> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.skillsdb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Careers
> Understand how careers work in SkillsDB — the foundational structure that groups skills, drives assessments, training, and analytics for every role in your organization.
**Quick Summary:** A career in SkillsDB is the top-level container that defines the skills, sections, training requirements, and benchmarks for a job role. Everything in SkillsDB — assessments, training, analytics, and user dashboards — is organized through careers.
# Overview
In SkillsDB, a **career** represents a job role or functional area within your organization. Careers are the foundational building block of the platform: they define which skills are relevant to a position, how those skills are grouped, what training is required, and how proficiency is measured.
When you assign a person to a career, they inherit that career's full skill profile — every skill, section, benchmark, and training requirement. This means that when an employee completes an assessment, requests training, or views their skills profile, they are working within the structure you have defined for their career.
Careers are organized hierarchically. A career contains **sections**, and each section contains **skills**. Sections are used to group related skills into logical categories (for example, a Software Engineering career might have sections for Backend, Frontend, and Architecture). You can also define **levels** within a career (for example, Junior, Mid, Senior) that apply different benchmark expectations to the same skill set.
Careers integrate directly with assessments, the Training Matrix, the Skills Matrix, analytics, and the user-facing Career Overview dashboard. The settings you configure per career control what features are active for people assigned to that career.
**Note:** The Careers library is enabled or disabled per organization via a platform setting. If you do not see **Library > Careers** in your sidebar, contact your SkillsDB account manager to enable this feature.
***
## Prerequisites
Before creating or managing careers, ensure you have:
* **Permission level:** Administrator role in SkillsDB
* **Feature enabled:** Careers library enabled for your organization
* **Access required:** Navigate to **Library > Careers** in the left sidebar
***
## Understanding Career Structure
Every career in SkillsDB follows the same three-level hierarchy:
| Level | Purpose | Example |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Career** | The top-level container representing a job role or functional area | Software Engineer, Operations Manager, Customer Success Rep |
| **Section** | A logical grouping of related skills within the career | Backend Development, Leadership, Client Communication |
| **Skill** | An individual competency that can be graded, assessed, and trained | Python, Stakeholder Management, CRM Systems |
Skills do not need to be organized into sections — you can add skills directly to a career without creating sections first. However, sections help users navigate large skill sets and allow you to attach training resources at the section level.
Careers also support **levels**, which represent seniority or expertise tiers within the same role. When levels are defined, each skill in the career can carry level-specific benchmark expectations (for example, a Junior Software Engineer is expected to reach grade 2 in Python, while a Senior is benchmarked at grade 4). Levels allow you to maintain a single career structure that scales across your organization's seniority framework.
***
## Navigating to the Careers Library
To access the careers library:
1. Select **Library** in the left sidebar navigation.
2. Select **Careers**.
The page title reads **Library > Careers** and displays a table of all careers in your organization.
#### Understanding the careers table
The careers table includes the following columns:
| Column | Description |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Career** | The career name. Sortable and filterable. Select a row to open the career detail page. |
| **Type** | The career type (for example, "Job Role"). Defaults to "Job Role" if no type is assigned. |
| **Labels** | Tags applied to the career for filtering and grouping. Up to two labels are displayed inline; hover to see all. |
| **People Assigned** | The count of people currently assigned to this career. Sortable. |
| **Settings** | Four icons showing the enabled/disabled status of Proficiency Grading, Training Dates, Assessments, and User Dashboard. Green checkmarks indicate enabled; red indicators mean disabled. Hover each icon for the setting name. |
| **Actions** | Icon buttons for View Analytics, Settings, Assign Users, Delete, and Edit. Actions are only visible to administrators. |
#### Searching and filtering
A search input in the top right of the page filters careers by name in real time. Type any part of a career name to narrow the results. The table also supports column-level filtering: select the filter icon on the **Career** column header to apply additional text filters.
***
## Creating a Career
Administrators can create a new career from the careers library page.
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. Select **Create Career** in the top navbar.
3. In the **Create Career** dialog, complete the following fields:
| Field | Required | Description |
| --------------- | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Career Name** | Yes | A unique, descriptive name for the career (for example, "Data Analyst" or "Field Operations Technician") |
| **Icon** | No | An emoji or icon to visually represent the career in the UI |
| **Career Type** | No | A category label for the career (for example, "Job Role", "Department", "Band"). Defaults to "Job Role" if available. |
4. Select **Save**.
When the career is created successfully, a confirmation toast appears and the table scrolls to highlight the new career row.
**Tip:** Enter a unique and descriptive name that matches how your organization refers to the role. The career name appears throughout SkillsDB wherever users see their assigned role — in their Skills Profile, on assessments, and in the Career Overview dashboard.
***
## Editing and Deleting a Career
#### Editing a career
To rename a career or change its icon or type:
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. In the row for the career you want to edit, select the **Edit** icon (pencil icon) in the Actions column.
3. In the **Edit Career** dialog, update the **Career Name**, **Icon**, or **Career Type** as needed.
4. Select **Save**.
#### Deleting a career
To delete a career:
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. In the row for the career, select the **Delete** icon (trash icon) in the Actions column.
