How skill checks work

Booking someone you have never worked with means trusting a résumé and a recommendation. A skill check adds one more piece of information: how they did on a short, timed set of questions about their trade.

What it is

Twelve multiple choice questions, drawn at random from a much larger bank.
Twenty seconds per question, timed from the moment it appears.
Scored overall and broken down by topic, so a production can see where someone is strong.
One attempt per trade every thirty days. Every attempt is a fresh set of questions.

What it is not

A skill check is not a certification. It does not replace ETCP, OSHA, a CDL, a pyrotechnics license, or any other credential, and it says nothing about whether someone is qualified to perform work that requires one. Real certifications live in their own section of a crew profile, where they belong.

It is a quick signal about working knowledge. Treat it as one input among several, alongside credits, references and the conversation you have with the person.

The trades

Lighting

Control, power, fixtures, and rigging as it touches lighting

Audio

Consoles, signal flow, PA systems, RF, and monitors

Video and LED

Processing, panels, signal distribution, and camera basics

Rigging

Load, motors, truss, bridles, and venue structure

Automation and stage

Winches, tracking, deck machinery, and stage safety

Backline and instruments

Instruments, amps, drums, tuning, and stage setup

Production and tour management

Advancing, budgets, logistics, and crew scheduling

Stage management

Calling shows, cues, running order, and department coordination

For crew

Taking a check is optional and always your choice. So is showing the result: a pass appears on your profile by default and you can turn it off, and a result below the threshold stays private unless you decide otherwise.

A production can ask you to take one. You can take it or ignore it, and ignoring it is not recorded against you. If you do take a check someone asked for, that company sees the result even if you keep it off your public profile, because they asked and you answered.

For production

Scores appear on a crew profile alongside roles, gear and certifications. You can ask any crew member to take a check for a specific trade, and you will see the result of a check you asked for.

The absence of a badge means nothing on its own. Plenty of people who are excellent at this work will never take one.

Where the questions come from

The questions cover working knowledge rather than trivia: the things you would expect someone to know from having done the work, not from having read about it. Every bank is reviewed by people who do that job before it goes live.

If you think a question is wrong, tell us. A check is only worth anything if the answers are right.