Having college credentials on your record is definitely a good thing, but in a market where many other individuals with the same certifications are competing in an area with limited space, sometimes even those don’t seem like quite enough. However true assessments of one’s skills could serve as a benefiting factor for those seeking employment—with as many as 69% of people saying that they believe their skills are more important than what’s on paper when looking for a new job, according to a study by LinkedIn.
The Microsoft-owned company has just introduced Skill Assessments, a feature that allows individuals seeking employment to show off what they can do and help them stand out from the rest of the crowd in the aggressively competitive job market. Users will be able to have their skills assessed by the company’s team of experts, allowing top-performing candidates to receive an official verification badge to show on their profiles in LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Jobs. Skills are accessed in a broad range of categories, with the company’s blog post citing proficiency in Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Java development among their examples.
Even if one doesn’t pass, the results of the assessments can be kept totally private. These can be very useful in helping those assess their own skills, and LinkedIn will even unlock relevant LinkedIn Learning courses free of charge to help individuals brush up before the next assessment or just improve what they already know.
The company says that it will work to roll out various subjects, such as Adobe Photoshop, code development, and business tools including Microsoft Excel over the coming weeks. Of course, it will also gradually expand its portfolio as well to help cover a growing number of business sectors in the near future.
Do you have skills of your own that you’d like to show off to potential employers? Feel free to share you thoughts in the comments below.