3. A confirmation dialog appears: **"Delete Career?"** — select **Confirm** to proceed.
If the career has associated data (people assigned, sections, skills, or levels), a second dialog appears: **"Force Delete Career?"** This dialog lists exactly how many people, sections, skills, and levels are attached. When you confirm force deletion, all people are unassigned from the career and all associated structure is removed.
**Important:** Deleting a career is permanent and cannot be undone. When a career is force deleted, all people are automatically unassigned and all skills, sections, and levels associated with that career are removed. Assessment history and previously submitted grades are preserved at the person level but will no longer be linked to the career.
***
## Configuring Career Settings
Each career has four independently configurable settings that control which features are active for people assigned to that career. You can open Career Settings from the careers list or from the career detail page.
To open Career Settings:
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. In the row for the career, select the **Settings** icon (gear icon) in the Actions column.
3. The **Career Settings** dialog opens.
4. Configure the settings as needed.
5. Select **Save Settings**.
#### Setting 1: Proficiency Grading
| | |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Default** | Enabled |
| **What it does** | Enables skill proficiency grading and grade columns for this career |
| **When disabled** | Grade columns are hidden throughout SkillsDB and grading data is excluded from search and analytics |
Proficiency Grading controls whether skills in this career can be given numeric grades (based on your organization's grading scale). Disabling this setting is appropriate for careers that use a training-only model — where completion of training is tracked, but formal proficiency grades are not required.
**Important:** Disabling Proficiency Grading automatically disables Assessments, since assessments require a grading mechanism to function.
#### Setting 2: Training Dates
| | |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Default** | Disabled |
| **What it does** | Enables the training approval workflow and makes career skills visible in the Training Matrix |
| **When enabled** | Users assigned to this career can request training approval for its skills; skills appear in **Team > Training > Training Matrix** |
When Training Dates is enabled, two additional sub-settings become available:
**Training Timeline** — Set an expected duration for employees to complete all training approvals for this career. Enter values in Days, Months, and Years. This timeline is used for reporting and dashboard summaries.
**Bulk Update Skill Training Settings** — Select **Configure Skills** to open a modal that lets you apply training settings to multiple skills in this career at once. This is useful when you first enable Training Dates for a career and need to configure training requirements across all skills efficiently.
#### Setting 3: Assessments
| | |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Default** | Enabled |
| **What it does** | Includes this career's skills in manager and self-assessment cycles |
| **When disabled** | Skills from this career are excluded from all assessment cycles |
| **Dependency** | Requires Proficiency Grading to be enabled |
Assessments control whether the career participates in SkillsDB's assessment workflow. If your organization runs periodic skill assessments (self-assessments and manager assessments), this setting must be enabled for a career's skills to appear in those assessment cycles.
#### Setting 4: User Dashboard
| | |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Default** | Disabled |
| **What it does** | Enables a career-specific dashboard for employees at **Profile > Career > Overview** |
| **When enabled** | Users can view a personalized dashboard with career-specific metrics and summaries |
When User Dashboard is enabled, a **Dashboard Components** sub-section appears with four checkboxes to control what is shown on the user-facing dashboard:
| Component | What it displays |
| -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Career Description** | The career's description text |
| **Training Dates Summary** | A summary of the employee's training completion against the training timeline |
| **Proficiency Summary** | A summary of the employee's proficiency grades for career skills |
| **Pinned Pages** | Pinned help pages or links configured for this career |
All four components are enabled by default when User Dashboard is turned on. Uncheck any component to hide it from the employee dashboard.
***
## Viewing and Managing Career Content
Selecting any career row in the careers table opens the **career detail page**, which shows the career's full structure and allows administrators to manage its content.
The career detail page displays:
* **Career name** and type badge
* **People Assigned** count
* **Labels** — click to add or remove labels
* **Career Settings** status — a visual grid showing whether each of the four settings is enabled or disabled
* **Skills** — all skills in the career, organized by section
* **Sections** — groups of related skills; sections can have their own description and training resources
* **Levels** — seniority or expertise tiers (if configured)
* **Training resources** — learning materials linked at the career, section, or skill level
From the navbar on the detail page, administrators can access:
| Button | Action |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Settings** | Opens Career Settings modal |
| **Assign** | Opens the Assign Career drawer to add or remove people |
| **Flag Matrix** | Opens the Flag Matrix view for this career |
| **Flag People** | Opens a modal to apply flags to people in this career |
***
## Assigning People to a Career
A person can be assigned to one or more careers in SkillsDB. When assigned to a career, the person inherits all of that career's skills, benchmarks, and training requirements in their Skills Profile.
To assign people to a career:
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. In the row for the career, select the **Assign Users** icon (person with plus icon) in the Actions column. Alternatively, open the career detail page and select **Assign** in the navbar.
3. The **Assign Career** drawer opens with a searchable list of people in your organization.
4. Search for or browse to the people you want to assign.
5. Select the checkbox next to each person, then select **Assign**.
To remove people from a career, follow the same steps and select **Unassign** instead.
**Note:** Assigning a person to a career does not remove them from any careers they are already assigned to. A person can hold multiple career assignments simultaneously, and their Skills Profile will include skills from all assigned careers.
