Recruiters Reveal: The Skills That Make You Show Up in LinkedIn Searches
Last month, I was searching for a Financial Planning & Analysis Manager. I filtered for "capital expenditures" as a skill. Four profiles appeared. Four. I know there are hundreds of FP&A professionals who work with capital expeditures, but because they hadn't added it as a skill, they were invisible to me. Those four candidates? They had zero competition.
This is the reality of LinkedIn's Skills section. It's not about showcasing your talents or impressing your network. It's about being found. And most people are getting it completely wrong.
How recruiters actually use the Skills section
When recruiters search on LinkedIn Recruiter (the premium tool most corporate recruiters and agencies use), they're not scrolling through profiles admiring your career trajectory. They're filtering by specific criteria to narrow down thousands of potential candidates to a manageable list of 20 to 50 people.
Here's the typical sequence. A recruiter enters a job title, adds a location radius, filters by years of experience, and then starts layering in skills. With each skill filter they add, the candidate pool shrinks. And here's what matters: if you don't have that skill listed on your profile, you don't exist in that search.
I've watched this play out hundreds of times. A recruiter searches for "SAP". They search for "Salesforce," "Python," "GAAP," "clinical trials," or "change management" because it's faster and more reliable than hoping the right words appear in the right sections of your profile as they’re reading through them.
The Skills section filters you into searches; it’s not just a random feature for you to add to your profile. Treat it accordingly.
The 50 skills you need (at minimum)
LinkedIn allows you to add up to 100 skills to your profile. Most people have 12. This is the single biggest missed opportunity on LinkedIn.
Think of your Skills section like SEO for your career. The more relevant keywords you include, the more searches you'll appear in. But there's a method to this.
Start with your core technical skills. If you're a Controller, that might be things like financial reporting, budgeting, variance analysis, month-end close, and eliminations. If you're a project manager, add agile, scrum, risk management, stakeholder engagement, and project planning. These are table stakes. Every recruiter searching for someone in your field may filter by some of these.
Next, add the software and tools you actually use. Don't just list "Microsoft Office." Break it down: Excel, PowerPoint, Word. Add the CRM, ERP, or specialized software relevant to your industry. A recruiter looking for someone who knows Workday isn't going to find you if you've only mentioned it in passing in a job description you posted in 2019.
Then comes the part most people miss: add the adjacent skills and methodologies that appear in job descriptions for roles you want. Browse 10 job postings for your target position. What skills do they mention repeatedly? Foreign currency translations? Just-in-time manufacturing? Change orders? Prevailing wage payroll? Add them. All of them.
What you don’t need to add are generic, basic stuff that everyone in your field will do. Things like data analysis or cross-functional collaboration. No one is searching for that stuff. If it’s something that sounds smart, but has no real meaning or substance, you can skip it.
By the time you're done, you should have at least 50 skills listed. Ideally closer to 100.
What not to add: the skills that hurt you
“Adding skills to your profile is one of the highest ROI activities you can do.”
Not all skills are created equal, and some can actively work against you.
First, avoid vague soft skills like "leadership," "communication," and "teamwork." Every single person on LinkedIn lists these. They don't differentiate you, and recruiters rarely filter by them because they'd get millions of results. More importantly, these skills signal that you don't understand how LinkedIn search works. Worse, they could signal that you don’t understand how your job level and function work.
Second, stay away from outdated or irrelevant skills. If you worked in retail 15 years ago and now you're a senior engineer, listing "customer service" and "cash handling" creates noise. Recruiters filtering by those skills aren't looking for you, and having them on your profile can confuse LinkedIn's algorithm about what roles you're suited for.
I once worked with a job seeker who was looking for project accountant jobs, but she kept getting messages for accounts payable roles (a job she used to have 6 years ago). The problem was that she had outdated and irrelevant skills, so she was appearing in the wrong searches.
Third, don't add skills you haven't used in over five years unless they're still relevant to your current career trajectory. LinkedIn gives you 100 slots. Use them strategically for skills that position you for the roles you want now, not the roles you had a decade ago.
And finally, avoid listing only the trendy skills everyone's adding right now without substance. Yes, "AI" and "machine learning" are hot. But if all you’ve ever done is used Chat GPT and you've never actually worked with them, you're setting yourself up for awkward conversations when a recruiter calls you about a role requiring deep expertise in those areas.
The endorsement game (and why it barely matters)
I know what you're thinking. What about endorsements? Don't I need 99+ endorsements for my top skills?
Here's the truth people don't tell you: most of us don't care about endorsements. We're not filtering by endorsement count. We're filtering by whether the skill exists on your profile at all.
