Adding Skills and Endorsements on LinkedIn

The following post takes a closer look at Adding Skills and Endorsements on LinkedIn.

In today’s competitive landscape, standing out on LinkedIn requires more than simply having a profile. You must populate it with relevant keywords to boost your visibility and showcase your expertise.

Read: Choosing Your ‘Open to Work’ Visibility Settings on LinkedIn

Related: Tips for Boosting Engagement on LinkedIn

Without adding Skills to your profile, your chances of being discovered by potential employers are diminished, as your profile may not appear in relevant searches or stand out among the competition.

Here’s what you need to know.

Skills Overview

Skills on LinkedIn are keywords and/or phrases that represent your expertise, abilities, and qualifications.

There are several different types of Skills to choose from including ‘hard skills’ (i.e. data analysis), ‘soft skills’ (i.e. problem solving), and ‘technical skills’ (i.e. ‘Python’). Ideally, you’ll want to select a mixture to create a well-rounded profile that showcases your capabilities across a spectrum of functional areas.

For example, let’s say you’ve got ten years of sales experience and that’s your long-term career. You should be looking for sales-related Skills like ‘relationship building’, ‘lead generation’, and ‘territory management’.

Seniority level is another important factor. For example, if you’re a Sales Manager, you’ll want Skills that highlight your managerial capabilities such as ‘team leadership’, ‘mentoring’, and ‘sales coaching’.

Pictured: Searching for the skill ‘lead generation’.

Benefits of Adding Skills

Adding 100/100 Skills to your LinkedIn profile requires time and concentration. It’s kind of a pain since you have to add them to your profile one-by-one. However, it’s worth the effort for a few reasons:

• Increases your chances of being found when recruiters are searching for candidates.
• Improves your profile’s performance when applying to jobs on LinkedIn.
• Showcases a well-rounded skill set to all profile visitors.
• Adds substance to your profile, shows effort, and enhances authenticity.

How to Add Skills

The process of adding Skills to your LinkedIn profile is straightforward.

First, navigate to the Skills section of your profile. Then, look for the plus (+) icon. When you click this icon, a new screen will appear where you can begin searching for specific Skills to add.

Start typing the Skill you’re interested in and LinkedIn will automatically suggest relevant options based on what you’ve entered. Select the one that best fits, hit save, and it will be added to your profile.

A word of caution – you can only add one skill at a time. So, if you’re aiming to reach the 100/100 skill limit (which is an admirable goal) be prepared to invest some time and energy getting there.

Pictured: Adding Skills to Your LinkedIn Profile

Skill Endorsements Overview

Skill Endorsements are exclusively a part of the Skills section on your LinkedIn profile.

When you add Skills to your profile, your 1st-degree connections have the opportunity to ‘endorse’ you for those specific abilities. Basically, they’re vouching for the fact that you possess the Skills you claim to.

While Skill Endorsements aren’t as important as the Skills themselves, they add value by providing social proof of your capabilities. In short, Skill Endorsements add to your profile’s authenticity and credibility.

Pictured: Screenshot of Skills with Skill Endorsements.

In Conclusion

I hope this article sheds light on the Skills and Endorsements section of your LinkedIn profile. If you want to get the most out of your LinkedIn profile, it’s worth taking a step back and investing effort into adding these.