Latest / Career Skills with Fexingo: Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Future-Proofing Your Career / How to Earn a Badge Not Just a Certificate
Transcript
- Lucas: So last week I was reviewing a stack of resumes for a digital marketing role, and I noticed something I'd never seen before — candidates were listing badges. Not certificates. Badges. Little icons from HubSpot, Google, even Mozilla. Luna: Like digital scout badges? That's actually a thing now. Lucas: It is. And it got me thinking about the whole credentialing infrastructure we trust to signal competence. Because the traditional certificate — the one you get after a weekend course or a twelve-week boot camp — has been losing credibility for years. Luna: Part of that is the sheer volume. Everyone has a certificate. But what does it actually prove? Lucas: Right. A certificate often just proves you sat through something. Or paid for something. A badge, in theory, proves you demonstrated a specific skill. And it's verifiable — you click the badge, it takes you to the issuer's site, shows the rubric, the project you submitted, the date. Luna: So it's like a transcript, but for one competency. And it doesn't expire, unless the issuer sets an expiration. Lucas: Exactly. And the market is starting to notice. There's a platform called Credly, owned by Pearson, that has issued over 50 million badges. Another one is Accredible, which focuses on higher ed and professional certifications. Luna: Fifty million is a lot. Are employers actually checking them though? Or is it just another line on a profile? Lucas: They're checking. LinkedIn did a study in 2024 — they found that candidates who added verified skill badges to their profile were 40 percent more likely to receive a message from a recruiter. Not just views — active outreach. Luna: Forty percent is significant. That's not a minor bump. That's a competitive edge. Lucas: It is. And the reason is trust. When a hiring manager sees a badge from Google's Career Certificate program — say, the one in IT support or project management — they know exactly what that person did. Google publishes the curriculum, the hands-on labs, the assessment criteria. Luna: I've seen those. They're rigorous. But they're not a degree. Can a badge really substitute for a bachelor's in a regulated field? Lucas: Short answer: no. If you want to be a nurse or a CPA, you need the license. But for a huge swath of roles — marketing, sales, product management, data analysis — employers are moving toward skills-based hiring. They care about what you can do, not where you studied. Luna: Anecdotally, I know a marketing manager at a SaaS company who got her start with a HubSpot inbound badge. She didn't have a college degree at all. She stacked about four badges over two years and that portfolio got her in the door. Lucas: That's exactly the pattern I'm hearing. And it's not just entry-level. IBM has a digital badge program for their own employees and for external learners. Some of those badges certify skills in AI, cybersecurity, cloud architecture — senior-level stuff. Luna: So what's the catch? There must be a downside. Lucas: The biggest problem is noise. There are hundreds of badge issuers now, and not all are rigorous. Some are basically pay to play. You take a quiz, you get a badge. That dilutes the whole system. Luna: So how does a job seeker signal quality? How do you know which badges actually carry weight? Lucas: I think there's a framework. I call it the three-layer signal approach. Layer one is a foundational credential — that could be a degree, a certificate, something that establishes baseline knowledge. Layer two is project-based proof — a portfolio, a GitHub repo, a case study. Layer three is the peer-verified badge — something where a third party validated your skill through performance, not just recall. Luna: So the badge isn't replacing the degree. It's augmenting it. Or in some cases, replacing the certificate. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're early in your career, stacking two or three high-quality badges — from Google, IBM, HubSpot, AWS, Microsoft — can create a narrative faster than a generic associate's degree. Luna: But what about the cost? Some of these badges are free. But some programs cost hundreds or even thousands. Lucas: The Google Career Certificates, for example, are about 49 dollars a month on Coursera, and most people finish in three to six months. So roughly 150 to 300 dollars. Compare that to the average cost of a single three-credit course at a community college — around 500 dollars. Luna: And you get something more granular. A badge that says 'I can do this specific thing'. Not 'I took six classes in a general subject'. Lucas: Right. And that's appealing to hiring managers who are drowning in generic applications. They'd rather see five specific, verified skills than a paragraph about how you're a 'fast learner'. Luna: I want to push back on one thing though. If everyone starts collecting badges, won't we have the same inflation problem we have with degrees? Everyone has ten badges. Then what? Lucas: That's a fair concern. But I think badges are inherently more granular. A degree says 'I studied this field'. A badge says 'I can execute this specific task'. You can't inflate that as easily. And the verification link means employers can check in real time. Luna: Unless the issuer goes out of business. Then the badge link dies. Lucas: That's a real risk. Credly and Accredible try to mitigate it by storing badge metadata on the blockchain or in their own secure databases. But if BadgeCo shuts down, your badge is just a JPEG. Luna: So you'd want to choose issuers that are likely to stick around. Google, IBM, Microsoft — they're not going anywhere. Lucas: Exactly. And also look for badges that follow the Open Badges standard, which is maintained by IMS Global. That standard ensures portability — your badge data can be exported and re-verified even if the original issuer disappears. Luna: Okay, so practical advice: someone listening right now, mid-career, maybe feeling stale. Where do they start? Lucas: First, identify the skill that's most in demand in your field but that you don't currently have proof of. For a marketer, that might be data analytics. Then find the badge that's most recognized for that skill — for analytics, Google's Data Analytics Professional Certificate is a strong bet. Luna: And once you earn it, where do you display it? LinkedIn profile? Email signature? Lucas: LinkedIn is the obvious place. But also on your personal website, in your email signature, and — this is key — in your resume. But don't just list the badge name. Write a one-liner about what you actually did to earn it. For example, 'Google Data Analytics badge — completed a capstone project analyzing a public dataset using SQL and Tableau.' Luna: That gives the hiring manager context. They don't have to click the link to understand the value. Lucas: Exactly. And if you can pair the badge with a project you did at work or for a nonprofit, that's even better. The badge proves you have the skill; the project proves you applied it. Luna: So it's not either-or. It's both-and. Badge plus evidence. Lucas: That's the formula. And I think we're moving toward a world where your professional identity is less about the institution you attended and more about the competencies you can demonstrate. Badges are just the current best vehicle for that. Luna: I'm still a little skeptical about employer buy-in at scale. But the data from LinkedIn is compelling. And I've seen it work in practice. Lucas: It's early innings. But the direction is clear. And for anyone who feels stalled in their career, earning a high-quality badge is a low-risk, high-signal move. Luna: Alright, I'm convinced. I might go earn one myself. Lucas: Just make sure it's not a pay to play. And tell me which one you pick. I'll check the link.