LinkedIn users are ‘time traveling’ by adding AI keywords to past jobs on their profiles
Executive Take
Recruiters searching LinkedIn by keyword are now fishing in polluted water. Hiring teams need better ways to verify actual skills, not just past job titles that were rewritten after the fact.
Executive Summary
A National Bureau of Economic Research and Revelio Labs study of tens of millions of LinkedIn profiles found 19.7% of users edit old job titles or descriptions years after leaving, often adding AI keywords or removing DEI terms. Under-30 users do this 38.1% of the time. Tech workers and MBA holders show the highest rates.
Why It Matters
HR leaders should care because keyword-based sourcing on LinkedIn is becoming unreliable, especially for AI-skills searches. The DEI-term removal also signals candidates are reading political risk into their own profiles.
Bizquad Perspective
The real story isn't dishonesty, it's that job seekers are training themselves to game the exact keyword filters recruiters and AI screening tools rely on most.