Having a strong LinkedIn profile is crucial for any professional in today’s digital age. With over 560 million members, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform and an important tool for career development. One of the key elements of an impactful LinkedIn profile is highlighting your top skills. Showcasing your best skills prominently on your profile allows you to stand out to recruiters and potential employers. But with limited space, how do you effectively showcase your top 3 skills on LinkedIn?
Why Showcasing Top Skills is Important on LinkedIn
Displaying your top skills prominently serves multiple purposes:
- It allows recruiters to quickly assess your capabilities and experience
- It enables your profile to be discovered more easily in LinkedIn search results
- It reinforces and complements other profile sections like work experience
- It gives you an opportunity to include relevant keywords recruiters may search for
- It provides social proof of your abilities when endorsed by connections
In short, showcasing your best skills makes your profile more discoverable, helps you stand out from the crowd, and reiterates your value to potential employers. For these reasons, optimizing your top skills section is worth the effort.
How to Select Your Top 3 Skills
The first step is identifying which 3 skills you want to highlight on your profile. Consider the following when making your selections:
- Skills relevant to your target role or industry – The skills you highlight should align with the types of jobs you are applying for and be tailored to your target companies or industry.
- Transferable skills – Soft skills like communication, organization, teamwork and leadership are versatile and applicable across many roles and sectors.
- Technical/hard skills – Proficiencies like programming languages, tools, certifications or methodologies that are specific to your field.
- Unique skills – Choose skills that set you apart from other applicants and aren’t as common.
- Skills you want to develop – Highlighting emerging skills you want to build can help guide your learning path.
Aim for a mix of transferable skills and niche technical/hard skills that best represent your abilities. The skills that align closely with jobs you are applying for should take priority.
How to Display Your Top Skills on LinkedIn
Once you’ve selected your top 3 skills, it’s time to showcase them effectively on your LinkedIn profile. Here are some tips:
Add Skills to the Skills Section
The most direct way to display your top skills is in the Skills section of your LinkedIn profile under the About tab. Simply enter your top 3 skills and they will appear as a skill list on your profile. Make sure the most important skill appears first.
Elaborate on Your Skills in the Summary
In your LinkedIn Summary, provide more context around your top skills, demonstrating how you’ve applied them and their relevance to your career goals. Mention each skill by name and include real examples of using them successfully.
Include Skills in Your Work Experience Descriptions
When describing your work experience, incorporate keywords related to your top skills and explain how you utilized them in each role. This integrates them seamlessly into your profile.
Add Projects Showcasing Your Skills
The Project section lets you delve into specific examples that exhibit your main skills in action. Develop in-depth project descriptions that highlight your most impressive skill applications.
Reinforce Skills in Recommendations
Ask colleagues who can vouch for your key skills to write LinkedIn recommendations emphasizing those abilities. Their endorsements add credibility to your listed skills.
Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups
Join LinkedIn Groups centered around your top skills to further establish yourself as knowledgeable within those areas.
Get Endorsements for Your Skills
Once you add your skills, encourage connections to endorse you for them with a simple click. This tangible social validation helps confirm you possess those skills.
Take LinkedIn Skills Assessments
Taking and passing LinkedIn Skills Assessment tests in your top skill areas adds badges to your profile, quantifying your proficiency level.
Certifications
If you hold certifications related to your top skills, add them under Licenses & Certifications. Some certificates even auto-populate to your Skills.
Best Practices for Showcasing Key Skills
Keep these best practices in mind when displaying your top skills for maximum impact:
- Place your most important skill first in your Skills section.
- Include keywords from LinkedIn’s predefined skill list where possible to optimize search visibility.
- Rotate and update your top 3 skills over time as your focus evolves.
- Supplement skills with compelling examples of using those skills successfully.
- Quantify your skill level or impact where possible with data, stats or accomplishments.
- Ensure your skills are consistent across your profile sections for reinforcement.
- Browse profiles of professionals in your target roles and emulate their skills showcasing.
Tools to Identify the Best Skills
Unsure which skills you should feature or want to find out what skills are trending in your industry? The following tools can help:
LinkedIn Skills Explorer
This tool lets you research the most in-demand skills by job, industry, company and location as well as skills your connections have. Tap into real-world data to identify relevant skills to include.
LinkedIn Profile Strength Meter
This LinkedIn tool grades your profile and gives tips for improvement, including suggesting skills to add. Use it to optimize your profile.
Job Posting Analysis
Review recent job postings that appeal to you and note the top skills required to uncover the skills you should highlight.
Career Development Sites
Websites like Coursera, Udemy, edX and FutureLearn showcase trending skills and offer courses to develop in-demand abilities.
Peer Profiles
Analyze the profiles of peers and professionals you admire working in your target field to pick up tips for showcasing the right skills.
Common Questions
Should skills be tailored for each job application?
While your LinkedIn profile should remain consistent, you can tailor which of your top skills you emphasize in your resume and application materials for each job. Highlight the 3-5 most relevant skills for each specific role.
How often should you update your top skills?
Aim to re-evaluate your top 3 skills every 6 months to a year. As you gain new skills or your career path evolves, refresh your featured skills to stay current.
How many skills should you list beyond your top 3?
There’s no ideal number of skills beyond your top 3 to include on your profile – the main focus should be on highlighting your most proficient and relevant skills first and foremost.
Conclusion
Showcasing your top skills effectively on your LinkedIn profile is invaluable for career advancement and discoverability. Curate which skills you feature strategically, exhibit them throughout your profile, utilize LinkedIn’s tools for reinforcement, and constantly update them to put your best foot forward.
With your main skills prominently displayed, you’ll be noticed by more recruiters in your target field and demonstrate the value you bring to any role or organization.
