What exactly are these percentages telling me about you or your company? Take an 82% for example—sounds pretty good. But if this is a grade, its a “B-“; if its % of your skills—its still a “B-“; if its client satisfaction, 18% of your clients are not happy. Or is it how many people know how to do this? Or how you spend your time? Or where you make your money?
This begs the question, what does 100% mean when it comes to skills or services. Does this mean you know the skill completely, are the best ever, there’s no room for improvement? I’ve never seen 100% on a resume or site yet, but I would certainly take notice if I did. This person has confidence, or a sense of humor, or is really good at the skill… and then I wouldn’t call them back since I’ve already mentioned this technique is terrible.
The final thing I would consider if you feel you need to score yourself, or your company, is that anyone who reads these numbers assumes you’re rounding up. All resumes and promotional websites exaggerate a bit—let’s say by 10%. So, if you claim 80% proficiency, the assumption is you are only about 70%, which is probably rounding up from 69% which is, for all intents and purposes, a “D”.
If you liked this rant, please rate it below so that I can somehow equate this number to my blogging ability—which is currently around 98.7%.