LinkedIn Projects, Publications and Volunteer sections: when they earn a place
The optional sections earn their place when they carry evidence your Experience section cannot: Projects for students, career changers, and anyone whose best work happened outside a job title; Publications for researchers and writers; Volunteer experience when it shows leadership, continuity, or values — and LinkedIn has noted that many hiring managers view volunteer work as real experience. If a section would only hold filler, leave it off.
Updated September 2, 2026
The Projects section exists for substantial work that no job title contains: a shipped side project, an open-source contribution, a hackathon build that went somewhere, a capstone, a freelance engagement too small for an Experience entry. Each project takes a name, dates, collaborators, a description, and a URL — and the URL is the point. A project entry linking to a live app, a repository, or a published case study is proof; one without a link is a sentence.
Students and career changers should treat Projects as a second Experience section: two or three dated, linked projects with outcome-focused descriptions do the credibility work their thin employment history cannot. Experienced professionals need it less — if your day job generates strong material, keep the profile tight and skip padding.
Publications matter enormously in research, academia, and technical writing, and marginally elsewhere. List peer-reviewed work, industry publications, and substantial bylined pieces with their real titles, venues, dates, and links; skip your own blog posts unless one demonstrably traveled. The related sections — Patents, Honors and Awards, Courses, Test Scores, Languages — follow the same rule: include entries a hiring manager in your target field would recognize as meaningful, and nothing else.
Languages deserves a special mention: it is quick to fill, filterable in recruiter searches for multilingual roles, and honest proficiency levels matter — 'professional working proficiency' claimed and absent is discovered in the first phone screen.
Volunteer experience does three jobs. It shows sustained commitment outside paid work; it can demonstrate leadership at a scale your job has not yet offered (treasurer of a nonprofit, organizer of a 300-person event); and it honorably fills timeline gaps — dated volunteer work during a career break turns absent months into active ones. LinkedIn has publicized survey findings that a large share of hiring managers consider volunteer experience as valuable as paid experience, which matches how recruiters describe reading it.
Write volunteer entries like experience entries: organization, role, dates, and what changed because you were there. 'Volunteer' is not the achievement; what you built, raised, taught, or organized is.
Only when a project shows something the Experience section cannot — an open-source presence, a side product, work in the field you are moving toward. If your employment history already carries the story, extra sections just lengthen the scroll.
Broadly yes, especially when it is dated, sustained, and specific. It demonstrates initiative and can show leadership beyond your job scope. During employment gaps it is particularly valuable, converting empty months into documented activity.
If it involved real clients, revenue, or substantial ongoing hours, it can be an Experience entry (for example, 'Freelance Developer'). One-off builds, contributions, and portfolio pieces fit Projects. Choose one home per item; duplicating it in both reads as padding.
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