LinkedIn Featured: how to select work samples

To choose what belongs in LinkedIn Featured, start with the opportunity you want: select authorized samples that help someone understand your work, explain your contribution, and check where each link leads. Then decide the order. An attractive collection without context or usable access leaves essential questions unanswered.

If you need to create materials, see the administrative and customer service portfolio examples. Here, the outcome is a reasoned selection of existing samples, with descriptions and recorded checks.

Decide what each sample should explain

Write a question connected to your target role. For administrative support, it might be: “How does this person organize instructions that someone else can follow?”. For design, perhaps: “Which part of this project was theirs, and how did they reach the solution?”. Give each sample a specific question.

Do not select solely by project size or likes. A simple file may explain a relevant skill more clearly than an extensive presentation with unclear individual ownership. You also do not need to fill the section with everything you have produced.

LinkedIn’s official work sample guide lists posts, articles, links, and media. Consult that guidance to choose the material type when adding it.

Before selecting, check the facts in your career accomplishments inventory. That inventory can hold private references; material selected for display needs its own review. Participating in a project does not automatically mean you can share its files.

Build a selection matrix before publishing

The following fictional case was created for this guide. Rafaela wants an administrative support role involving communication and request organization. She has four materials and chooses to start with two because they answer different questions. That number is an example decision, without any claimed algorithmic significance.

Available material	What it helps explain	Condition	Decision
Attendance confirmation guide from a group course project	How she structures instructions	Public version authorized within the case; shared authorship	First: relevant to the communication requirement
Request map, an individual exercise using fictional data	How she organizes status and next actions	Clearly identified as a simulation	Second: complements the guide
Introductory spreadsheet certificate	Training completed	Genuine within the case	Outside this selection: does not show execution
Screenshot of an internal report	A workplace process	Sharing not authorized	Do not publish

The certificate can remain in the appropriate education or training entry. This decision concerns sample selection, rather than deleting a genuine qualification. The internal screenshot does not belong merely because it looks interesting: the lack of authorization excludes it from this exercise.

If two items explain the same thing, compare clarity, currency, and identifiable contribution. Prefer the one requiring fewer assumptions from the reader. If none can be shared, prepare your own demonstration with fictional data and label its origin, without presenting it as client work.

Write the context, contribution, and limits

Replace “My best project” with a concrete description. For the first item, Rafaela prepares this illustrative text:

Title: Attendance confirmation — course project.

Description: Group course project, revised in November 2026. I wrote the confirmation steps and message fields; classmates organized the layout and other sections. Authorized public version. The sample demonstrates documentation, without service to real clients.

This description separates individual and shared work and explains what the sample allows someone to observe. It does not turn an exercise into employment or credit Rafaela with the entire project. If your case involved a different division, describe the actual division.

For the second item, she could simply explain that the map uses invented data and was produced individually to demonstrate request organization. Do not add reductions in errors, productivity gains, or satisfaction results if those outcomes were never measured in real use.

Read the title, description, and file in sequence. All three should tell the same story. An honest description cannot fix a document that still presents itself as a report from a real company.

Check access at two separate levels

LinkedIn’s Featured FAQ says viewing Featured requires an account and login and respects content visibility. Access to an external destination needs a separate check.

For an external file or website, record what you actually observed:

• Does the address open the selected material and the right version?
• Do permissions match the intended audience, without accidentally allowing editing or sharing an entire folder?
• Is the text still readable on a smaller screen?
• Are there names, contact details, comments, hidden pages, or third-party information that should not be shared?
• Does the description remain accurate when someone reads the file without your spoken explanation?

If you check an external address without owner permissions, record only that result. This does not amount to testing Featured as a LinkedIn visitor. Do not conclude every recruiter can access the material because the link opened in your account.

When a restriction is necessary, preserve it. Selecting another sample may be a better decision than making public something that should remain limited.

Choose an order and schedule a review

The work sample management documentation allows reordering and specifies at least two items for that action. Check the order after saving.

In Rafaela’s case, the guide comes before the map because the opportunity emphasizes communication. If another role prioritizes request tracking, she can reverse that decision. The reason should come from the work she wants, rather than a supposed reach formula.

Copy this worksheet and complete it for every possible Featured item:

Material and the question it explains:

Context, date, and my contribution:

Permission and parts that can be shared:

Destination and selected version:

Check performed, result, and unresolved issues:

Intended order and reason:

Next review or change that triggers a review:

Proceed once essential issues are resolved. Then follow the official guidance to add the material and inspect what you saved. Reconsider the selection when your target changes, you replace a file, or you notice broken access.

Align the selection with the rest of your profile

Compare the samples with your headline, summary, and experience using the profile organization guide. A course demonstration should remain a course demonstration throughout your presentation.

FoxApply offers profile analysis and text suggestions for your professional presentation through LinkedIn Champion. You review and decide what to publish. Sample selection, permissions, and access checks remain your responsibility; the tool does not publish Featured items for you.