Endorsements can provide a small credibility boost if a hiring manager reviews your profile after a recruiter finds you, but they're not the gatekeepers. Having "project management" listed with 0 endorsements will get you into search results just as easily as having it with 99+ endorsements.
The exception? Recommendations. Recommendations can help boost credibility, especially if they’re from peers and managers who have worked with you in the past. Individuals who can testify to specific projects you worked on or what it was like working with you can build your credibility.
A lot of recruiters may not look at them initially when sourcing and determining who to send messages to, but hiring managers will look at them as you proceed through the hiring process.
Don't waste time gaming the endorsement system. Spend that time adding more relevant skills and getting recommendations instead.
How to prioritize your top 3 skills
LinkedIn allows you to pin three skills to the top of your Skills section. These appear prominently on your profile, and while there's debate about whether they carry more weight in search algorithms, they definitely matter for human readers.
Choose your three most important technical skills or certifications. These should be the non-negotiables for your target roles. If you're a CPA, that should be one of your top three. If you're a PMP-certified project manager, same thing. If you're a software developer, your primary programming language belongs there.
Don't use these top slots for generic skills like "strategic planning" or "problem solving." Use them for the skills that define your expertise and that recruiters are most likely to filter by.
And here's a tip most people don't know: you can reorder your skills at any time. As your career focus shifts, update your top three to match the roles you're targeting now.
The skills recruiters search for most (by field)
Every industry has its own set of high-value skills that recruiters filter by constantly. Here are the ones I see used most often across different fields.
In accounting and finance:
GAAP, IFRS, financial reporting, financial modeling, budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, month-end close, account reconciliation, internal controls, SOX compliance, technical accounting, FP&A, and specific software like SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, or QuickBooks.
In marketing:
SEO, SEM, Google Analytics, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, marketing automation, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, brand strategy, demand generation, and campaign management.
In software development:
specific programming languages (Python, Java, JavaScript, C++, SQL), frameworks (React, Angular, Node.js, Django), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), DevOps, CI/CD, version control (Git), and Agile methodologies.
In project management:
PMP, agile, scrum, Kanban, risk management, stakeholder management, change management, budget management, project planning, Jira, MS Project, and resource allocation.
In human resources:
HRIS (Workday, ADP, SuccessFactors), talent acquisition, employee relations, performance management, compensation and benefits, SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, organizational development, and change management.
The pattern here? Specificity matters. Don't just list "financial skills." List the specific technical skills and software that define your expertise.
How to find the right skills to add
If you're not sure which skills to add, here's a simple research method.
Start by searching for your target job title on LinkedIn. Look at the top 10 profiles that appear. What skills do they have listed? Make a note of any that apply to you.
Next, review 5 to 10 job descriptions for roles you're interested in. Highlight every skill, software, or methodology mentioned. If you have experience with it, add it to your profile.
Then check LinkedIn's skill suggestions. When you start typing in the Skills section, LinkedIn will auto-suggest related skills. Many of these suggestions are based on what other people in similar roles have added, which means they're likely skills recruiters search for.
Finally, ask a colleague or mentor in your field what skills they think are most valuable for your role. Sometimes an outside perspective reveals blind spots.
This entire process should take about 30 minutes, and it's one of the highest-ROI activities you can do for your LinkedIn profile.
The weekly maintenance routine
Adding skills isn't a one-time task. Your industry evolves, job requirements change, and new tools become standard. Every three to six months, you should audit your Skills section.
Remove anything outdated. Add new tools or methodologies you've started using. Review recent job postings to see if new skills have become common requirements. Reorder your top three if your career focus has shifted.
I also recommend spending 10 minutes each week checking who's viewed your profile. If you notice recruiters from a specific industry or role viewing you, that's a signal your profile is working. If you're not getting views from your target recruiters, revisit your skills and make sure you're using the language they're searching for.
The bottom line
Your LinkedIn Skills section isn't about personal branding or self-expression. It's about being discoverable. Every skill you add is another search filter you might appear in. Every relevant skill you're missing is a search you're invisible to.
Most professionals are competing for recruiter attention in a pool of thousands. But when you strategically use all 100 skill slots with the exact terms recruiters search for, you can find yourself in a pool of four.
And I'll take those odds any day.
Cole Sperry has been a recruiter and resume writer since 2015, working with tens of thousands of job seekers, and hundreds of employers. Today Cole runs a boutique advisory firm consulting with dozens of recruiting firms and is the Managing Editor at OptimCareers.com.
