LinkedIn recently published the 25 Hottest Skills That Got People Hired in 2013. They took the thousands of potential skills and expertise keywords from the 260 million users and clustered them into relevant classifications. Then they researched the recruiting action that occurred on LinkedIn during 2016 to figure out which types of skills obtained the most attention from job recruiters. Four key takeaways from the list:
1. Technology skills are critical. This explains why Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education is of significant importance for business leaders.
2. Data acquisition, storage and analysis. Data mining (#5), distributed computing / cloud (#3), business intelligence (#11) and data engineering (#12) being highly rated on the list gives an accurate portrayal of the large amount of data organizations are trying to understand to gain a competitive advantage.
3. Organizations need help to develop. Business development (#9), recruiting (#8) and strategic planning (#24) all help organizations employ more labor, boost sales and chart the correct strategy.
4. Generating a message that cuts through the noise. Social media marketing (#1), mobile (#2), Perl/Python/Ruby (#4), UI design (#6), web programing (#13) all speak to the need to find talent that can communicate a value proposition in new ways that can break through the media clutter.
An interesting analysis is to compare this list of skills that got people hired to the 2012 list of top 100 LinkedIn skills people have on their LinkedIn profile. The skills people include on their profile tend to very general, such as management, marketing, sales, Microsoft office, accounting, events, etc., which reinforces the idea that specialized skills are what gets you hired.
Which skills are you surprised did not make the list for getting people hired? Please share your comments below.
View the original research published by LinkedIn here. If you are conducting a job search in 2014, it would be helpful to have a few of these skills on your profile and resume, along with accomplishments that set you apart from the other candidates. If you are too busy to write your own profile, try our profile writing service or review example profiles from our global clients.