In an earlier blog, I described the Key Steps to a Successful Job Search. The #1 reason people do not get hired is they fail at describing their skills. This applies to YOU – regardless of whether you are a seasoned professional or first-time job-seeker.  If you are an employer, these are the basics of what you should be looking and listening for during the hiring process.

If you want to improve or speed up your job search or career transition, begin by improving your Skills Language.

Exploring jobs and careers means exploring your self. It means looking at your self in new ways, identifying your talents and weaknesses. It means asking yourself some questions:

• What am I really like?
• What am I good at?
• What do I want to do with my life?

A skill is “anything you enjoy doing, do well and can do now”. 

Your Skills Language
The way you identity and present your self, especially your skills, effects every part of your job search. Remember, a skill is “anything you enjoy doing, do well and can do now”. You have thousands of skills, including several skills you do best and enjoy most. Some of your skills can be used in a variety of work activities and tasks, which makes them highly marketable.

Describing the marketable skills you can supply to an employer is the best way to match your self to a job opening.

Believe it or not, about 90% of the people around you do not get jobs because they cannot describe the skills they have. With that in mind, Expanding Knowledge of Your Self becomes extremely important to your successful job search.

When you use your best skills to describe your self, I call it your Skills Language. Self Assessment is the process we use to help you develop or improve your Skills Language. First, learn to identify more of your skills and identify your interests, values, preferred work environment, the kind of people you enjoy, and other characteristics of your “ideal job”. Later, you will use your Skills Language to convince employers that you have the good worker qualities that they need.
Be willing to share and discuss your thoughts and discoveries with someone you know. Get help from an employment counselor, if possible.

• Think about your self.
• Think about your situation.
• Think about what you like doing.
• Think about what you want to achieve.
• Think about who you want to become.

Get started by completing these sentences/paragraphs:

• I would describe myself as…
• Other people describe me as…
• List three things that you enjoy doing, do well and can do now. Think about things you can do that employers might be interested in knowing.
• List three things about your self that make you a good worker. Think about what employers might like about you or the way you work.
• List three things you most want to improve about your self. Think about the things you want to get better at doing through practice, work experience, training or education.
• List three things you want your next job to include. Are they things you enjoy doing most… or the things you are best at doing… or the things you want to get better at doing? Maybe your next job could include all three.

In future articles, I will describe the Three Types of Skills, then how to use them – and prove them – using your Skills Language.