A New and Improved Skills Section on LinkedIn

Long overdue, LinkedIn has updated their Skills Section and it’s worth checking out.

In a recent LinkedIn blog post, LinkedIn Tips to Keep Your Profile Fresh, Charu Jangid shares the highlights of the new Skills Section.

In today’s quickly changing workforce, staying on top of your skills and showing what you know matters more than ever. We’ve made some updates to how your skills are displayed so that you can showcase your strengths:

• Your skills have been categorized into four key areas: Industry Knowledge, Tools & Technologies, Interpersonal Skills, and Other Skills, making it easier for others to see what you’re skilled in.
• We’ve added the ability for you to feature your top three skills on your profile so you can highlight what you most want to be recognized for.
• You can reorder the skills in each category and pin new top skills by clicking on the pencil icon on the skills and endorsements section of your profile.

Why does listing your skills matter? Having at least 5 skills on your profile gets you up to 17x more profile views and up to 31x more messages from recruiters and others who can help you get ahead.

Skills with the most endorsements are listed first. Skills without endorsements are displayed according to the date they were added. There’s currently no way to make a skill without an endorsement appear higher than skills with endorsements.

Here’s a look at how to manage and leverage your Skills Section. For the best viewing experience go to full screen by clicking the frame icon in the top right corner below.

<b>Step 1</b><br>Go to your profile and scroll down to the section called Skills.&nbsp;

<b>Step 2</b><br>Click on the blue pencil to add to view your current skills.

<b>Step 3</b><br>LinkedIn now separates your skills by Top Skills, Industry Knowledge, Interpersonal Skills and Other Skills.<br>Notice your top skills are pinned in blue. To move other skills to your top skills unpin one of the top three and then you can&nbsp;<br><br>

<b>Step 3 cont’d</b><br>Reorder your skills within each category or choose up to 3 skills to feature in your top skills.&nbsp;<br><br>

<b>Step 3 cont’d<br></b>You can remove a skill by clicking on the trash can to the right.&nbsp;<br>You can reorder your a skill

<b>Step 4</b><br>Click <span class=””><i>Adjust endorsement settings&nbsp;</i></span>

<b>Step 4 cont’d</b><br>Determine how you want to use Endorsements.<br><br>

<b>Step 5</b><br>Click back to the Endorsement area and click <span><i>Add a new skill.</i></span>

<b>Step 5 cont’d</b><br>You will see how many more skills you can add.&nbsp;<br>LinkedIn will suggest skills based on your current profile and the content you’ve added to your profile.

<b>Step 6</b><br>Clean up your skills and make sure your skills align with your keywords and your most important skills.&nbsp;<br>Recruiters use this area to search for top talent.

Stay in the know with Intero’s blog by signing up to receive our weekly posts in your inbox.