The LinkedIn skills setting that could be sinking your visibility

You may have an impressive career, years of experience and exactly the capabilities an employer needs.

But if your LinkedIn skills section hasn’t been updated for years, recruiters might never find out.

LinkedIn has over a billion users, so recruiters and hiring managers have to apply filters when searching for candidates. Skills are one of the filters they can use to reduce that enormous pool to a manageable list of people.

That makes the skills section much more than a collection of digital badges at the bottom of your profile.

It can materially affect whether you appear in a recruiter’s search at all.

When did you last check your LinkedIn skills?

Let’s begin with a very simple question.

When was the last time you looked at the skills listed on your LinkedIn profile?

For many people, the honest answer is probably “years ago.”

Some haven’t changed them since they first created their account. But while the profile has remained untouched, their career has moved on.

They have acquired new capabilities, taken on more senior responsibilities and perhaps moved into a different part of the sector. Yet LinkedIn is still presenting them using skills selected several jobs ago.

That creates two problems.

First, you may not appear in searches for the opportunities you genuinely want.

Second, you could be contacted about roles that are of no interest whatsoever because LinkedIn is still associating you with skills you no longer use.

Your professional capabilities have evolved.

Has your LinkedIn profile evolved with them?

Recruiters can search using your skills

Recruiters and hiring managers can use LinkedIn’s recruitment tools to apply a wide range of filters when looking for candidates.

They might search by current or previous job title, location, employer or skills.

That means the words contained in your skills section can help determine whether you are included in the results.

Having the right experience in real life isn’t necessarily enough. If LinkedIn cannot connect that experience with the search being conducted, you might remain invisible.

And you won’t receive a polite email explaining that you nearly appeared in the search.

You simply won’t know the opportunity existed.

Are your most important skills at the top?

Possessing the right skills is only the beginning.

Their order matters too.

The skills you most want to be known for should appear at the top of the pile. These should reflect the work you currently perform or the opportunities you want to pursue next.

For professionals considering a career transition, this is particularly important.

If you want to move from offshore to onshore work, from onshore to offshore work or into another part of the sector, your profile needs to contain skills relevant to that direction of travel.

Leaving old or less relevant capabilities at the top can give LinkedIn and its users the wrong impression about where your career is heading.

Don’t force recruiters to work it out for themselves.

Make the important information obvious.

The skills setting many people have missed

LinkedIn introduced a useful feature that allows people to associate individual skills with other relevant parts of their profile.

You can click on a skill and allocate it to the areas LinkedIn presents to you, where appropriate.

This might sound like a fairly minor administrative task, but it can materially improve your visibility. It provides LinkedIn with more information about where and how you have used that skill.

Yet plenty of users haven’t made these changes.

Some don’t know the option exists. Others selected their skills years ago and have never returned to the section.

If you haven’t associated your most important skills with the relevant parts of your profile, you could be less visible than you should be.

Do LinkedIn endorsements really matter?

Endorsements can also affect visibility.

Ask colleagues, clients, suppliers and other professional contacts to endorse the skills they genuinely believe you possess.

The word “genuinely” matters here.

This is not about collecting random endorsements for abilities you don’t have. It is about giving LinkedIn and potential employers additional evidence that other professionals recognise your capabilities.

An especially valuable endorsement can come from someone who shares the same skill. LinkedIn appears to place particular value on one professional endorsing another for an ability they both possess.

And, of course, this should not be a one-way exercise.

If you genuinely believe somebody in your network possesses a particular skill, endorse them too.

Skills and recommendations are not the same thing

It is also worth distinguishing between endorsements and recommendations.

An endorsement is attached to a specific skill. A recommendation is a written account from someone who has hired, managed or worked with you.

Both can strengthen your profile in different ways.

Imagine a recruiter comparing two similarly qualified candidates. One has several strong recommendations from people describing them as productive, capable and valuable. The other has none.

Who would you choose?

Recommendations are not simply decorative additions to make a profile look busy. They provide evidence from other people that you can do what you claim.

A quick LinkedIn skills audit

You don’t need to rebuild your entire LinkedIn profile to address this particular problem.

Start with these four actions:

1. Review every skill currently listed on your profile.

2. Remove or deprioritise skills that no longer reflect the work you want.

3. Move your most important and relevant capabilities to the top.

4. Click on each key skill and associate it with the other appropriate areas of your profile.

Then begin gathering genuine endorsements from people who understand your work.

It is a relatively straightforward exercise, but it could make a material difference to your visibility.

Don’t let an old skills list define your current career

LinkedIn can only work with the information you provide.

If that information is incomplete, badly ordered or several years out of date, the platform may struggle to connect you with the right opportunities.

Being highly skilled and being visible for those skills are not the same thing.

The first depends on your experience.

The second depends partly on whether you have bothered to tell LinkedIn about it.

So, before blaming the algorithm for sinking your visibility, take another look at the skills section.

It may be pointing recruiters towards the person you used to be rather than the professional you are today.

LinkedIn skills: quick questions and answers

Do LinkedIn skills affect profile visibility?

Yes. Recruiters can use skills as filters when searching for candidates, so the skills listed on your profile can influence whether you appear in their results.

Which LinkedIn skills should appear first?

Place the skills you most want to be known for at the top. They should reflect your current capabilities and the type of work you want to pursue.

Do LinkedIn endorsements improve visibility?

Endorsements can affect your visibility, particularly when they come from people who genuinely understand your work. An endorsement from someone who possesses the same skill can be especially valuable.

Can outdated LinkedIn skills attract the wrong opportunities?

Yes. If your profile contains old skills that no longer represent your career, recruiters may contact you about roles you are not interested in.

How can I strengthen the skills section of my LinkedIn profile?

Check that you have the right skills, place them in the correct order and associate each important skill with other relevant areas of your profile. You should also seek genuine endorsements from professional contacts.