LinkedIn users are rewriting their professional pasts, with AI emerging as one of the most popular additions. A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research and Revelio Labs, based on tens of millions of LinkedIn profiles, has identified a growing practice researchers call “LinkedIn time travel”, where users go back years after leaving a job and alter its title or description to make themselves more attractive to potential employers.
The study found that 19.7% of LinkedIn users changed the title or description of a previous job after leaving the position. On average, these changes were made around four years after the employee had moved on.
AI appears to be a major driver of the trend, with users adding AI-related keywords and skills to older roles to align their profiles with changing hiring priorities.
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Gideon Slocum Moore, a Stanford University researcher and co-author of the study, said the practice goes beyond routinely updating a CV.
“Suppose you worked at Amazon working in recommendation systems from 2013 to 2017 and list it on your résumé as ‘machine learning engineer.' In 2023, the job market starts rewarding ‘AI' skills, so you go change the description of your Amazon job to ‘machine learning and AI engineer,'” Moore said.
“By 2023, you've already left your job at Amazon; this means the responsibilities of your job can't have changed. The only thing that changes is how you have chosen to market it, this is what we call ‘time travel,'” he added.
The practice is particularly common among younger workers. Users below 30 were found to make such changes 38.1% of the time, as job seekers navigate an increasingly competitive labour market.
The trend also varies significantly by profession. Profiles linked to AI leadership, design and qualitative research showed changes on 56.6% of profiles, while UX research recorded an even higher rate of 59.2%. MBA holders were the most likely to engage in the practice by education level, at 29.3%.
AI isn't the only keyword being reshaped. The researchers also found that DEI-related terms have been disappearing from profiles, reflecting changing demand in the workplace.
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Moore said the decline coincides with the start of the Trump presidency, adding that policies targeting DEI programs as discriminatory and disqualifying for federal contracts may have influenced the trend.
“If workers think there is less demand for DEI expertise given these changes, it's unsurprising they'd remove this type of language from their professional profile,” he said.
Not every profession is following the trend. Wellness practitioners such as chiropractors altered past job information on just 3.3% of profiles, while dental surgeons and orthodontists recorded the lowest rate at 2.4%.
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