Facebook is testing a LinkedIn-like ‘Professional Skills’ section on user profiles (Update)

Update: A Facebook spokesperson provided us a statement saying: “We are currently testing a new option where you can add your professional skills to the work and education section of your timeline.”

Facebook is in the process of implementing a new feature to your profile. Sociobits.org shared with us that the social network company is adding a Professional Skills section to user accounts, mirroring LinkedIn.

If you want to add Professional Skills to your profile, just go the About section and scroll down — it’s going to be right underneath the Work and Education part. And just like all the other sections, just start filling in your information and there you go.

What makes this perhaps all the more fascinating is that this another step Facebook is taking to further leverage social connections to help users find jobs — something that has been LinkedIn’s territory for some time.

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Furthermore, if you look at the above screenshot, by filling in your Professional Skills, you’re linking to a specific interest, perhaps helping others find you — people who you’re not connected to (read: beyond “friends of friends”) who have a similar interest or are looking to hire someone with that skill, could run a query using Graph Search and your name could appear.

To be fair, LinkedIn has had this feature for some time, but currently on your profile, those interests are not actionable — meaning it won’t take you to view other users with similar tastes. Also, if you run a search, it will only allow you to look for people, jobs, companies, groups, universities, and what’s in your inbox, not by interest.

If you’re thinking that this is something Facebook copied from the professional social network, then you’re right. But as the saying goes: “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. LinkedIn has also borrowed features from Facebook, including the time when it rolled out its own form of Likes with endorsements of skills.

However, let’s not be mistaken to think that LinkedIn is immune to whatever Facebook is doing, because it’s not. Facebook has been moving slowly to enter the online recruiting and job search market and today’s move could be a sign that it’s planning on accelerating its pace. Nearly a year ago, the Menlo Park-based company announced a partnership with the US Department of Labor and other agencies to launch the Social Jobs Partnership app that aggregates more than 1.7 million open positions from recruiting companies like BranchOut, JobVite, and Monsters.com.

We know that Facebook’s Professional Skills feature has been added at least six days ago, but we’ve waiting for confirmation as to exactly when. It’s unclear whether this feature is being released worldwide or just for a select group and a result of the normal testing purposes that Facebook does periodically. We have, of course, reached out to Facebook for comment and will update if we hear back. (Update: See statement above)

Photo credit: Ryan Anson/AFP/Getty Images

Hat-tip to Sreedev Sharma