active LinkedIn administrators who respond to verification requests.
- Company partnership with LinkedIn – Larger companies often have dedicated partnerships to support faster verifications.
- Automated confirmation system – Some companies have API integrations that automatically confirm employment details.
Essentially, employment verification relies on participation from the member’s company. If the company is not on LinkedIn or declines to confirm employment, verification will not occur.
Here are some statistics on LinkedIn’s employment verification:
- LinkedIn has confirmed employment at over 40,000 companies worldwide.
- 64% of LinkedIn members have at least 1 position verified.
- Larger companies are more likely to have verified members’ employment.
So while verification is common, many members will have some unverified jobs especially at smaller companies. Verified employment is not a requirement to have a complete LinkedIn profile.
Is verification required for all jobs?
Employment verification is not strictly required on LinkedIn. Members can successfully build their professional brand and networks without any verified employment.
However, some members may want to specifically pursue verification for certain high-profile jobs. For example:
- Current or most recent role – Provides stronger validation of your capabilities and experience.
- Leadership positions – Boosts credibility as a decision maker and leader.
- Prominent companies – Shows you held key roles at reputable organizations.
In these cases, members may want to proactively contact the company’s LinkedIn administrator. You can request they confirm your employment details if it has not yet been verified.
Can you fake employment verification?
It is against LinkedIn’s terms of service to provide false or misleading information on your profile and employment history. Fake employment risks getting your account banned.
That said, here are some ways people try to falsify career details on LinkedIn:
- Making up fake companies – Harder to get verified if the company does not actually exist.
- Modifying real company names – Slight name change makes company confirmation difficult.
- Fake acquisition history – Can claim past companies were acquired if now defunct.
But faking employment has major downsides:
- May still fail background employment checks.
- Lacks credibility without verification badge.
- Difficult to sustain lies during interviews and reference checks.
- Contacts may expose false information on your profile.
Rather than fake employment, better to focus on accurately representing your true experience and skills.
What if LinkedIn shows unverified employment?
There can be situations where LinkedIn displays unverified employment as verified. This is rare, but can result from:
- Processing delays after member updates employment.
- Company confirmations without member entering matching details.
- Bugs incorrectly applying “Verified” label.
If you notice any incorrect verified employment on your LinkedIn profile, you can request LinkedIn to investigate and remove unsubstantiated verification badges.
Does verification go away if you leave a company?
Once employment is verified on LinkedIn, the verification status remains even after you leave that company. The badges do not expire or disappear just because you no longer work there.
Think of employment verification like a record in time. It confirms your role and tenure at the company was accurate at the time of verification. Even after you change jobs, it still demonstrates that your past employment was verified.
However, if you notice the verification badge is removed after leaving a company, it likely means:
- The company requested badge removal.
- You updated your employment dates which caused reverification.
- Rare system glitch that improperly removed badge.
As long as your original employment dates were accurate, the verification status should persist after leaving that job.
Takeaways
Here are some key takeaways on how LinkedIn verifies employment:
- Verification badges confirm your reported work history is accurate.
- Companies must confirm employment details for verification to occur.
- Not all jobs will get verified, especially at smaller companies.
- Verification persists even after leaving a job.
- Faking employment risks account ban and lacks credibility.
Employment verification is intended to build trust and transparency on LinkedIn. While not required, verification badges can strengthen your professional profile and influence.