Competing in today’s hopefully-soon-to-be-post-pandemic world, whether you are employed, self-employed, under-, or un-employed, means demonstrating your proficiency in workplace skills, many of which did not exist or were widely practiced pre-pandemic (example: virtual LinkedIn training).
That occurs on a few levels:
- That means approaching your overall LinkedIn profile from a 30,000-foot level and asking yourself if your profile is attractive to a passer-by. Or will they pass you by? Or will they stop, read some, read further, and contact you for more background? Or something in between? That means a robust, legible, relevant, and amazing-er profile.
- That also means showing your skills on LinkedIn that you possess and routinely use to differentiate yourself. Hence, “finance” and “management” are on my hit-list to never see on my clients’ skill list on LinkedIn. Be specific and be real, resisting the inclination to just settle for a skill LinkedIn suggests. Feel free to customize the skill name to your own needs.
- That additionally means that you are actually proficient at the skills you show you possess. There is no room for false bragging rights here. Enough said on that for ethical and professional reputation reasons.
- And then there are the endorsers. You are solely responsible for each endorser actually knowing, experiencing, and being able to attest to your proficiency in that skill, yes, each one that he/she endorsed you for. If that is not real, hide that person in the list of endorsers. If he/she endorsed you for every skill you list, you had better be able to honestly acknowledge that person, as unlikely as this is, knows everything about your entire skillset. I can’t stress this enough: you are responsible for cleaning out your endorsers on a skill-by-skill, endorser-by endorser basis.
It’s on you. Skills are differentiators between you and competitor. They can be searched, and you can be identified as a skillful prospect.
Upskill your skills on LinkedIn. Who else will do it as well as you can?
