Your skill set is a blend of experiences, qualities, and abilities you can use to do tasks well. These skills might include organization, interpersonal, and leadership skills. But it can also include other capabilities such as computer programming, accounting, research, and many more.
Taking the time to improve your skills is vital in attaining your career goals, like getting promoted or mastering a specific field. You can use your skill set to advance in your current job or expand to earn more in different industries.
Determining Your Skills
The first thing you need to do is determine your skills. These are the things that you will display when applying for a job. Often, you put your skills in your resume to help employers understand why you’re the perfect candidate for a particular position.
But if you’re not sure about the skills you possess, you might want to ask yourself these questions:
“What things do I enjoy?” The tasks you find enjoyable are often interpreted as valuable skills. For instance, informing people or helping others resolve their problems can mean you have strong communication skills.
“What compliments do I receive often?” Think of the skills your previous managers or colleagues have complimented before. For example, you might have received a reward for excellent performance or teamwork scores. You might also want to consider when colleagues come to you to ask for help for specific tasks.
“What are my new accomplishments?” Always take note of your accomplishments, no matter how small or big they might be. If you have received rewards for excellent work results, think of your skills to achieve that. For instance, you got more clients after providing a web development service to one client. You must have done a pretty good job as your client referred you to his acquaintances.
How to Develop Your Skills
There are several ways to improve your current skills and new ones. If you want a particular job in a specific industry, here are some valuable methods to develop career skills:
Set Goals
Setting goals for yourself is a great way to advance in your career. Your goals can help you stay on track with your progress. However, you need to ensure that your goals are realistic, achievable, and related to your career. After doing so, organize a timeline to reach your goals by setting a starting and end date, with small goals to achieve in between.
Get Mentored
A professional mentor is often someone you trust and respect the most- like your superior. After finding a mentor, you can ask for casual meetings, where you can ask them a few questions about advancing in your career.
Know Your Strengths and Weaknesses
You can ask your colleagues and superiors about your strengths and weaknesses. Often, the people around you are the ones who can see these things as you barely notice them yourself. It’s vital to get feedback from close to you as they will give you the most genuine answers. Once you find your weakness, focus on improving that skill.
Review Jon Descriptions
Make sure to read the job description for the position you like. Job descriptions can give you an idea of the skills the job requires and if you have existing skills that you can use on it. On the other hand, it might also include skills you do not possess, which you can develop before applying.
Enroll Online
Fortunately, there are various programs online where you can learn new skills. What’s great about this is that many companies offer reimbursement or assistance to their employees, so long as they finish the program and apply the things they learned at work.
Attend Company Training
Some companies offer free training programs to help their employees develop new skills and grow competitively. Be surer to attend your company training programs as they can be beneficial to your career growth.
Job Shadowing
Job shadowing is a method wherein you follow a professional (particularly an expert or someone who performs well). The objective is to learn their day-to-day tasks to get new skills. Job shadowing is following a professional as they do their work responsibilities and learning about the skills they use.
Join a Job Association
Joining a job association is a great way to meet new people in the same industry and learn about their skills. It will allow you to start a conversation with a group, discovering relevant skills you can use in your job.
It might be crucial to include skills in your resume, but you must only list down skills related to the position. To do this, review the job description thoroughly. It will give you an idea of what skills to boast about and how they can be relevant to the position you’re applying for.