***
## Managing Career Types
Career types are labels that categorize careers across your organization. The default career type is **Job Role**, but administrators can create additional types to reflect how your organization structures its workforce (for example, "Department", "Band", "Function", or "Certification Track").
To manage career types:
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. Select **Manage Types** in the top navbar.
3. The **Manage Career Types** drawer opens, showing all existing career types.
From this drawer, you can:
* **Add a new type:** Select **Add Type**, enter a name in the input field, and select **Save New Type**.
* **Rename an existing type:** Edit the text directly in the type's input field.
* **Delete a type:** Select the delete icon next to the type. Types that are in use can still be deleted, but existing careers with that type will no longer have a type assignment.
* **Reorder types:** Drag the handle icon next to a type to reorder the list.
**Important:** If you close the drawer before saving a newly added type, a confirmation dialog will ask whether you want to discard your unsaved changes. Select **Go Back to Save** to return and save, or **Confirm** to discard.
***
## Viewing Career Analytics
The Skills Matrix provides a grid-based analytics view of proficiency grades across all people assigned to a career. It shows each assigned person as a column and each career skill as a row, with the intersecting cell showing the person's current grade for that skill.
To view the Skills Matrix for a career:
1. Navigate to **Library > Careers**.
2. In the row for the career, select the **View Analytics** icon (table icon) in the Actions column.
The page navigates to **Analytics / \[Career Name]**, showing the full Skills Matrix for that career.
**Note:** The View Analytics button is only visible to users with administrator-level access. The Skills Matrix reflects grades from the most recent completed assessment cycle for each person.
***
## How Careers Connect to Other Features
Careers are the central organizing structure in SkillsDB. The following table shows how careers interact with other key features:
| Feature | How it connects to careers |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Self-assessments** | Assessment cycles are tied to careers. Skills from a career appear in the employee's assessment when the Assessments setting is enabled. |
| **Manager assessments** | Managers assess their direct reports' proficiency against each career's skill benchmarks. |
| **Training Matrix** | Skills from careers with Training Dates enabled appear in the Training Matrix, showing completion dates per person. |
| **Training approval** | When a person requests training approval for a career skill, their designated Expert trainer for that skill receives the request. |
| **Skills Matrix** | The Skills Matrix aggregates proficiency grades across all people assigned to a career, enabling org-wide skill coverage analysis. |
| **Certifications library** | Certifications can be linked to careers so that career-specific compliance requirements are tracked. |
| **Career Pathways** | Career Pathways define skill gap journeys between two careers, showing what skills an employee needs to develop to move from one role to another. |
| **Skills Profile** | An employee's Skills Profile reflects all skills from their assigned careers, with grades, benchmarks, training records, and learning resources. |
| **User Dashboard** | When enabled per career, employees can view a career-specific dashboard with proficiency and training summaries. |
| **Labels** | Labels applied to a career help administrators filter and group careers in the library and in reporting. |
***
# Common Questions
Yes. A person can be assigned to multiple careers simultaneously. Their Skills Profile will include all skills from every career they are assigned to. This is useful for employees who hold cross-functional roles or are transitioning between positions.
When a career is deleted (including force deleted), the person is unassigned from that career and the career is removed from their Skills Profile. Historical grade data submitted during assessment cycles is preserved at the assessment level but is no longer linked to an active career. If you want to preserve career context, consider disabling features via Career Settings rather than deleting the career.
SkillsDB does not have a "disable" or "archive" option for careers at the list level. However, you can effectively deactivate a career by turning off all four career settings (Proficiency Grading, Training Dates, Assessments, and User Dashboard) and removing all people assignments. This removes the career from active use without deleting its skill structure.
A **career** is a specific job role (for example, "Senior Software Engineer"). A **career type** is a category label applied to careers (for example, "Job Role", "Department", or "Band"). Career types are used to classify and filter careers in the library. One career type can apply to many careers.
Yes. Career settings take effect immediately after saving. If you disable Proficiency Grading, grade columns disappear from the employee's Skills Profile right away. If you enable Training Dates, the career's skills immediately become available in the Training Matrix and employees can start requesting training approval.
Yes. Sections are optional. Skills can be added directly to a career without creating any sections. Sections are useful when a career has a large number of skills that benefit from grouping, or when you want to attach training resources at the section level rather than the skill level.
The Training Timeline (Days, Months, Years) is a target completion window that your organization sets for employees to complete all training approvals in a career. It is used to populate the Training Dates Summary on the employee's Career Overview dashboard (when User Dashboard is enabled) and in training-related reporting. It does not enforce a hard deadline or block training requests.
Only administrators can create, edit, delete, configure settings for, or assign people to careers. Managers and standard users can view careers and the skills within them but cannot modify the career structure.
***
# Related Articles
How to define skill gap journeys between careers for internal mobility
How the Skills Matrix aggregates proficiency data across career assignments
How training dates and completions are tracked for career skills
How competency frameworks relate to career skill structures
***
# Need Help?
If you run into any issues or have questions, reach out to your organization's SkillsDB administrator or contact [SkillsDB Support](https://www.skillsdb.com/support).