Your LinkedIn skills section should list the abilities that match the work you want next, with the most important ones pinned at the top and each skill linked to a job where you used it. Add skills from your profile (or while editing a role), then repeat your top one or two in your headline so people see them without scrolling.
That is the whole idea. The rest of this page is a checklist you can work through in about twenty minutes, followed by the reasoning behind each item.
The checklist
Run through these in order. Each one gets its own short section below.
- Pull your skill list from five real job posts or client briefs, not from memory.
- Keep only skills you could tell a story about in an interview.
- Add each skill and link it to the roles or courses where you used it.
- Pin or reorder so your top three match your headline.
- Use the same wording in your headline, About and experience.
- Ask two or three people who have seen your work for endorsements on skills that matter.
- Put a date in your calendar to review the list every few months.
If you only have five minutes, do items 4 and 5. Those are the ones visitors actually notice.
1. Build the list from the market
Most people fill this section by thinking back over their career and typing whatever comes to mind. That gives you a list about your past. You want a list about your next step.
Open five job posts, or five project briefs if you freelance, that describe work you would happily do next year. Copy every skill and tool they mention into a note. Anything that shows up in three or more of them goes on your shortlist. Then add one or two strengths of your own that the posts missed but that make you better at the job.
This takes ten minutes and it changes the result more than anything else on this page. You end up using the terms recruiters and buyers type into search, which is the language LinkedIn uses to match people to skills.
2. Cut what you can’t back up
Go down the shortlist and ask of each skill: could I describe a specific project where I used this? If an interviewer picked it at random, would I have an answer ready?
Anything that fails that test comes off, at least for now. Same for skills that are true but point the wrong way. A former event planner moving into analytics can drop “Event Planning” or leave it near the bottom. Keeping it at the top tells people the wrong story.
A useful mix looks something like this:
| Kind of skill | What it covers | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Core | What the role is built on | Financial modeling, UX research, Python |
| Tools | Software you use well | Salesforce, Figma, Tableau |
| Working skills | How you work with people | Stakeholder management, coaching, negotiation |
Lean on the first two rows. Working skills matter a lot in the job, but nobody can judge “Communication” from a list. Show those in your experience bullets instead.
3. Add the skills and link them to real work
The menus move around now and then, but the flow stays the same on desktop and mobile:
- Open your profile and find the skills section. If you don’t have one yet, use the option to add a profile section and pick skills.
- Type the skill name and choose a matching suggestion when one appears. Standard names are what people search, so a suggestion usually beats your own phrasing.
- When LinkedIn asks where you used the skill, tick the jobs, education or certifications that apply.
- Save and repeat.
There is a faster route we prefer: open a role in your experience section and add skills from there. You are already thinking about that job, so linking the right skills to it comes naturally, and the connection between claim and evidence is made in one step.
4. Pin your top three
Visitors give your top skills most of the attention, and LinkedIn can also show a few of them in your About section. Reorder or pin so the first three match the job title you want.
Try this test. Cover everything on your profile except your top three skills and ask a friend to guess your job. If they can’t, reorder.
Here is a worked example (Dana is fictional). Dana is a marketing coordinator moving into marketing analytics.
- Top skills before: Microsoft Office, Teamwork, Social Media, Event Planning
- Top skills after: Marketing Analytics, SQL, Google Analytics, A/B Testing
Nothing on the second list is new to Dana. It was all further down. The reorder alone makes the profile read as an analyst’s profile.
5. Say it the same way everywhere
A skill on a list is a claim. The same skill in a job bullet, next to a result, is evidence. Repeat your most important skills in three places, using the exact same wording:
- Headline. One or two skills fit naturally, for example “Marketing Analyst · SQL, Google Analytics · Helping B2B teams measure what works.” The free LinkedIn Headline Generator builds headline options from your role, a result and your audience, and you can add a skill to whichever one you like.
- About. Mention skills inside a sentence about what you do with them. The About Generator includes a skills line in its draft.
- Experience. Put the skill in a bullet about an outcome, and link it to that role.
Watch for drift. If your headline says “UX Research” and your skills list says “User Studies,” pick whichever term your audience uses and change the other. For the headline itself, How to Write a LinkedIn Headline covers the full method.
6. Get endorsements from people who’ve seen you work
Endorsements are a lightweight way for connections to confirm a skill. They are not as persuasive as a written recommendation, but a top skill with a few endorsements from colleagues reads better than one with none. Our glossary entry on endorsements explains how they show up on a profile.
What works:
- Keep your top skills accurate, because those are the ones connections get prompted to endorse.
- Endorse other people for skills you have actually seen them use. Plenty of them will return the favor without being asked.
- When you add a skill that matters for your goal, message two or three colleagues directly. Something like: “I just added SQL to my profile. If you remember the reporting project we did together, an endorsement would mean a lot.”
What doesn’t: swapping endorsements with strangers. It fills your profile with noise from people who can’t vouch for you. If someone endorses you for a skill you don’t want to be known for, hide it or remove the skill. For stronger proof, ask for a written recommendation; How to Ask for a LinkedIn Recommendation has wording you can borrow.
7. Review it on a schedule
Skills go stale quietly. Check the section whenever you change roles, finish a big project, earn a certification or change direction. Otherwise, once every few months is plenty. Add what you now use every week, move the most relevant skills up and remove anything that no longer fits.
Common ways the section goes wrong
Check your own list against these:
- A list of forty loosely related skills. The ones that matter get buried.
- Only soft skills. “Leadership” and “Communication” on their own don’t tell anyone what you do.
- A top skill that contradicts the headline. A “Product Manager” headline with “Retail Sales” pinned first confuses everyone.
- Skills nobody could ask you about. An interviewer may pick the one you added on a whim.
- A list last touched three jobs ago.
Where to go next
Once the list is in shape, put your top skill to work in your headline. Draft a few versions with the free LinkedIn Headline Generator and keep the one that names it clearly. Then go through the LinkedIn Profile Checklist for every other section, or start from the profile guides if you are rebuilding your profile from scratch.