9 Skills To Include on Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is a social network with a specific purpose. It is designed specifically to help you make professional connections that can help you find employment. When you create a LinkedIn profile, you are building your own professional brand.

In many respects, your LinkedIn profile resembles a traditional resume. However, when you list skills on your resume, your prospective employers are limited in their ability to verify what you say you can do. On the other hand, when you list skills on LinkedIn, the people in your network can endorse those skills for you, confirming your abilities.

Some skills are admittedly more valuable than others. When listing skills on your LinkedIn profile, you should include those that are most relevant to the position you would like to have. Valuable skills will therefore vary based on the type of position you are seeking, but here are some that are most highly in demand.

1. Sales and Marketing

Obviously, you should list whatever sales skills you have, especially if you are looking forward to doing more selling in your new position. Marketing is related to sales but is a much wider field. It involves getting the word out there in one way or another. Marketing increasingly involves incorporating new technology through social media and online marketing, but the more traditional methods are still effective.

2. Scientific Computing

Companies are collecting more data all the time, not only as it relates to their products but also to their customers. Someone has to analyze all that data to find meaningful patterns. People with experience in scientific computing can perform that analysis effectively.

3. Communication

Effective communication involves both expressing yourself clearly in words, whether spoken or written, and also paying attention to other people's words so that you correctly interpret their meaning. Almost every job involves communication with others in some form, so speaking, writing, and listening skills are all important to list on your LinkedIn profile.

4. Management

If you wish to obtain any sort of leadership position, you should be able to exhibit some sort of management skills. These include strategic planning of projects, coaching others, negotiating, and delegating tasks to different members of your team.

5. Information Technology

Information technology relates to scientific computing, but is more about the day-to-day operations of the computer network. It's a very rare business that operates without computers at all, yet few people have the knowledge, skills, and training to correct problems with an individual computer, or the entire network as they arise. With so many dependent on the skills that only a handful of people possess, those who can provide IT services are in very high demand.

6. Business Skills

This may seem a bit obvious, but if the goal of the business is to make money, it helps to have some sort of skills that relate to that, such as economics or business development. Administration skills pertain more to the normal day-to-day operations and making sure that they proceed smoothly and predictably.

7. Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is the ability to look at something in a new way to discover previously undiscovered potential in it. This is called "thinking outside the box" and it is an extremely valuable skill in most industries.

8. Adaptability

When people are looking at existing systems and processes creatively, trying to discover improvements, sooner or later you will likely encounter changes. In the natural world, those that cannot adapt do not stick around for long, and the same is true for people who are unreasonably inflexible and closed to new ideas and new processes. On the other hand, those who are able to embrace and implement changes are more likely to survive professionally. From changing to remote work with a home office setup to working through zoom meetings.

9. Persuasion

You may know that you offer the best product or service. However, this does not do you any good if you cannot convince others to buy into it. Persuasion is therefore a very valuable business skill.

You can add up to 50 skills to your LinkedIn profile. As long as you can back up your claims, there is no need to be modest. Listing skills on your profile can generate four times as many views, which gives you a competitive edge.