Having your skills displayed prominently on your LinkedIn profile is an important way to showcase your abilities to recruiters and potential employers. With LinkedIn being the top professional networking site, it’s crucial that your skills are easy to find and reflected accurately. There are a few key steps you can take to ensure your skills are highlighted on your profile.
Add Skills to Your LinkedIn Profile
The first step is simply adding skills to your profile. You can include up to 50 skills on LinkedIn. To add skills:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click on the “Skills” section
- Start typing a skill you want to add. LinkedIn will give you suggestions as you type.
- Select the appropriate skill from the dropdown menu
- Repeat this process to add all relevant skills
Be sure to include all skills that apply to your experience, both hard skills (like programming languages or tools you know) and soft skills (like communication, teamwork, etc).
Place Skills in Your Top Skills Section
To give your top skills the most visibility, you’ll want to add them to your “Top Skills” section, which appears prominently on your profile overview. To do this:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click on the “Skills” section
- Click on the star icon next to up to 10 skills you want to highlight in your Top Skills section
Put your most important and relevant skills here – things you want hiring managers to see right away. You can reorder these Top Skills as needed by dragging and dropping them in the section.
Include Skills in Your Professional Headline
In addition to listing out skills, you can highlight relevant skills directly in your professional headline (the title under your name). For example:
“Data scientist with experience in Python, R, SQL, machine learning, Tableau, and Tableau”
This directly calls out key skills, making them easily searchable. Just be sure not to overstuff your headline with too many skills.
Add Skills to Past Job Descriptions
When listing out your professional experiences on your profile, be sure to include relevant skills you utilized in each of your positions. For example, under your job description as a social media manager, you could write:
“- Managed company’s social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn”
This shows you have experience with major social platforms. List hard and soft skills relevant to each position. Just be concise – no need to list every minor skill used.
Get Endorsements for Skills
Receiving endorsements from colleagues is a way to validate your skills on LinkedIn. When someone endorses you for a skill:
- That skill rises to the top of your Skills section
- The endorsement appears on your profile as social proof of that skill
To get endorsements:
- Connect with colleagues, clients, managers, etc. who can endorse your skills
- Endorse them for skills in return. This prompts them to view your profile.
- tactfully ask colleagues who know your work to endorse you for relevant skills.
Don’t go overboard asking for endorsements, but a few for key skills can strengthen your profile.
Showcase Skills in Your Profile Summary
Your profile summary or About section is the perfect place for a summary of your top skills and abilities. Rather than just listing them out, write 1-2 sentences explaining how you successfully applied key skills in previous positions. For example:
“Data science professional with 5 years experience building predictive models and machine learning algorithms that increased sales conversions by 30%.”
This provides context on how you successfully used your skills, which strengthens your profile.
Verify Skills
You can verify skills on LinkedIn by taking short assessments to prove your proficiency. Verified skills will have a checkmark icon next to them, signaling to viewers that LinkedIn has validated them in some way.
To verify skills:
- Go to the Skills section of your profile
- Click on a skill
- Select “Take skill quiz” if available
- Pass the short multiple choice quiz with a score of 70% or higher
Hard skills like software programs are typically easier to verify through quizzes than soft skills.
Showcase Skills in Your Portfolio
The portfolio section of your profile allows you to add visual examples of your skills in action. This could include:
- Code samples
- Design mockups
- Presentations
- Infographics
- Blog posts
- Certificates
Whatever is relevant to demonstrate applied skills – add it to your portfolio with brief descriptions.
List Complementary Skills Together
Think about pairing complementary skills together on your profile, which could help showcase your well-rounded expertise. For example:
“Data Analysis Skills: SQL, Python, R, Excel, Tableau, Statistics”
This groups your analysis skillset together under one umbrella. Recruiters can clearly see all your related data skills in one place.
Use Media to Demonstrate Skills
You can add media samples within your portfolio and work experiences that directly exhibit skills in action. For example:
- An Excel dashboard or Tableau data visualization in your portfolio
- A video presentation on your communication skills
- A podcast or sound clip with you speaking a second language
Visual and audio elements like this can vividly demonstrate skills. Just keep samples and clips short and relevant.
Take Online Courses
Taking LinkedIn Learning courses is another way to add skills and certificates to your profile. Online classes related to your field can quickly help build up your skillset. Be sure to add any completed certifications to your profile.
Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups
Join LinkedIn Groups related to the skillsets you want to be known for. Being an active member helps position you as an expert. You can request to be featured on the Group’s front page, which will display your skills to anyone visiting. Groups also give you a place to showcase thought leadership content.
Complete LinkedIn Skill Assessments
LinkedIn’s skill assessment feature lets you take short tests to validate your proficiency across a range of topics. You can add these validated skills directly to your profile. Taking assessments related to your field can be a quick way to build out legitimate skills.
Encourage Recommendations
Recommendations on LinkedIn provide detailed testimonials of your skills and achievements from colleagues and managers. To get quality recommendations:
- Reconnect with former bosses and coworkers who know your work
- Write recommendations for them mentioning their skills
- Politely ask if they would be willing to write you a recommendation in return
Aim for recommendations that specifically call out projects and skills so viewers understand your capabilities.
Show Skills in Your Education
In your education section, course projects and activities can highlight skills gained. For example, including that you led a market research project for your university’s bookstore shows research and analytical skills.
Extracurricular groups and honors that required skill demonstrations are good additions too. Just keep the focus on skills you applied.
Find Skills Gaps
Look at jobs you’re interested in applying for and see what key skills are required. If there are gaps between their requirements and your current skills, look for ways to fill them through online courses, certificate programs, reading, mentors, or project work.
Ask For Feedback
Ask trusted colleagues, mentors, and coaches for feedback about which of your skills stand out based on working with you. They may provide some insight you hadn’t thought of. Their outside perspectives could reveal skills to emphasize in your profile.
Customize Your LinkedIn URL
Create a customized LinkedIn profile URL with your name and top skills. For example:
linkedin.com/in/john-smith-analytics-digital-marketing
Including key skills makes them more discoverable.
Follow Companies to Learn About Skills Needs
By following specific companies on LinkedIn, you can gain valuable insight about the types of skills and requirements for roles you’re interested in. You’ll see skills and keywords frequently mentioned in their job postings to inform skills you should highlight.
Conclusion
Showcasing your skills prominently on LinkedIn is crucial for getting noticed by recruiters and demonstrating your value to potential employers. Prioritize your top skills in your profile headline, summary, and experience sections for maximum visibility. Take advantage of tools like courses, assessments and endorsements to validate and strengthen your list of skills. Keep this an ongoing, evolving section of your profile.