Profile information

A Microsoft patent describes what a profile contains, while a LinkedIn patent describes how job titles are standardized.34 A Microsoft patent from November 2020 describes a member profile with categories such as experience, education, skills and endorsements, accomplishments, contact information and following.3 In that patent, skills can be added by the member or by other members, and the experience category can include the industry the member works in.3 Members can also fill in a profile from an uploaded resume, because LinkedIn's Resume to Profile Suggestions feature lets them transfer information from the resume to their profile.56 A LinkedIn patent from August 2016 describes title standardization: it maps different titles for the same position to one unique title and separates titles like "analyst" that mean different jobs in different industries, while keeping the original input in case standardization needs to be checked.4 A Microsoft patent from May 2019 adds that the system works out extra facts from what the member entered, for example an overall seniority level inferred from the job titles a member has held and for how long.7

Microsoft patents about search describe how a searcher's own profile details could be used to tailor what they see; they are designs, not confirmed descriptions of LinkedIn search today.8910 A Microsoft patent from October 2022 describes a machine-learning method for personalized search suggestions, and it lists location, employment, education, accomplishments and skills as content a member's profile may hold.10 Microsoft patents from May 2025 and September 2025 describe a short written summary generated from a prompt (the instructions and facts given to the AI writing tool) that includes the searcher's profile, such as work information, education, skills and title.89 In one example prompt in the September 2025 patent, the searcher's location, job title and company are passed to the generator along with their recent queries.8

A LinkedIn research paper and a Microsoft patent describe other ways to turn profile data into inputs for recommendation systems; none of it is confirmed as how LinkedIn works today.1112 A LinkedIn research paper from February 2026 discusses using a member's profile, professional data and job-search activity together in models that find candidate jobs and order them for the member.11 In a different use of profile data, a Microsoft patent from February 2020 describes finding skills tied to a career goal among member profiles or in job postings.12