One of the great perks I get from working at LinkedIn is free LinkedIn Premium, but many other people pay for the upgrade out-of-pocket. A common question I’ve been asked as a result is “what’s great about Premium?” Here are some major benefits and “hidden gems” that I think make Premium very worth it.
Disclaimer: as of the time of publishing, I’m an employee at LinkedIn. Thoughts and opinions here are my own, though, not necessarily representative of or representing LinkedIn.
Major Perk: LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn has access to a massive trove of content to help you in a variety of areas, especially when it comes to skill-building in the professional world. This alone makes Premium’s value compelling — LinkedIn Learning courses are well-designed with details I love when putting on my “I minored in Education” hat. Courses are clearly structured, rapid formative assessments are interspersed to highlight key concepts, and instructors can add files within the learning course for you to access and work on asynchronously. The learning design keeps improving over time; recent Git integrations allow for inline live coding on dozens of high-profile coding skills classes, for example!
Hidden Gem: Resume Creation Tool
That’s right, you can take your LinkedIn profile and auto-generate a resume from it with a few clicks! Because of all the information you put onto your profile vs. a “1-page resume” standard, and because you should tailor resumes based on where you’re applying, this is a good starting point but not a perfect and polished resume off the bat.
Premium lets you check your resume against certain job titles you’re going for, which greatly reduces time identifying the key components of your resume to tailor for the roles you’re looking for.
Major Perk: Company & Jobs Profiling
Did you know that Premium users can see detailed insights on company pages? This includes detailed employee stats (not just number of employees, you can also see things like median employee tenure, notable alumni, or estimated new hires in the past few months) and job openings growth, perfect for B2B marketing or looking for that next job opportunity.
Speaking of jobs, Premium also gives you a lot more insights there. That includes top skills for the position (especially important as skills-based hiring ramps up), connections in and around your network, and how you stack up to other applicants.
Hidden Gem: Interview Prep
LinkedIn Interview Prep allows you to present the best version of yourself in interviews. With Premium, you gain access to sample answers from a variety of folks across industries, which complements the AI-driven insights associated with written or video responses to questions that you can provide in real-time for feedback.
Major Perk: InMails
Want to send someone a message, but you’re not connected with them? With Premium, you get some InMail credits for free, which you can use to send messages to non-connections and build your network beyond its current reach. The best thing about the credits? If the person responds within 90 days, you get that credit back to use again!
Hidden Gem: Who’s Viewed Your Profile
With Premium, you can look up anyone’s profile (and know who looked at yours). While the “who’s looked at your profile” tab is more well known, unlimited access to the list is quite insightful, especially with convenient filters like company, industry, location, and “interesting viewers”.
Andrew Jabara 