Verification

Graded by evidence, not by confidence.

A BlackVest profile isn't a self-reported résumé. Every candidate goes through a structured deep-skills assessment, and every competency carries a tier that says how it was established. The tiers are the credential — that's what "BlackVest verified" means.

The three tiers

What each label actually means.

  1. Verified

    Demonstrated under questioning — explained the tradeoffs, debugged it live, or derived it from first principles, and held up when pushed. Or corroborated by real GitHub activity. Using a managed service or running a command doesn't count.

  2. Observed

    Surfaced credibly from first-hand experience, but wasn't proven in depth. A textbook definition or a name-drop doesn't reach this bar.

  3. Self-reported

    Appears on the résumé or intake but was never exercised in the assessment. Shown honestly and marked as unverified — never dressed up as more.

Honesty by construction

The rules that make the grade mean something.

The result: a recruiter reading a BlackVest profile sees exactly what's proven, what's credible, and what's only claimed — the opposite of a résumé that asserts everything with equal confidence.

See the system, live →