The location field on LinkedIn has been a bit of a bug bear for some people – in the UK, as elsewhere, it doesn’t necessarily display where you actually live or work. In fact, your displayed location has always been dictated by the postcode instead (or Zip Code, should you prefer).
This can mean, particularly outside of the main cities, that you might actually work in one location but your profile will steadfastly display somewhere totally different, simply because your town falls into a different postal area.
Let’s take an example … The Queen. One of those people that I would like to be able to do a LinkedIn Profile Makeover for – well, it would be fun wouldn’t it? Maybe I should have offered that as a Royal Wedding gift! But, I digress.
Anyway, as it used to stand, if the Queen used her Windsor Castle address on LinkedIn, then on her profile it would state that she lived in Slough. Why? Because Windsor comes under a Slough postcode, so that’s what shows. Now, don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with Slough … it’s just that Windsor Castle is in, well, Windsor.
However, no longer!
Now, if you go into your Edit Profile page and add your postcode, as you type your postcode in, it will come up with different options. So, for example, as you type in the SL4 postcode of Windsor Castle, you aren’t automatically assigned to Slough, you are now able to choose the locations (the ones that appear in that case are below).
Select the one you want and hey presto, you’ll get the location that you actually do want to have. Granted it doesn’t work on all locations yet – mine doesn’t quite reach Egham where I work for example – but in most cases you’ll get a much better result.
And as for Her Majesty well as she said herself, “One is exceptionally pleased to be back in Windsor after ones stay in Slough and Philip wonders if you could do the same for his profile now.”
LinkedIn Profile Makeovers by Royal Command it seems! 😉
