After all the hard work, countless late-night sessions, and caffeine-fueled studying, you’ve finally made it. The email you’ve been waiting around for days has arrived in your inbox, and it says that you’re now a certified expert!
“What’s next?” you might be wondering. Well, if you’re like us, next is showing it off to your friends and colleagues, of course! Earning that certification was not easy and you’re definitely entitled to those bragging rights. So go on, tweet it out, post it on Facebook, and shout it from the rooftops!

Now, on to more serious business. You took the time to go through all those training materials, virtual lab scenarios, and the certification exam for a reason. More than likely, that reason is to advance your career in Information Security. So, what better way is there to get your newly-acquired skills recognized than by letting your professional network know about it?

If you’re in the workforce, or hoping to land a job soon, then you probably have an active LinkedIn profile. It is, after all, the largest professional social network out there. This is why we wanted to make it easier for you to tap into this network’s full potential.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to show off your skills by adding certifications to your LinkedIn profile.

If this is your first certification, you’ll need to go to your profile and add a “Licenses and Certifications” section. To do this, you can click the “Me” icon in the upper right-hand corner of your LinkedIn home page and then “View Profile”.

From the top of your profile, you’ll need to click “Add Section”. A dropdown menu will appear with several areas to choose from. Click the down arrow next to “Background” and select “Licenses & certifications”.

A pop-up menu will appear asking you to enter the certification name, issuing organization, the issue date, an expiration date, credential ID, and credential URL.

While only the certification name and issuing organization fields are required, adding your credential ID and the date you received it makes it easier to verify your cert is legit and that you’re the real deal. After that, just go ahead and click “Save”!

Why bother with certifications?
On average, users with relevant certifications get 6 times more views to their profile. Adding professional certifications to your LinkedIn profile allows you to get recognized by prospective employers. In the case of Information Security certifications, it’s proof of your practical knowledge and hands-on skills in a broad range of knowledge domains. This kind of recognition opens up doors to new jobs, or perhaps even a new career.

What does the future hold for INE certifications?
Earlier this year during redefINE, we announced the release of the INE Cloud Fundamentals certification, which is the first ever INE-branded certification to hit the market on October 4, 2021! We also promised five additional INE based certifications to supercharge your career, and are currently in the process of beta testing INE Cloud Fundamentals for Azure and INE Cloud Fundamentals for AWS.

Our Azure focused certification addresses the knowledge needed to demonstrate a concrete understanding of Azure and includes materials on compute, storage, database, and more. The AWS focused certification covers the knowledge necessary to successfully collaborate when discussing the major services of AWS, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and more.

Keep your eyes peeled for more certification information and opportunities to be one of the first people to become INE certified!