A LinkedIn About section is the free-text summary under your headline, and it reads best as a first-person story of three to five short paragraphs. Only the opening lines, roughly 250 characters, render before the See more link, so the first two sentences have to earn the expand: lead with a specific number or the exact problem you solve, never with "passionate professional". Below the fold, prove the claim with two or three results, say how you work, and close with how to reach you.
The basics
Where the About section is, and how to add or edit it
Half the searches on this topic are people who simply cannot find the field. It is called About now, it used to be called the Summary, and it sits directly under your top card.
Open your own profile.
Click your photo in the top navigation and choose View Profile. You have to be on your profile, not the feed, before any of the edit controls appear.
If the About card exists, click the pencil.
The About card is the block under your name, photo and headline. The pencil icon on the right of that card opens the editor with your current text in it.
If it does not exist yet, add the section.
Use the Add profile section button under your top card, open the Core group, and choose Add about. LinkedIn hides the card entirely when it is empty, which is why so many people think the field is gone.
Draft it somewhere else, then paste it in.
The in-page editor has no formatting, no spell check worth the name, and it is a miserable place to think. Write the paragraphs in a plain text file, get the first two sentences right, then paste. Save, then reload your profile and read it on your phone.
The hook
The first three lines are the whole section
LinkedIn collapses the About section by default. On most screens the reader sees roughly 250 characters, call it two sentences, and then a "See more" link. Nothing under that link exists until someone decides to tap it. So the entire job of your opening is to buy the expand, and the entire job of everything below is to reward it.
This is why so many About sections fail. They spend the visible part on throat-clearing: "As a dedicated and results-oriented professional with a proven track record of excellence across dynamic environments." Twelve words in and the reader still does not know what you do, who you do it for, or why they should care. That sentence would fit a hundred thousand people, which is another way of saying it fits nobody.
Two openings reliably earn the tap. The first is a number: "I have shipped 40 releases across three payments teams, and the only one I still think about is the one we rolled back." The second is a named problem: "Most support teams do not have a staffing problem. They have a routing problem, and that is the thing I fix." Both are specific, both sound like a person talking, and both leave the reader mid-thought. Curiosity is what "See more" runs on.
One practical check before you save. Paste your draft, reload the profile, and look at it on a phone, because the mobile truncation is tighter than the desktop one. If your best line is sitting just under the fold, cut whatever is above it.
The parts
The five parts of an About section people actually finish
Every example further down uses this skeleton. It is not a template to copy word for word; it is the order the information has to arrive in.
1. Hook
Two sentences, above the fold
A number, a problem, or a sentence that could only be true of you. This is the only part most readers will ever see, so it carries the weight of the whole section.
2. Proof
What you have actually done
Two or three concrete results with the specifics left in: the system, the scale, the outcome. Not "drove growth" but "took onboarding from 11 steps to 4 and cut first-week churn".
3. Range
The shape of your experience
One short paragraph on the domains, tools and kinds of teams you have worked in. This is also where the words a recruiter searches for belong, written into real sentences rather than dumped as a list.
4. How you work
The part that sounds like you
A line or two on what you care about, what you refuse to do, or how you got here. This is the only section of your profile where a personality is allowed, so spend a sentence on it.
5. Next step
Tell them what to do
End with one clear action: the kind of work you want to hear about, and where to reach you. An About section that ends on a full stop instead of an invitation wastes the attention it just earned.
The examples
Six LinkedIn About section examples, and why each one works
Read the opening line of each one as if it were the only thing you could see, because for most readers it is. Adapt the structure, replace every fact with your own.
Software engineer
Lead with the system, not the stack
Opening: "I have spent six years making payment systems boring. Boring is the goal: no 3am pages, no reconciliation spreadsheets, no support tickets that start with please help." Then: two systems shipped, the scale they run at, the languages in a sentence rather than a list, and a closing line about the kind of team he wants next. The stack is in there for recruiter search, but it is not the pitch.
Career changer
Own the pivot in the first sentence
Opening: "I taught high school chemistry for nine years, which is mostly a job about explaining hard things to tired people who did not ask. Now I do that with data." Then: the analytics work she has already done, the tools, the two projects she can show. No apology, no "aspiring", no gap for the reader to fill in with a worse story than the real one.
Recent graduate
Trade experience for evidence
Opening: "I built three things in university that other people actually used, and the last one has 400 monthly users." Then: what each one taught him, the coursework worth mentioning in one line, and what he wants to build next. A new graduate has no track record, so the whole play is to show the work instead of describing potential.
Sales and marketing
Put the number where the number goes
Opening: "I have written the emails that closed about 2 million dollars of pipeline, and the ones nobody opened. The difference was almost never the subject line." Then: the segments, the motion, the tools, one sentence on what she believes about outbound. The claim is precise enough to be checkable, which is exactly what makes it land.
Freelancer
Say who you are for, and who you are not
Opening: "I design brand systems for companies of under 30 people, the ones where the founder is still writing the copy. If you have a brand team already, I am probably not your person." Then: three clients, what shipped, the process in two sentences, rates handled with a link, and a direct line to book time. Turning work away is the most credible thing a freelancer can do in public.
Senior leader
Lead with the hardest thing you did
Opening: "I have run engineering orgs through two acquisitions and one layoff. The layoff taught me more about the job than either acquisition did." Then: team sizes, what she built, what she learned, and a closing line about the stage of company she wants next. Seniority is proven with scars, not with the word "visionary".
