Stride Ahead Skill Index
The Stride Ahead Skill Index is a personalised diagnostic for college students and early-career professionals (anyone in their first 5-7 years of work) who want to know which skills to sharpen next. You pick your industry, role tier (Individual Contributor or Manager/Team Lead), and rate yourself on the soft and hard skills your role actually demands today. The report shows your gap percentage against employer expectations, where you stand against a cohort of 1000+ prior respondents in your industry-and-experience bucket, behavioural anchors so you know exactly what "competent" looks like at each rating, and a Confidence flag (BIDR) that tells you how trustworthy your self-rating likely is. Built on WEF Future of Jobs 2025, LinkedIn Skills on the Rise 2025, McKinsey AI in Workplace 2025, and ICF / Bersin / Kirkpatrick frameworks for sales-capability roles. Class 11-12 students are welcome too: it gives you an early read on which skills future jobs in your shortlisted fields will care about.
Average completion time
On-screen report
Skills measured
What It Measures
Your self-rated proficiency against the skills your role actually demands, benchmarked by industry and experience.
Soft Skill Gap
Self-rated proficiency on the soft skills (communication, decision-making, coaching, collaboration) your role demands, compared against industry benchmarks anchored by WEF 2025 and LinkedIn Skills on the Rise.
Hard Skill Gap
Self-rated proficiency on tools and techniques your role uses today (industry-specific plus the cross-cutting horizontals: GenAI fluency, data literacy, AI agents, cybersecurity awareness).
Cohort Percentile
Where you stand against prior respondents in your same industry and experience bucket. Built from 1000+ completed responses with Cronbach alpha between 0.75 and 0.95 per scale.
Who Is It For?
- Early-career professionals in their first 5-7 years of work
- College students mapping out what to learn next
- Sales capability managers, L&D leads, and enablement teams
- Class 11-12 students who want a head start on future role-fit thinking
- Anyone planning a role change or industry switch
Average completion time
No payment, instant report
Proficiency scale per skill
How It Works
Pick your field + experience.
This decides which skills you are measured against.
Rate your soft + hard skills.
Select the skills that matter and rate each 1 to 5.
Get your readiness score.
An instant on-screen report with your gaps and strengths.
Turn it into a plan.
Optional free conversation with a Stride mentor.
Ready to see where your skills stand?
Take the Stride Ahead Skill Index. It is free, takes about 12 minutes, and your personalised report is generated the moment you submit, ready to download as a PDF.