Best Places to Get Virtual Badging
As the recruitment process relies more and more on virtual aspects, it is more important than ever to maintain an accurate and competitive online presence. Virtual badging is a newer way to receive recognition for skills learned on websites like LinkedIn.com and Monster.com. Virtual badging typically doesn’t take very long to obtain – for many LinkedIn Learning certifications, it could take anywhere between 45 minutes and 3 hours, making the commitment totally worth it!
Here are 3 of my favorite places to get online badging to showcase on LinkedIn:
1. LinkedIn Learning
I’ll start off by saying LinkedIn Learning isn’t cheap (usually about $300 annually or $25/month). However, many college students can get it for free from their universities. Alternatively, there are a few companies that actually offer a subscription (either for free or heavily discounted) for their employees to use to support the Learning & Development teams.
LinkedIn Learning is probably my favorite platform because the courses are really short and as you pay attention, the quizzes at the end of each course are easily passable. Plus, LinkedIn Learning has a huge library of courses that are available for everyone and cover a range of things – everything from how to interview, to arts and craft projects, and even how to operate specific products like Excel, Salesforce, Creative Cloud, and others! It’s a great place to get some exposure and practice!
2. Trailblazers by Salesforce
Trailblazers by Salesforce is completely free to use for everyone and covers a wide range of topics. Even if you’re not interested in learning Salesforce, you can use Trailblazers to learn just about anything else. One of Trailblazers’ especially amazing features is that you can connect your Trailblazers account directly to your LinkedIn account so you can sync all your badging!
Trailblazer has a huge community of people who are always willing to help you solve any issues you run into in any learning path you take there. Trailblazer is a little confusing to use at first, but once you get the hang of things, it can be an incredibly helpful tool to utilize no matter what you’re interested in! The one thing that Trailblazers does differently is that they make you practice what you read and the only way to pass each module is to be able to replicate what you learned.
3. Coursera
Coursera’s courses are typically longer, and the platform is a little more expensive than LinkedIn Learning depending on your subscription plan (ranging from $40-$90 per month), but Coursera also offers a few free courses which are very useful. Like LinkedIn Learning, many college students might have access to Coursera through their universities and employees can sometimes get discounted subscription plans from their employer. The content on Coursera is typically a lot more in-depth and detailed, and there is an exam that needs to be taken at the end of many courses to get a certificate of completion, but overall, Coursera is equally useful.
Earning your Badges
I would recommend utilizing one platform at a time. With the amount of content that exists on each platform, it would be difficult to be able to utilize each platform to the fullest degree.
Throughout the semester, you can always find me taking a LinkedIn Learning course or jumping on Trailblazers for a bit and learning something new. No matter where you are in life or how experienced you might be, there’s always something out there that you can learn, so why not get a badge for it too?
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About the author
Rhea Mathur
Rhea Mathur is a student at San Jose State University in California. She is currently pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resource Management and a double minor in Japanese and Humanities. She is a member of the SHRM student chapter at SJSU and serves as a Pearson Campus Ambassador, which she enjoys very much! In her free time, she likes to explore new shows to watch on Netflix, drink boba, and travel.