The rules
First person, straight tense, and how long it should actually be
Write in the first person. "I" is right for almost everyone. Third person, "Priya is a seasoned operator with deep expertise", reads like a conference bio someone else was paid to write, and on a profile that is literally your own account it lands as strange. The narrow exception is a public figure whose About doubles as an official bio that gets copied into event programmes, and even they usually mix an "I" paragraph in at the end. If you are wondering whether you are the exception, you are not.
On length: LinkedIn gives you up to 2,600 characters and you almost certainly should not spend them all. Three to five short paragraphs, with a blank line between each, is the shape people finish. A single unbroken block of 2,600 characters is a wall, and walls get skimmed. Length is a bad target anyway. Cut every sentence that would still be true if you deleted your name from the top of it, and whatever survives is the right length.
Keywords matter, but not the way the advice usually implies. Recruiter search does read your profile text, so the real terms of your trade need to appear: the role title as it shows up in job posts, the tools, the domain. Write them into sentences that a human would say out loud. A comma-separated pile of skills at the bottom of your About reads as desperation to a person and adds very little for the machine that your Skills section is not already carrying.
And avoid the three moves that instantly age a profile: the buzzword stack ("dynamic, results-driven, detail-oriented"), the mission statement with no company attached, and the closing line that says you are "always open to connecting with like-minded professionals". Say the actual thing. What work do you want to hear about, and how should someone reach you.
The ceiling
What your About section can do, and what it cannot
A good About section is worth writing. It is also a paragraph on a page you do not own, in a layout you cannot change, next to an ad. Here is what the same paragraph does on a site that is yours.
| Capability | Folio | LinkedIn About section |
|---|---|---|
| How much of it gets seen | The intro on your own page renders in full, with no collapse | Roughly the first three lines, then a See more link most people never tap |
| Who controls the layout | You do. Choose the theme, the sections, the order, the whole page | LinkedIn does. One card, one font, one shape, for everyone |
| What sits underneath it | Projects, a blog, a contact form that files leads into your inbox | An experience list and whatever the feed decides to show |
| Getting the resume out | PDF and DOCX export, free plan included, no watermark on the file | Saves a PDF of the profile as it looks, which is not a resume layout |
| The address people type | portfolio.wrxstack.com/yourname on Free, your own domain on Pro | A profile URL with your name and some digits after it |
Stated plainly, because it matters: the Folio free plan gives you 0 custom domains, shows a Made with Folio badge, and includes 10 AI drafting generations a month. The resume PDF and DOCX export is free and unwatermarked. Folio does not connect to LinkedIn, cannot post to it, and cannot import from it. Anything you move between the two, you paste.
The reuse
Write the paragraph once, put it in three places
The reason this is worth an evening of your time is that the good version of this paragraph is portable. The hook that earns a "See more" tap is the same hook that opens the homepage of a personal site. It is the same hook that opens a cover letter. Most people rewrite it badly three times because they never wrote it well once.
That is the only place Folio touches this. Folio drafts a bio paragraph from the resume you have already built in it, and that paragraph is the intro on your Folio site: the first thing anyone reads under your name. The same text pastes straight into the LinkedIn About field. There is no connect-your-LinkedIn button, no sync, and no way for Folio to write to your profile, and any tool that says otherwise is describing something LinkedIn does not permit.
So the workflow that actually holds up is dull and effective. Get the resume right, because the facts live there. Draft the paragraph from it. Tighten the first two sentences until they survive the truncation. Paste it into LinkedIn, keep it as the intro on the site you own, and point your profile at that site so the reader who did tap "See more" has somewhere to go next.
Frequently asked questions
What should I write in my LinkedIn About section?
Five things, in this order: a hook of two sentences that survives the See more cut, two or three concrete results with the specifics left in, a short paragraph on the domains and tools you know, a line or two of actual personality, and a closing instruction telling the reader what work to contact you about and how. Any sentence that would still be true with a different name at the top of the profile should be cut.
How long should a LinkedIn About section be?
LinkedIn allows up to 2,600 characters, and most strong ones land well under that. Aim for three to five short paragraphs with a blank line between them, because a single dense block gets skimmed. Only the opening lines, on the order of 250 characters, are visible before the See more link, so length matters far less than what you put in the first two sentences.
Should a LinkedIn summary be written in first person?
Yes, for almost everyone. It is your account, so writing "Jordan is a results-driven operator" about yourself reads like a bio a publicist filed on your behalf. First person sounds like a person talking, which is the entire advantage a summary has over the rest of the profile. Public figures whose bio gets reprinted in event programmes are the one common exception.
Where is the About section on LinkedIn and how do I add it?
Click your photo, choose View Profile, and look at the card directly under your name and headline. If it is there, the pencil icon on that card opens the editor. If you do not see it at all, the field is simply empty and hidden: use Add profile section, open the Core group, and pick Add about.
What should I leave out of my LinkedIn About section?
The adjective pile (dynamic, results-driven, detail-oriented), the mission statement with no company attached to it, third-person narration, and the sign-off about connecting with like-minded professionals. Also drop any keyword list stapled to the bottom. Your Skills section already does that job, and to a human reader the pile reads as filler.
Can I use the same text on my website and in my LinkedIn About?
You should. The paragraph that earns a tap on LinkedIn is the paragraph that should open your own site, and a trimmed version of it opens a cover letter well. Folio drafts a bio paragraph from your resume and uses it as the intro on your site, and you copy that text into the LinkedIn field yourself. No tool can write to your LinkedIn profile for you.