Finding Your Job Skill Set for Career Advancement

Hello, welcome to EDU 1020. I'm Wes and I'll be taking you through today's topic, Identifying Relevant Experience & Specialized Knowledge. Throughout your entire life, you've learned skills that employers are seeking in the people they hire. Employers want individuals who have mastered in important skills that demonstrate the ability to use them. Employers also highly value employees who contribute to their growth and overall mission. A career search best practice is to turn your experiences into personal skills and knowledge inventory. A skill is simply something that you know how to do, such as analyzing data, utilizing Microsoft Office software or performing searches on the Internet. Knowledge is something you are aware of, such as facts, data, processes, or interrelationships. According to the research by the Gallup organization, the average person has more than 500 skills and possesses a vast storehouse of knowledge. Identifying your specific skills and knowledge before you begin your career search will aid you in more effectively communicating your qualifications to potential employers. As a first step in this process, you'll want to create a personal skills inventory. Here are just six of the ways to draw from your experiences. Employment. Begin with the different jobs you have worked. All work experience develops relevant skills. What specific accomplishments did you achieve? How did these accomplishments exemplify your work, attitude, grasp of the employer's objectives and effectiveness in performing high quality work? Externships. Externships are highly desirable as they provide direct experience in your career field. Whether unpaid or paid, these experiences enable you to demonstrate your effectiveness in accomplishing the objectives of the externship. Volunteer activities. Your participation in volunteer activities demonstrate your willingness to give back to the community and is a source of gaining valuable experiences, which could prove beneficial to a perspective employer. A recent study showed that people who volunteer improve their chances of being hired by 27%. Work study programs. Work study programs combine coursework with real world experience in order to bring the traditional classrooms setting into the work place. Usually a semester in length, students are graded on projects associated with a curriculum taught in conjunction with the work study program. School activities. Don't overlook the valuable and relevant experiences from your high school and college sports, clubs, and school activities, which could be of interest to a perspective employer. Military service. For the hundreds of thousands of people enlisting in the army services each year, many choose the service over college as a place to get training in essential skills. Depending on the length of one's enlistment and active or reserve status, decades of experience can be gained. Within each position, there are areas of specialized knowledge deemed essential for the work to be performed. For example, in a healthcare role, specialized knowledge include the ability to correctly interpret medical charts and to read vital signs. For IT roles, it might be that work architecture and for teaching roles, instructional design. A final way to identify the competencies that are important to employers is to look at typical employee performance evaluations. These generally contain these categories. Within each of these categories, multiple skills apply based on the position level. Performance relative to the position's essential duties, which is found on the job description. Communication skills, both written and verbal. Passion and desire. Resourcefulness. Critical thinking and judgment. Interpersonal and teaming skills. Organizational skills. Composure under pressure. Leadership and supervisory skills. Customer service orientation. Profit-mindedness. Speed and complexity of learning. Developing a skills and specialized knowledge inventory. A recent study concluded only 17% of hiring managers said nearly all or most job seekers have the skills and traits their company is looking for in a candidate. Candidates who can articulate that they possess these critical skills desired by hiring managers significantly improve their chances of being hired. Candidates who struggle here will find themselves receiving interviews but having little success in getting job offers. In order to articulate your relevant skills, it is critical to identify those you have gathered over the years in all the areas discussed. Create your knowledge and skills inventory. Begin by thinking through how you utilize these skills, abilities, and specialized knowledge in the past. Have you started your skills and experience inventory? Stop by Career Services today to get started!