I wrote about this in Fast Company in 2018.
Eight years ago. EIGHT. And people are STILL listing “Self-Employed” as their job title on LinkedIn.
Consultants do it. Coaches do it. Business owners with actual employees and contractors do it. People who have built real companies, who sign paychecks, who carry liability insurance and file quarterly taxes…they open LinkedIn, navigate to their Experience section, and type “Self-Employed” in the title field.
As if that tells anyone anything.
Why does “Self-Employed” hurt your LinkedIn profile?
Because it communicates absolutely nothing about what you do, who you serve, or why anyone should care.
And it’s no one’s damn business.
Your employment classification — whether you’re W-2 or 1099, whether you work for someone else or for yourself — is between you and the IRS. The person landing on your profile doesn’t need that information. They need to know what you do and what value you bring. “Self-Employed” answers a tax question nobody asked and skips the professional question everyone actually wants to know.
When someone lands on your profile and sees “Self-Employed” as your title, here’s what they actually read: “I’m doing this because I can’t find a job” or “I work for myself but I’m not confident enough to say what I do.”
That’s not the message you want to send. I know it’s not. But that’s what lands.
Who does this — and why it’s costing them
Consultants are the worst offenders. Brilliant people with deep expertise who describe themselves as “Self-Employed” because they don’t see themselves as “real” business owners. They see a business owner as someone with an office and a staff and a logo on a building.
Meanwhile, they’re billing six figures, managing client portfolios, and running operations that would qualify as a small business by every measure except their own LinkedIn profile.
Business owners do it too, and this one REALLY gets me. You have employees. You have contractors. You have a business entity with its own EIN. And your LinkedIn title says “Self-Employed at [Company Name].”
You’re the founder. You’re the CEO. You’re the principal. Pick one. Any of those is more accurate than “Self-Employed,” which tells the reader you’re a solo act even when you’re not.
Women are disproportionately guilty of this. I noticed it eight years ago when I was searching LinkedIn for founders and entrepreneurs, 90% of my results were white men. Not because women weren’t building businesses. Because they weren’t calling themselves founders. They were hiding behind “Self-Employed” or describing their function instead of claiming the title.
(To be fair, this has improved. To be accurate, not by much.)
What should you use instead of “Self-Employed” on LinkedIn?
The fix is simple and applies to your Experience entries. (I have FEELINGS about headlines, and one of them is that titles don’t usually belong in headlines. You can check out my before-after page on my website for examples.)
Use the title that reflects your actual role and authority:
🔹 If you own the business: Founder, CEO, Principal, Owner. If you have a company name, use it. “Founder & CEO” is infinitely stronger than “Self-Employed.”
🔹 If you’re consulting: Use the title that reflects your expertise. Fractional CMO. Strategic Advisor. Independent Consultant specializing in [your thing]. The specificity is what makes you findable and hirable.
🔹 If you’re freelancing: You’re still not “Self-Employed.” You’re a [Your Craft] Specialist, a [Your Discipline] Consultant, a [Your Title]. Name the work.
The title matters for two reasons. First, LinkedIn’s AI uses it to understand what you do and surface you in search results. “Self-Employed” is a dead keyword. Nobody searches for it, so nobody finds you.
Second — and this is the one people underestimate — your title sets the frame for how every other section of your profile reads. A strong title gives your Experience section authority. A vague one makes everything below it feel provisional.
And while you’re at it, fix the job type dropdown too
LinkedIn gives you an optional Employment Type dropdown when you add a role. Full-time, Part-time, Contract, Freelance, Self-employed. It’s right there in the form.
It’s optional. You don’t have to select anything. So don’t.
And yet people go out of their way to select “Self-employed.” They voluntarily label themselves with a classification that adds zero value and reinforces the exact problem we just talked about.
(If you’re one of those people, go unselect it. RIGHT NOW. I won’t peek.)
Leave it blank. Or if your role genuinely is a contract or freelance engagement, select that — at least those describe the structure of the work — but I’d still err on the side of nunya (as in “nunya business”).
“Self-employed” as a job type is the same dead-end as “Self-employed” as a title. It tells LinkedIn’s algorithm nothing useful about your expertise, and it tells the human reader something you didn’t intend.
The confidence gap is real, and your LinkedIn profile is showing it
Here’s the uncomfortable part.
When I wrote that Fast Company piece in 2018, I focused on women specifically because the pattern was so stark. Women were building companies and calling themselves “self-employed.” Men with the same-sized (or smaller) operations were calling themselves CEOs.
It wasn’t a language problem. It was a confidence problem wearing a language disguise.
“I don’t feel like a founder, so I can’t call myself one” is the undercurrent of all of this, and it’s something I’ve heard more times than I can count. And every time, the person saying it is already running a business that earns revenue, serves clients, and solves real problems.
You’ve earned it. Update the title.
If you’re going to be audacious enough to start a business, be audacious enough to make sure the world knows it’s yours.