User Guide: Skill Gap Analysis

This guide explains how to use Kandid.pro's Skill Gap Analysis feature to identify recurring skill gaps across your job applications and build a targeted plan to close them.

What Is Skill Gap Analysis?

Skill Gap Analysis aggregates the matching data from your job applications and uses AI to identify the skills you are consistently missing. Rather than looking at one role in isolation, it surfaces patterns across multiple applications — showing you which gaps are holding you back and exactly how to address them.

Before You Start

To get the most from Skill Gap Analysis, you need:

• A completed Career Profile — this is the baseline the AI matches against.
• At least 2 applications that have been through matching — the analysis compares your profile against the requirements extracted from each job description. We recommend at least 5 similar roles for the sharpest insights.

Tip: The more applications you include, the more reliable the patterns. Try selecting at least 5 similar roles (e.g. all backend engineering roles, or all product management roles) for the best results.

How to Run an Analysis

Step 1: Open Skill Gap Analysis

Navigate to Career Profile > Skill Gap Analysis using the left-hand navigation bar.

Step 2: Select Your Applications

Choose the applications you want to include in the analysis. You can select between 2 and 20 applications.

• Applications must have already been through the Match process (i.e. they have a match score).
• You can filter and search your applications to find the ones you want.

Step 3: Run the Analysis

Click Run Analysis to start. The AI will:

1. Pull every skill requirement and weighting from the selected job descriptions.
2. Cluster synonymous skills together (e.g. "AWS", "Amazon Web Services", and "Cloud Infrastructure" are recognised as related).
3. Assess your current level against each requirement.
4. Rank every gap by how much it is holding you back.

Step 4: Review Your Results

Once complete, the results are presented in several sections:

Skill Coverage Score

An overall percentage showing how well your career profile covers the requirements across all selected roles. This gives you a single number to track over time.

Gap List

Every identified gap is listed with:

• Gap name — the skill or competency you are missing.
• Severity — rated as Critical, Important, or Nice to have based on how frequently the skill appears and whether it is listed as required or preferred.
• Frequency — how many of the selected roles require this skill (e.g. "Found in 7 of 8 roles").
• Frequency bar — a visual indicator of how common the gap is across your selected applications.

Strengths

Skills that consistently match well across your target roles. Knowing your strengths is just as important as knowing your gaps — they help you position yourself in applications and interviews.

Recommendations

For each gap, the AI provides:

• Suggested certifications — specific, recognised qualifications that address the gap.
• Effort estimates — approximate hours to complete each recommendation.
• Impact statements — how closing this gap would affect your match rates.

Turning Gaps into Goals

Each gap and recommendation has a Create Goal button. Clicking it creates a tracked development goal inside Kandid.pro's Goals & Tasks system.

1. Click Create Goal on any gap or recommendation.
2. The goal is pre-populated with the skill name, suggested actions, and target outcome.
3. Work through the goal, tracking your progress with tasks and focus time sessions.
4. Once complete, update your Career Profile with the new skill or certification.
5. Re-run the Skill Gap Analysis to confirm the gap is closed and see your coverage score improve.

Comparing Analyses Over Time

Each analysis is saved with a timestamp. You can:

• View previous analyses to see how your gaps have changed.
• Compare two analyses side by side to measure progress.
• Track your skill coverage score trending upward as you close gaps.

This turns upskilling from guesswork into a measurable, data-driven process.

Tips for Best Results

• Group similar roles together — analysing 8 backend engineering roles will give you sharper, more actionable insights than mixing backend, frontend, and management roles in one analysis.
• Include at least 5 applications — patterns become much more reliable with more data points.
• Re-run after upskilling — once you have completed a course or certification, update your Career Profile and run a new analysis to confirm the gap is closed.
• Focus on critical gaps first — the AI prioritises gaps by severity for a reason. Closing a critical gap that appears in 7 of 8 roles will have a far bigger impact than a nice-to-have that appears in 2.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many applications do I need? A: Minimum 2, but we recommend at least 5 for meaningful patterns. You can include up to 20 per analysis.

Q: Do applications need to be for similar roles? A: They do not have to be, but you will get sharper insights if you group similar roles together.

Q: What data does it use? A: It uses the matching results from Kandid.pro's analysis pipeline — the same data that powers your match scores. No additional processing is needed.

Q: Can I run multiple analyses? A: Yes — Skill Gap Analysis is available with a Kandid.pro subscription. You can run unlimited analyses and compare them over time to track progress.

Q: What happens after I identify gaps? A: Each gap has a "Create Goal" button that turns it into a tracked development goal inside Kandid.pro. Complete the goal, update your career profile, and your future match scores improve automatically.