Everyone develops during their career. Sometimes you completely change direction. Suddenly you discover what really makes you happy to go to work. It is tempting to leave jobs from the past, no longer fitting, out of your LinkedIn profile.
Which jobs are no longer relevant to your profile?
NONE! Every job you ever held helped you develop into the professional you have become. The trick is to describe your jobs to point out this relevance. Use the job description to explain what you achieved or what skills you developed. This is a lot more powerful than summing up your responsibilities.
Search engines read over your shoulder
Use your work experience to add keywords to your profile. Both human and search engine like reading a profile that clearly outlines how you developed into who you are and what you’ve got to offer.
Don’t create a catch-all container
LinkedIn is a network. In order to network, people need to be able to find you. If people try to connect with previous co-workers, you’ll need to list the company you worked for. If you create a ‘container’ to say that you were a salesperson at a variety of shops, no one will find you that worked with you in any of those shops.