In what could prove to be a stealth move to compete with the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook has added a fully discoverable “professional skills” option to its user profiles.
The subtle change, discovered by a blog called Sociobits.org, looks to have been quietly rolled out some time last week. Facebook did not immediately respond to our request for clarification.
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The new category appears as an option in a Facebook profile’s About section under the heading of Work and Education. A simple click on the edit button near the heading reveals the new category that automatically offers links to pages focused on the skills the user has entered.

When a user clicks on one of the linked professional skills, they’re taken to a new page that shows existing friends with similar interest in that skill as well as related pages, groups and a listing of new people the user might know who have expressed an interest in that professional skill. Perhaps more importantly, tagging a profile with a list of professional skills instantly makes that user’s profile easier to discover for employers looking for a particular kind of new hire.
Image: Flickr, Jakob Steinschaden