Assessing Your Employment Skills

When you read the requirements for any job posting these days, it can be a little daunting. Every position demands strong leadership abilities, excellent oral and written communication skills, project management expertise, relationship-building savvy, etc.

Previous positions may have afforded you some of these employment skills, but don’t forget to look to other areas of your life where you have been using and honing them. These experiences can and should be used to build your resume and your interview repertoire.

Project Management: Maybe you haven’t ever held a project management position, but you possess these skills if you’ve chaired a committee at school or a community association. Ever organized a fundraising event or a family reunion? Now there’s the ultimate in project management!
Leadership: Think about sports, organized or intramural, for yourself or your children. Any coaching experience provides invaluable leadership opportunities. A winning record is impressive, but so are the anecdotes of children who came into their own under your tutelage. And interacting with the parents of children you are coaching absolutely requires relationship-building savvy.
Communication Skills: Obviously we communicate every day, all day long, but the question is how to convey the mastery of these communication skills. Are there any community newsletters you write or to which you contribute? Do you blog on a favorite hobby? If so, how many followers do you have? Perhaps you have felt strongly on a community issue and convinced others to consider the issue and seek action, displaying not only persuasive verbal communication skills, but leadership as well.

These types of opportunities which we encounter in everyday life, inside the office and out, allow us to develop both necessary and practical skills, helping us become the well-rounded candidate that employers seek.