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LinkedIn About section examples, and a template

By the Presr team ·

The About section is the paragraph near the top of your LinkedIn profile, under your headline. It used to be called the Summary, and it’s the one place on LinkedIn where you can say, in your own words, what you do and what you want next. Here’s a template, eight full examples and three short ones.

The short version.

  • The limit: up to 2,600 characters. Only the first few lines show before “see more”, so lead with your strongest sentence.
  • The voice: first person. “I build”, not “Results-driven professional who”.
  • The template: what you do and for whom; two or three results; how you work; what you’re looking for.

A template for your About section

  1. One line on what you do, and for whom. This is what shows before “see more”, so make it specific: “I build backend systems that stay up when traffic doesn’t behave.”
  2. Two or three results. The work you’re proudest of, with numbers where they’re true: users served, time saved, quota hit.
  3. How you work, or what you know. Your tools, specialties or certifications, the ones the jobs you want ask for.
  4. What you’re looking for. The role, the field or the kind of client, and how to reach you.

Keep paragraphs short; on a phone, a 2,600-character block reads as a wall. Every name, number and certification in the examples below is an example to replace with your own.

8 LinkedIn About section examples

Software engineer

I build backend systems that stay up when traffic doesn’t behave.

For the last four years I’ve worked on APIs and data pipelines in Python and Go, most recently on a platform serving about 50,000 people a day. I led our move to Kubernetes, cut deploy times from 40 minutes to under 10, and wrote the on-call runbook the team still uses.

I’m at my best where reliability and speed meet: designing services, tuning PostgreSQL, and making the next engineer’s job easier.

I’m open to backend and platform roles. The fastest way to reach me is a message here.

Recent graduate

I’m a computer science graduate who likes turning messy data into something people can use.

At State University I built a course-planning tool now used by my department’s advisors, interned on a data team where I automated a weekly report that used to take a full day, and led a four-person capstone that won our department’s design award.

Tools I use most: Python, SQL, Tableau and Git.

I’m looking for an entry-level data analyst role, and I’m happy to relocate.

Career changer: teacher to instructional designer

Eight years of teaching taught me how people learn. Now I design the courses.

In the classroom I wrote curriculum for more than 600 students a year and trained new teachers on our district’s learning platform. Over the last year I’ve built e-learning modules in Articulate 360 for two nonprofits, and finished a certificate in instructional design.

I bring the parts that are hard to teach: knowing where learners get stuck, and writing so they don’t.

I’m looking for instructional design roles in corporate training or edtech. Samples are in my Featured section.

Sales

I help mid-size companies buy software without regretting it.

I’ve spent six years in B2B SaaS sales, the last three as an account executive closing deals between $20k and $150k a year. I finished 120% of quota two years running by doing the unglamorous part well: asking better questions on the first call and saying no to deals that wouldn’t renew.

Outside work I coach new reps in our sales community.

If you sell to operations or finance teams, I’d like to hear what you’re building.

Registered nurse

I’m an ICU nurse who stays calm when the monitors don’t.

I have eight years in critical care, the last four in a 24-bed medical ICU, where I precept new graduates and sit on our sepsis response committee. I hold BLS, ACLS and CCRN certifications.

What I care about most is the handoff: the patient’s family understanding the plan, and the next shift knowing exactly where things stand.

I’m exploring charge nurse and clinical educator roles in the Atlanta area.

Marketing manager, between jobs

I run demand generation programs that sales teams actually ask for more of.

My last role was marketing manager at a 200-person software company, where I owned paid search, email and webinars, and grew marketing-sourced pipeline by 35% in a year on a flat budget. Before that I spent four years at an agency running campaigns for clients in healthcare and finance.

I’m now looking for my next demand generation or growth marketing role, in-house, remote or in Chicago.

Project manager

I keep software projects on schedule by making problems visible early.

As a PMP-certified project manager I’ve run teams of up to 15 across engineering, design and QA, delivering a payments platform rebuild and two mobile app launches. My weekly status notes are short, and they say what’s late.

I work in Agile and Scrum, and in Jira and Confluence, and I’m comfortable with budgets up to $2M.

Open to senior project and program manager roles.

Freelancer

I write websites, case studies and emails for B2B tech companies.

Clients hire me when their product is good and their words aren’t: a security startup whose demo requests doubled after a homepage rewrite, a logistics platform that needed twelve case studies in a quarter, and a developer tool launching its first newsletter.

I’m taking new projects. Send me a message with what you’re working on.

Short About section examples

If you’d rather keep it brief, one or two sentences with the same parts still work:

Mistakes to avoid

How to add or edit your About section

On a computer, open your profile. If you already have an About section, click the pencil icon on it, edit the text and press Save. If you don’t, click Add profile section under your name and choose Add about.

Start from your resume

Your resume already holds your results; the About section puts them in your own voice. Presr’s LinkedIn profile optimization compares your resume with your profile and lists what’s missing, and its AI Enhance rewrites each one for LinkedIn, longer and in the first person. While you’re there, the line above it matters too: see 30 LinkedIn headline examples.

Questions about the LinkedIn About section

What should I write in my LinkedIn About section?

What you do and for whom, two or three results you’re proud of, the tools or specialties the jobs you want ask for, and what you’re looking for next. Write it in the first person, and put your strongest sentence first, since only the first few lines show before “see more”.

Is the About section the same as the LinkedIn summary?

Yes. LinkedIn used to call it the Summary; it’s now the About section, the paragraph under your headline at the top of your profile.

How long can a LinkedIn About section be?

Up to 2,600 characters. Only the first few lines show before “see more”, so most strong About sections are shorter than the limit and lead with one clear sentence.

Do I need an About section on LinkedIn?

It isn’t required, but without one, readers have only your headline and job list to go on. It’s the one place on your profile to say what you do, in your own words, and what you want next.

Should my LinkedIn About section be in the first person?

Yes. “I build backend systems” reads like you; “Jane is a results-driven engineer” reads like someone else wrote it. Your resume can drop the “I”; your profile reads better with it.

How do I add an About section to my LinkedIn profile?

On a computer, open your profile, click Add profile section under your name and choose Add about. To change an existing one, click the pencil icon on the About section, edit it and press Save.

Carry your resume onto your LinkedIn profile with Presr. Free to start, no account needed.

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