Skills Match Index (SMI) – a New LinkedIn Feature?

Skills Match Index (SMI): IS THIS A NEW LinkedIn FEATURE?

Background:

LinkedIn’s vision is to create economic opportunities for every member of the global workforce. The mission of LinkedIn’s Data Science team is to transform the data from the world’s largest professional network into actionable products/insights.

When LinkedIn rapidly ramp-up new product features and content, they accept there is a ‘winner takes all’ or ‘rich get richer’ aspect to the viral amplification of content. This can highly skew the content that many of us get to see.

I often get asked why someone’s content doesn’t get seen by those connected to them. My answer is always:

“the algorithms decide”

There is a tendency for content which has a small degree of virality to take the place of content ‘we might like to get to see’.

A Solution?

To solve these conundrums, I have read that LinkedIn have developed a ‘Skill Match Index’ (SMI).

SMI quantifies the degree to which members’ skills are calibrated to those required by jobs and content. The higher the SMI is, the more competitive a member is for selected jobs, the more they see of relevant content.

SMI also provides the list of skills where members need further improvement and will provide actionable LinkedIn Learning course recommendations to bridge the skills gap. (Well they would, wouldn’t they!)

What To Do:

SMI appears to be set to get members ready for better economic opportunities ahead.

Does this bring with it the need to look closely at the Skills you have on your profile?

Your Skills:

1. Are they the correct ones?

   (You have up to 50 fields to identify your skills – do they identify your story?)

2. Are they in the correct order?

   (Make sure the ones that are most important to you are listed towards the top).

3. Are the three most prominent Skills displayed in your profile featured at the top?

   (People will see these before clicking to see more. Do they match the top three things you’d like to be found for?)

In advance of this possible move by LinkedIn, I’d recommend taking a look at your listed LinkedIn Skills.

In any event, this course of action will do you no harm at all!