Something I wish LinkedIn had

This morning I was updating my LinkedIn page for skills. I recently got more confident with JavaScript and wanted to put it on.

Then I realized it would be nice to have a section of “Skills I want to be able to claim”. It does two things:

1. For one it gives the potential employer a feeling on what someone is aspired to. The result is more targetted recruiting efforts. For example, If I’m very interested in Backbone.js (Either because I played with and liked it or because I think it helps my career) but my current employer does not have a plan to use it, then a recruiter saying the hiring team uses Backbone.js heavily will get a hell lot of attention from me. I would never put something in the skills list just because I played with it. Today I put things I’m playing with and in general have a interest in the description area. Not sure if that is the designed use of description and I doubt if it’s very searchable. The “Wanted Skill” can be more helpful.
2. LinkedIn can help people stick to their goal by every now and then asking people if they acquired any of the desired skills yet. The same way it asks people to endorse connections for their claimed skills, it can ask people to “endorse” themselves by moving things from the “Wish List” to “Skills”.