5 easy steps to assess your career skills

5 easy steps to assess your career skills

What exactly makes you awesome at what you do? What special skill do you have that can make you stand out of the job-seeking crowd? Have you even ever stopped to ask yourself and answer these questions adequately?
   
   
   
       
       
           
               
                   

What exactly makes you awesome at what you do? What special skill do you have that can make you stand out of the job-seeking crowd? Have you even ever stopped to ask yourself and answer these questions adequately?

               
           
               
                   

It is believed that majority of job hunters only care about the job they want, they don’t often think through about the skills they are bringing to employers.

               
           
               
                   

It is this lack of self-assessment that make a lot of job candidates to underestimate or overestimate their skillsets.

               
           
               
                   

So, how exactly can you gauge yourself skill-wise? Take these steps to make an accurate assessment of your career skills.

               
           
               
                   

1.   Think about your job description

               
           
               
                   

                                   

Always make sure hit your target, you'll be happy you do it. (That Sister)

               

               
           
               
                   

The easiest way to assess your career skills is to look through your job descriptions. These are things you do almost every day and because your job role is toed to them, you should be able to identify the career skills you’ve acquired on the job either through training or experience.

               
           
               
                   

2.   Check your soft-skills

               
           
               
                   

                                   

The absence of a key decision maker in the recruitment team might cause a delay in the process.

               

               
           
               
                   

Employers do not only care about your hard or technical skills. A research conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that employers actually care more about soft skills  than they do technical abilities. And if that’s the case, you also need to assess your soft skills.

               
           
               
                   

Your soft skills include your leadership, analytical thinking and communication abilities. They are skills you were not taught at school. Think about these skills and how you apply them to your job.

               
           
               
                   

3.   Ask for feedback from other people

               
           
               
                   

                                   

Make yourself more useful by volunteering to help others.

               

               
           
               
                   

Speak to your colleagues and your superiors, ask them what skills they think make you a top performer. Based on their observations, they’ll definitely have something to tell you. However, when seeking feedback about your skills, don’t ask friends or your office bestie to assess you, you may not get the best feedback you deserve.

               
           
               
                   

4.   Take an online behavior test

               
           
               
                   

Online behavior tests will help you understand your interests, emotional intelligence, values, personality traits, and motivations and taking it is very important to understanding your career skills.

               
           
               
                   

5.   Check your past performance reviews

               
           
               
                   

                                   

Your attitude to work can get your boss to like you.

               

               
           
               
                   

Your past performance review will remind you of your boss’s appraisal of you in the past and you can build on that. The performance review will actually capture the areas your boss wanted you to grow and the areas he/she believes you’re doing well. Once you know this, you can then take some steps to improve yourself.

Source: 5 easy steps to assess your career skills

- gist culled from pulseng