The Skills page has been removed. But skills are present in LinkedIn, not just on members’ profiles but also on some other pages. That could be useful for sourcing.
Company pages may list skills that their employees have, even along with the numbers of people with a particular skill.
University pages show skill that their University grads have:
This is shown on the second page, which is often missed; you can get there simply by clicking on the arrow icon on the Alumni search page.
You can also find the list of “suggested” skills by using this (secret) link. (Replace “a” with any letter you like). On this blog the author has tried to list all the skills on LinkedIn using the link; it turns out, there’s about 50K skills. Unfortunately, the skills suggested when you use the link are not related to any “target” profile; these are the skills that show up when you try to write an endorsement for a fellow member.
There have been complaints that the former Skills page offered a great opportunity to search for relevant skills. I have seen multiple blog posts and questions on groups. on how to “get there” now that the skills page is gone; here are some: LinkedIn Skills Alternatives (oh yeah, it’s now “turned off”, sorry.) ; Finding Keywords for Recruiters ; Sourcing for Synonyms: Alternatives to the LinkedIn Skills Tool;
However, we still can find relevant skills using LinkedIn. Here are some examples of relevant skills lists that I got this morning, using a basic account (the bolded term is to what I am listing related skills):
Financial Analysis: Financial Modeling, Finance, Microsoft Excel, Financial Reporting, Forecasting, Budgets, Portfolio Management, Investments, Risk Management, Accounting, Analysis, Corporate Finance, Strategic Financial Planning, Banking, Strategic Planning, Valuation, Microsoft Office, Process Improvement, Credit, PowerPoint, Credit Analysis, Loans, Mergers & Acquisitions
Java: JavaScript, SQL, C++, XML, Linux, HTML, MySQL, C#, C, Agile Methodologies, Microsoft SQL Server, Python, CSS, Eclipse, Databases, Unix, Software Engineering, Web Services, PHP, Perl, jQuery, Core Java, Java Enterprise Edition
Radiology: Hospitals, Healthcare, Clinical Research, Healthcare Management, EMR, Patient Safety, Healthcare Information Technology, Medicine, Medical Imaging, BLS, PACS, Surgery, Inpatient, Pediatrics, HIPAA, Critical Care, Cpr Certified, Nursing, EHR, ACLS, Medical Education, Medical Terminology, Ultrasound
You can do some research and find the way to do this (it’s not a technical “hack” at all, no special access to LinkedIn or special technical knowledge is necessary) – or attend my webinar on LinkedIn that I will be repeating on Thursday and learn how to do this, along with many other tips that I will be sharing. As always, the webinar comes with one month of support.