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You will need to add your skills if you want to maximize the amount of views your profile gets. The name of the game is getting recruiters to reach out to you. Let the games begin!
Skills are among the primary things that recruiters look at for job candidates. They demonstrate what knowledge you gained from prior experience. Skills are different from work experience, because skills show off your versatility and abilities. Remember, everything has the potential to be a valuable skill, and any work experience grants you some skills, if you know how to frame it. For example, if you have experience in food service, then you have skills in dealing directly with people, with handling food in a sanitary way, and you’re able to do physical work efficiently. Silencing your inner critic is vital: even if you don’t FEEL skilled in what you’ve done, the fact that you have done it at all has grown your skill in some way, and that’s what you need to emphasize.
1
Add a super section
to your profile.
LinkedIn doesn’t want your account to look bare before you’ve added all of these essentials, so it
doesn’t have any empty sections up for you. You need to add this manually.
2
Get ready to
showcase your skills.
Under the drop-down menu that says “Core,” click on the “Add skills” button. It is considered a
core section because you absolutely NEED to list your skills on LinkedIn. Employers look at this to
see if you will be a right fit for their open positions.
3
Add your unique skills.
Using LinkedIn autofill is key to adding keywords to your profile! You can take advantage of this by
using the search bar at the top of the window. When you type any skill or keyword into the bar,
LinkedIn will automatically give you a choice of selections based on keywords that recruiters are
looking for. Start typing in the job title you want and add it to the list of your skills.
4
Brag about what
you can do.
Some skills will already be listed based on your work history. Add as many of these skills as you’d like (as
long as they apply to you)! No skill is too small. After all, your LinkedIn profile is supposed to represent you
completely, and you are a complex, three-dimensional person!
5
Give your skills
more context.
Once you’ve picked a skill, LinkedIn will tell you to select where you’ve put your skill to use. You
can choose from everything you’ve already listed in the experience section of your profile. Check
off any experiences that have helped you develop your chosen skill, whether it be volunteering,
education, or personal life experience.
This can help recruiters see what you’ve done in specific roles in your life. It gives them more
context and helps them picture you in that role, working on the skills listed.
6
Save these
important changes!
Once you’re happy with the skills you’ve selected, click Save. If you don’t save it, all the
steps you just followed will be discarded, and you’ll have to start again. You definitely don’t
want to make that mistake!
Go to the Skills &
Endorsements section.
On your profile, scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section and click on the pencil icon on the
upper right-hand side.
When adding skills to LinkedIn, remember to put your most important assets at the top of your list.
The skills you want to be most known for would benefit the role you would like to land. For example,
if you went on Beyoncé’s LinkedIn, you’d expect to see “singing, dancing, and acting” as her top 3
skills. Not “crocheting, juggling, and computer analytics.” You might have many skills, but they’re likely
not all relevant. Always remember to make any adjustments to your skill summaries to stand out for
the position you want. You can also look through job descriptions or ask people you know in that field
to find what skills recruiters are seeking. These top 3 skills will be featured in your profile.
Get ready to rearrange
your skills.
When you click on the 3 dots at the top, a small box will appear with two options. You will have the
option to reorder your skills, and you will be able to create settings for your profile endorsements.
We’ll go over how to change your endorsement settings next, but for now, click the “Reorder”
button to rearrange your skills.
Rearrange your skills.
When you click on the “Reorder” feature, you will be directed to another window listing all the prior
skills you have put down. You can rearrange your skills by clicking the four horizontal lines on the right-
hand side and dragging the skill to its new spot. When rearranging your skills, consider what job you are
applying for. You will want to place the most relevant skills at the top. Your LinkedIn profile will show
your top 3 skills before the rest, so make them count.
Deleting your skills.
You can also take skills off your profile easily if you need to. You access this by clicking on the
pencil on the right-hand side of the Skills section where each skill is listed. Here, you have a list
of past experiences where you can select where you applied your skills. Remove your skill by
clicking on the “Delete skill” button in the bottom left corner.
Save your skills.
Once you’re done rearranging your skills, click Save!
Once you’ve sorted your skills, get to work on getting 99+ endorsements on your top skill. Once you’ve reached
that goal, move your next skill up to number one and work on getting another 99+ endorsements for that. So on
and so forth. Lather, rinse, repeat!
Go to your connection’s skills.
On your connection’s profile, scroll down to the Skills & Endorsements section near
the bottom. Here, you can see all the skills they have listed for them self!
Get ready to endorse.
You will see an “Endorse” button next to their top 3 skills. Click it! When you click on the endorse
button, a window asking for more details will pop up. While you can click off the window or click
the ‘X’ in the upper right-hand side to close it, answer these quick questions to make your
endorsement as helpful as possible.
Go back to the Skills
Section and optimize your
endorsement settings.
To make sure you are able to receive endorsements, go back to the Skills section of your
profile and click the ellipsis icon next to your top 3 skills. From the Skills section, find the
“Endorsement Settings” button and click on it. You should get 3 toggle options make sure all
of them are green. Now you’ll be able to receive endorsements on your skills from past co-
workers. These will help show recruiters that you’re not lying about your skills.
Find the person you want
to endorse you.
Now that you have the option to receive endorsements, you must actually get endorsed! Choose the
person or people that you want to endorse you. Go to their account, click on the message button, and
start typing out a request.
Example: “Hi Miriam, please give me an endorsement for the skills I best presented when we worked
together. In turn, I am endorsing your top three. Thanks so much! Pamela.”
Once you’ve done this, keep your promise by endorsing that person. Go to their account and scroll
down to the Endorsement section. Click Endorse on each of their top three skills. If you want to, you
can click “show more” and endorse all of their skills. They might be even happier to endorse all of
yours!