LinkedIn Launches New Feature, LinkedIn Skill Assessment, to Help Recruiters Validate Skills Listed by Users

Virtually every professional is on LinkedIn. And to buff up our profiles, most of us include a variety of skills that we possess, from creative writing and programming to Photoshop and strategic planning.

But hey, how does a potential employer going through your profile confirm you really have the skill you claim to? A research by LinkedIn shows that 77% of hiring managers agree it’s hard to know what skills candidates possess without a skill assessment.

"LinkedIn launches skills assessments, tests that let you beef up your credentials for job hunting" by @ingridlunden via @TechCrunch https://t.co/Pg2icuABBp #LinkedIn #Skills #Assessment pic.twitter.com/BbHV2oEeKW

— David Perry 🇺🇦 (@SocialDave) September 18, 2019

Well, LinkedIn has just solved this problem. It wants to confirm what you know, so your potential employer knows them too. The professional social network platform has rolled out a new feature, the Skills Assessment, that proves your expertise and confirms your listed skills.

The Skills Assessment test consists of short, multiple-choice questions designed by third-party experts, that LinkedIn users can take in 15 to 20 minutes to verify their knowledge in their listed skills. Users can take these tests by scrolling to the skill section of their profiles and selecting the listed skills you would like to validate.

Once you have taken these tests and you score within the 70th percentile or above, you will have the option to add a “verified skill” badge to your LinkedIn profile.

This gives you an edge above others with unverified skills as it helps your profile become more discoverable for relevant job opportunities by LinkedIn. According to LinkedIn, “early results show candidates who complete LinkedIn Skill Assessments are significantly more likely (~30%) to get hired.”

Whether users pass or not, LinkedIn also provides them access to free, relevant LinkedIn Learning courses to improve their skills.

Now, this doesn’t only help job seekers. Recruiters and employers can also now streamline their search to a particular set of people with verified skills. This allows them to re-focus their attention from assessing employees, to just analysing results and making decisions.

An earlier post from LinkedIn itself says recruiters can request people who apply for a job through LinkedIn take a related LinkedIn Skill Assessment, though it's not mandatory. The Skill Assessments are also adaptive. https://t.co/s1Li7X2z5G

— Frank Catalano (@FrankCatalano) September 18, 2019

But as TechCrunch pointed out, there are still some shortfalls in its current form. For example a skill like coding might not be really verified through the use of multiple-choice tests as that’s not really how it works.

Nevertheless, this is of huge benefit to LinkedIn’s about 600 million global users.