While casual users of LinkedIn might not notice the adjustment, at some point over the past 1-2 weeks LinkedIn appears to have made a change to their platform that I’ve actually been expecting to see made for the past 10+ years or so.  At long last, they seem to have revised the built-in “industry list” used to drive company and people searches on the site with a much more modern, nuanced set of choices to help people search more precisely — replacing the archaic list of 150 or so hopelessly broad industry codes that has been in place every since the site’s creation in 2004.

As an example of why this is kind of a big deal, for the past two decades anybody looking for a specific kind of technology company really just had 4-5 mainstream options to pick from: Computer Software, Computer Hardware, Computer Gaming, Computer Networking, and Information Technology & Services.  Where did Cloud companies fall into this mix?  SaaS organizations?  Mobile apps and IoT organizations?  Etc?  There’s been no easy way for users to narrow their search results down to the hundreds of different product categories that now exist in the technical world, limiting the overall effectiveness of the tool.

Now, however, based on what has apparently been dubbed the “LinkedIn Industry Codes v2” list, one now has the option to select much more specific categories such as Blockchain Services, Online Audio & Video Media, Embedded Software Products, Desktop Computing Software Projects, and many, many more.  You can not only use these detailed new industry codes in standard LinkedIn searches for People, Jobs, Companies, and other types of information — but you, yourself, can also identify with one of these more nuanced niches if you edit the “industry” field in the top section of your profile.  For example, after many years of shoehorning my own company into the “Professional Training & Coaching” category (which honestly isn’t all that bad of a fit) there’s now a swanky new “Human Resources Services” option that might be a little closer to the mark.

Additionally, much to my heart’s delight, there’s now a general “manufacturing” industry code which never has existed before.  That always seemed like a huge hole in the site’s functionality, where you could locate a FEW types of manufacturing firms (e.g. Food, Aerospace, Electronics) but not companies operating in the vast array of other manufacturing sectors.

Here’s a link to a complete list of the new industry codes

Alas, I’d love to know more about WHY LinkedIn suddenly made this change and what rubric they followed in creating the updated list of possibilities, but I’ve searched high and low and I can’t find any official communications talking about the issue.  Did they fashion the new list after standard government SIC or NAICS codes?  Did they come up with their own taxonomy?  Are there even more industries (e.g. Cloud, SaaS) that will be delineated in the months to come?

Again, I can’t find any articles or postings announcing this change.  Like many things on LinkedIn, it just showed up on the site, one day, as if the powers-that-be at the company don’t want to bring attention to it for some reason.  Regardless, I’m really jazzed by the development since it will allow for far greater targeting abilities for the average use — so definitely watch for the new codes, as you use LinkedIn, and make the most of them!

P.S. Since I published this original article, a kind reader alerted me that LinkedIn has updated their site with additional details here about the industry list and the strategy behind it — so if you’re interested in this topic, make sure to read this additional article!