The short answer
Do real work, and have someone who does that job watch it, record it and put their name on the result. The closer your proof gets to a pilot's check ride, a person who knows the work watching you do the work, the less anyone needs to take your word for it.
Look at how the fields that can't afford to guess do it. An airline pilot must pass a practical test with an examiner, and federal rules don't require a college degree. A surgeon logs hundreds of operations under supervision. An electrician works beside licensed electricians for years. Whatever road you took, at the end of it somebody who knows the work watches you do the work.
You can build a version of that for yourself. Pick one field. Find out what someone who does the job would want to see. Do it on real work, not a practice exercise. Get written feedback from the person who watched. Keep the recording or the finished work. And make it checkable, so an employer can verify it in minutes and not have to trust a line on a resume.
Then deal with the pile. Employers screen hard because they have too many applicants. Proof helps most when you can put it directly in front of the hiring manager: a link, a registry ID, a name they can call.
You may not need long. The one useful thing a bachelor's certifies, that you can learn, focus and be trained, can be shown in about a month. Learn a defined set of topics, then do it in front of someone who works in the field. And if you already have the skill, you don't need a month to learn it. You need an afternoon to show it.
At Maxwell Rich Certification, we're building one such route: an in-person exam, topics shared with you ahead of time, judged by a senior professional, with a registry ID any employer can look up. We're in beta and haven't certified anyone yet.
Run your proof through the five parts. Is it real work? Under real conditions? Watched and recorded? Judged by people who do the job? Checkable by anyone afterward? Fix whichever answer is no.
Proof only helps if an employer will look at it. Many still filter by degree first, and the 27 million hidden workers number is what that costs. Pair your proof with a way to be seen: referrals, a portfolio, a direct message to the person doing the hiring.
Good proof of skill is real work, done under real conditions, watched and recorded, judged by people who do the job, and checkable by anyone afterward.
Nobody has to tear the old gate down. Build a second way in beside it, based on proof of skill, and let people walk through.
The one useful thing a bachelor's degree certifies, that a person can learn, focus, and be trained, can be shown directly in about a month instead of four years.
A good interview answers "which of these ten?" Something still has to answer "which ten?", and that is the job the degree has been doing.