How to Share Your Skills on LinkedIn Without Feeling Fake or Salesy

Farera Helery
13 hours ago
3 min read

During my last LinkedIn webinar, someone asked a great question that many job seekers struggle with:

How do I show my skills on LinkedIn without feeling like I'm showing off?

My first answer was simple: "Be YOU".

But how?

Especially if you're a more quiet type of person or someone who hates anything that feels like selling?

I know this feeling very well.

For a long time, the fakeness of LinkedIn was exactly what kept me from using it consistently, or even considering posting there at all.

Whenever I read these comments that felt sucked out of a pen (as we say in Estonia 🇪🇪 when something is said just for the sake of saying, without contributing anything meaningful).

Or I saw those "I'm so excited to announce..." type of posts.

I always thought you can also be quietly excited. You don't need to announce every little detail to the entire world.

But at the same time - my clients (job seekers), were using LinkedIn every day.

So I had to ask myself: was I being stupid and missing a chance by not being present there?

Staying quiet doesn't help you

After a while, I realised something important: if I earn a certification that helps my clients trust me more, or gives me a skill that genuinely helps solve their problems...

Then why wouldn't I share it?

Because if I don't, someone else will. And guess who gets the opportunity instead?

(Definitely not me 🙋‍♀️)

That was the moment I understood that I can also "announce things," but in a way that feels like me.

I don't need to write "I'm so excited announce" if that doesn't sound like me. I can share the same achievement in my own words, with my own personality and style.

Because if I don't show it, nobody knows it exists.

That's the downside of staying too quiet — nobody knows anything about you.

The goal isn't to become louder

If you don’t like fake, braggy, or salesy content then don’t create it. That's pretty simple.

But you still need to find a way to show your skills.

Yes, it feels uncomfortable at first.

But at least you give people an OPPORTUNITY to see what you bring to the table.

¿How? 🫤 I can hear you asking.

Let me give you an example from my own work.

I personally hate webinars where you get 10 minutes of value and 50 minutes of selling. So I make sure I never run mine like that.

But in the beginning, I went too far the other way — I said almost nothing about my services. That wasn’t smart either… business is business 💵.

Eventually, I found a balance.

Now I take at least 5 minutes to clearly explain what I offer and how I help international job seekers. So if someone is interested, they at least have the information they need to decide.

The same applies to your job search.

Nobody forces you to share anything on LinkedIn.

👉 But if you don’t, you also block yourself from new connections and opportunities.

👉 If you don't want to sound salesy or wear a fake mask, don't.