Your LinkedIn profile is often the first impression a recruiter or hiring manager will get of you. With over 630 million users on LinkedIn, standing out from the crowd is crucial. Choosing which skills to showcase on your profile can significantly impact your chances of landing interviews and job offers.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are specific abilities and knowledge you have gained through education, training, and experience. These are tangible skills that are easily quantifiable. Hard skills tend to be more technical and are often required to perform certain roles. Some examples of hard skills to include on your LinkedIn profile are:
- Programming languages like Java, Python, C++
- Software and tools like Excel, Tableau, Salesforce
- Certifications relevant to your industry or job target
- Statistical analysis skills like SQL, R, SAS
- Financial skills like budgeting, forecasting, modeling
Highlighting relevant hard skills shows employers you have the specialized abilities needed to succeed in a role. Tailor the skills on your profile to match the requirements listed in the job postings that interest you.
Soft Skills
Soft skills encompass personal attributes and key interpersonal capabilities. These skills are often harder to quantify but are still hugely important. Some examples of soft skills include:
- Communication skills – written, verbal, listening
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Problem-solving
- Time management and organization
- Creativity and innovation
- Leadership
- Persuasion and influence
While hard skills showcase your technical abilities, soft skills demonstrate critical personality traits and work habits. Highlighting soft skills illustrates you have the right attitude and mindset to thrive in a company’s environment.
How to Select Skills for Your Profile
With limited profile space, you cannot include every skill you have. Here are some tips for choosing impactful skills to showcase:
- Identify relevant skills for your target roles – Review job postings to see which hard and soft skills are most desirable for your aimed positions. Prioritize showcasing these skills.
- Leverage your top strengths – Highlight skills that you are exceptionally strong in compared to your peers. Back up claims with concrete examples and metrics.
- Tailor to each application – Adjust the skills on your profile based on the requirements of the different roles you are applying for.
- Include transferable skills – Skills from past roles or experiences that apply to your current career path.
- Mix hard and soft skills – Employers look for both technical abilities and cultural add.
How to Effectively Display Skills on Your Profile
Simply listing out skills is not enough – you need to convince recruiters you truly possess them. Use these tips to showcase skills powerfully:
- Back up with examples – Support skills with anecdotes, statistics, results, test scores, credentials, press, etc.
- Get endorsements – Build social proof by getting colleagues to endorse you for skills.
- Demonstrate range – For multifaceted skills like “project management”, give tangibles to show breadth.
- Quantify when possible – Include measurable details and scope such as “Managed P&L of $50M business unit”.
- Align with job duties – Explain how you applied the skill in previous roles.
- Use keywords – Strategically work keywords from the job description into your skills section.
Skills Section Formatting
How you format and organize your Skills section can also impact its effectiveness. Some formatting best practices include:
- List your most important and relevant skills first
- Break skills into logical categories like “Marketing Skills” and “Technical Skills”
- Use bullet points to allow for easy scanning
- Present your skills in descending order of proficiency
- Ensure your skills are consistent with the rest of your profile
Using LinkedIn’s Skill Assessments
LinkedIn provides standardized Skill Assessments you can add to your profile for skills like Email Marketing, JavaScript, and Project Management. These short quizzes let you demonstrate your proficiency. Some benefits include:
- Validation of your skill level with a scored assessment
- Official-looking skill badges that add credibility
- Better visibility in LinkedIn search results
- Ability to re-take assessments to improve scores over time
Skill assessments are a nice addition but focus first on crafting a compelling skills profile with ample proof points.
Keywords to Use By Industry
Certain skills and keywords tend to be more valued in specific industries. Here are important ones to feature by sector:
Industry | Keywords to Include |
---|---|
Technology | JavaScript, React, Git, Scrum, Agile |
Finance | Financial modeling, forecasting, mergers & acquisitions, valuations |
Healthcare | Patient care, medical coding, HIPAA, electronic health records |
Engineering | AutoCAD, structural design, prototyping, manufacturing |
Marketing | Google Analytics, digital marketing, CRM, SEO/SEM |
Do your research on your target field to determine which technical skills and industry-specific keywords will be most impactful to feature.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
Some frequent mistakes to sidestep when showcasing your skills on LinkedIn include:
- Listing soft skills without any evidence or examples
- Incorporating skills irrelevant to your target job
- Using the default LinkedIn preset skills without customization
- Exaggerating or embellishing skill levels
- Focusing only on technical skills and minimizing soft skills
- Simply relisting the skills section from your resume without adaptation
Craft your LinkedIn skills section with intentionality and align it specifically with the kinds of roles you want to attract.
Keeping Your Skills Current
As you gain new skills and experience, remember to update your LinkedIn profile. Here are some tips for keeping it up-to-date:
- Set a reminder to revisit your profile every few months
- Complete new LinkedIn Skill Assessments when proficient
- Ask colleagues to endorse you when you learn new skills
- Fine-tune your profile when applying to new types of jobs
- Periodically remove outdated or irrelevant skills
- Reorder skills based on current priorities and strengths
A dynamic, up-to-date skills profile shows you are actively developing as a professional.
Showcasing a Range
Employers want to see skills that span both breadth and depth. Some ways to demonstrate range include:
- Blend highly technical skills with transferable soft skills
- Combine specialized skills with industry-wide basics
- Showcase skills you’ve acquired through different roles and experiences
- Include skills that display both practical application and strategic vision
Illustrating a diverse cross-section of skills makes you a more versatile, hireable candidate.
Conclusion
Your LinkedIn skills profile is incredibly valuable real estate. Be selective about which skills you choose to spotlight for maximum impact. Emphasize transferable abilities aligned with your target job path. Back up proficiencies with tangible evidence and metrics. Craft a strong skills profile that convinces recruiters you have both the hard and soft skills to excel in the role and company.