How it works

Everything Take Your Skills does, and why it helps

A CV says what you've done. It doesn't say how you did it, or what the people who worked with you thought of it. Yet that's exactly what a recruiter, a client or a future manager wants to know, and it's often what separates two candidates who look the same on paper.

Take Your Skills brings together the recommendations written by the people who really know your work: colleagues, managers, clients. Here's everything you can do with it. It's free, with no ads.

Create my profile

Your recommendation profile

Recommendations are hardest to get on the day you need one. Your old manager has moved on, the client has gone quiet, and a reference dashed off in a hurry ends up vague. It's far easier to collect them as you go, while the work is still fresh in people's minds, and keep them in one place, in your name, whoever you work for.

A public profile in your name, at an address you choose. It shows your photo, your role, your public recommendations and your professional portrait. Anyone can view it, no account needed.
You decide which recommendations are shown: each one can be made private or public in a click.
Share it as a link or download it as a PDF, to send with a job application, a quote or a proposal. A recruiter can read what your former colleagues say about you before they've even picked up the phone.
If you change your profile address, the old links keep working.

Getting recommendations

Asking for a recommendation can feel awkward, and the person you ask doesn't always know what to write or where to send it. A single link solves both: you just pass it on, and they're guided all the way through. Our guide to asking for a reference has messages you can copy.

Ask for a recommendation: the button on your profile gives you a link to send to anyone you like, by email or message.
Get recommended before you've signed up: someone can recommend you with just your email address. You'll then be invited to claim your profile, with the recommendation already on it.
Several email addresses on one account: add your work address alongside your personal one, and recommendations sent to either end up in the same place. If you leave your job, you don't lose a thing.

Writing a recommendation

Plenty of people want to recommend a colleague but freeze in front of a blank page, and end up writing three generic lines that help nobody. What makes a recommendation useful is the specifics: the project they rescued, the meeting they calmed down, the client they won over. The assistant is there to bring those out.

An assistant so you never start from a blank page: it asks you one question at a time about situations you went through together, then suggests a text you read and edit before publishing. A handful of questions is enough for a great recommendation. Your answers are never published, and you can always write without it.
Recommendations are always positive: the assistant never asks about weaknesses, and any reservation you mention in the conversation stays out of the suggested text.
Your draft is saved, so you can stop and pick up later where you left off.
The person you recommend gets an email as soon as it's published. It's often a real pleasure to receive, well beyond its professional use.
Translation on request: a recommendation written in another language can be translated in a click, and stays marked as a translation. Handy for international teams and applications abroad.

Your professional portrait

Ten recommendations is a lot of reading for a busy recruiter. Your professional portrait sums them up: what your colleagues mention most, what sets you apart, in a few lines. It's also a good way to see what other people remember about you, and to find the words to talk about it in an interview.

Written by AI from your public recommendations: your most-⁠mentioned skills and what makes you stand out, in English and French.
Updated automatically every time a new recommendation is published.
You stay in control: you can regenerate it a few times a month and go back to an earlier version.

Your network

One recommendation tends to lead to another. Seeing your colleagues' recommendations makes you want to write your own, and reminds you who you still owe one.

A news feed showing the recommendations, Leaving Packs and personality tests in your network, and the people you haven't thanked yet.
Applaud a recommendation, or recommend back the person who recommended you.
Search for a profile by name or job title.

Account, language and data

You stay in control of what you share, and you can leave whenever you like.

Sign in with a code sent by email, so there's no password to remember.
In English and French: the language you choose also applies to the emails you receive.
Your data: the database is hosted in the European Union. The privacy policy lists every provider we use.
Delete your account yourself, at any time, from your settings. Recommendations you've written stay, without your name.
Manage your emails: every email includes a one-⁠click unsubscribe link.

Three more ways to use Take Your Skills

For a colleague who's leaving, to understand how you work, and to win over your clients.

The Leaving Pack, a leaving gift from the whole team
When a colleague moves on, everyone on the team writes them a recommendation in secret. They discover them all at once on the day you hand it over, and keep them for the rest of their career.
Discover the Leaving Pack
The work personality test
Around forty everyday work situations, and a result among sixteen profiles that you can show on your profile or keep to yourself. Recommendations show how others see you; the test shows how you work.
Take the test
For freelancers
Your clients' recommendations in one portfolio to send with your quotes, growing with every project.
Discover the freelance portfolio

Frequently asked questions

Is Take Your Skills free?

Yes, for everyone: you, the people who recommend you, and any team putting together a Leaving Pack. No ads.

What's the point of recommendations if I already have a CV?

Your CV lists your jobs; recommendations describe how you worked, with examples, from people who saw you do it. A recruiter can read them before meeting you, and you keep them whoever you work for.

Do I need an account to write a recommendation?

Yes. You create one with your email address and a code sent to it, with no password.

Who can see my recommendations?

Anyone can see the ones you keep public on your profile. The ones you make private are visible only to you.

Can I edit a recommendation after publishing it?

No, so read it through before you publish: the assistant lets you edit the text as much as you like until then.

How do I ask for a recommendation?

On your profile, the Ask for a recommendation button gives you a link to send by email or message.

Is the professional portrait written by AI?

Yes, using only your public recommendations. It updates when you receive new ones, and you can go back to an earlier version.

Where is my data stored?

The database is hosted in the European Union. Some providers, such as the AI service, are based outside the EU, and the privacy policy lists them.

Can I delete my account?

Yes, yourself, from your settings. Recommendations you've received are deleted; the ones you've written stay, credited to a deleted user.

Your colleagues know your work. Let them say so.

Create your profile, then send your link to the people you've worked with. It's free.