SkillPages – Social Connections for Professional Work

When you want information about restaurants in your city, you turn to Yelp. When you want information about historical events, you turn to Wikipedia. And when you want information about skilled tradesmen, you turn to SkillPages.

SkillPages is a discovery engine focused solely on working professionals. Search for skilled people just like you’d search for any other listing on Google or Bing. Type in a few keywords to describe the person you’re looking for, focusing on that person’s occupation, expertise, or name, along with the location where you need the work to be performed. When you search for gardeners in your hometown, for example, SkillPages will pull up anyone whose profile fits that description. Click on a professional’s profile to learn more about that person’s experience, background, and general availability. SkillPages verifies its users’ listings based on their Facebook profiles, and allows you to contact other users directly for more detailed information about what they can provide.

In addition to searching for professionals based on keyword, you can post specific opportunities – making sure to include the skills you’re looking for – and get recommendations from friends who’ve worked with SkillPages professionals in the past. People who have relevant skills listed on their SkillPages listings will receive notifications letting them know about your opportunity, and they have the option to respond to you with more information about the services they can offer.

Practical Uses:

• Find a gardener to manage your home’s landscaping
• Get recommendations from friends when looking for an accountant
• Reach out to qualified therapists to find out who’s accepting new patients
• Post your skills and get hired for real-life jobs

Insider Tips:

• Users can post videos on their SkillPages profiles
• Encourage clients to post recommendations on your SkillPages listing page
• Connect with SkillPages users who you’ve done business with in the past
• Browse through the real-life experiences posted by other SkillPages members

What we liked:

• People can search for professionals by industry or name
• Users who post work opportunities will be contacted directly by qualified professionals
• Hiring managers can use SkillPages to source talent for available positions
• SkillPages verifies professionals by linking to their Facebook profiles

What we didn’t like:

• Many of the professionals whose profiles we viewed had few connections or recommendations from satisfied clients

Alternatives:

• LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com
• Zaarly – https://www.zaarly.com

Company Info:

• Launched: January 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Palo Alto, California
• Founded by: Iain MacDonald
• Web site: http://www.skillpages.com

Costs:

• Free