Tips On How To Analyze Your Skills And “Sell” Them To The Job Market

This can suggest an obvious and old fashioned concept, but it does not if you consider the lack of jobs on the job market across Europe and the absence of the abilities required for the jobs that job seekers would like to get. So the question is: how do you move into the labor market now, and what does it mean for young people to put theories into practice? And, of course: what are the skills most in-demand by companies?

Let’s have a first look at our Europass CV, the most common document created to attract attention, get an interview, and promote your profile but sometimes not very effective because of the too stereotypical format.

So now, just think: consider the trailer put together to launch a new movie. Each scene is carefully chosen, the sequence is assembled specifically to intrigue and entice, to create a suspenseful atmosphere. In the same way, it is important for your CV to be a powerful marketing tool to convince the reader to contact you. Just to get an interview you need new instruments and self-marketing techniques to convince whoever is on the other side of the process to call you.

Leaving it to chance or to doing it yourself leads to disappointing results because you need to have a plan and enough details to show the HR Department that you are the one who is right for that job!

After this start thinking about another Standpoint question: what is valuable to the labor market today? Do you have clear ideas about the skills that you can offer or your strengths so as to present your experience and what you do or want to do optimally?

The first step before you throw yourself into the sea of ​​the labor market is to understand what are the areas on which to concentrate and focus and which tools are needed to navigate these waters. All this should be leading you to one result: success.

Let’s try to get to the point of the situation; what we basically need is a map: we can use seven tests for strategies to start building your identity by working on your professional profile, and so we need to think what are the personal qualities and characteristics we have to put in the foreground, which are the skills and competencies we have to offer and how to make them get results.

Then we have to consider another factor according to our career goals and targeted dream job: in which occupational areas and in what kind of job you could do your best. Such a self-assessment helps in making you aware of what you should offer in your profile.

Create your personal GPS! Job seeking is a task that requires time and perseverance. In these difficult times, we must proceed down several streets, there is no single method, but for sure there must be a personal strategy. Actually, the job market at the moment presents the same obstacles for both young and older people. However, especially with the increase in the retirement age, it is good that all workers who are over 40 and 50 years will prove up to the task. If you are unemployed it is not pleasant to work for free, to find a job.

To find skills that you were never taught in school you probably need to find your own path to learn about yourself and use the qualities you have for the best outcome. We need new strategies to navigate through the job search and things to do to master our skills: think about what you want, what we can offer, what you are looking for (it requires more effort, and a positive attitude, sometimes). Actually, the strategy is that you should not decide what kind of work you would like to do until you understand exactly who you are and what your goals are.

SWOT yourself… and SWOT stands for “Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Play this trump card!

With a good SWOT analysis, you can discover things about your profile and minimize possible mistakes and redirect your actions towards the job opportunities you have in front of you; in fact, you could learn:

♦ What opportunities offer leverage

♦ What strengths you can use to your advantage to exploit the opportunities that are offered

♦ What obstacles you need to neutralize, minimize, or manage

♦ Which critical points you need to improve or manage so that you do not get sideways and block your own path

If you cannot get somebody’s attention you will remain in the gray zone of ‘like a lot’… that is why you need to “sell” your qualities, and to adopt the strategy of marketing yourself for reaching your goals. All comes down to communication, the way you express your positive points and using your fast-thinking skills.

For example, if you look at a product that comes launched you will notice that marketing plays a vital role by causing potential consumers to focus on the specific nature of the product, the quality, the packaging, the properties, etc.; and this is exactly what happens with you! You are the product of your own efforts (from your studies and your approach to jobs or internships and your wish to improve yourself).

To stand out, come to the fore, and get yourself effectively into the job market it is important to find out what makes you different and unique. And this is why the next question is: what do you do to get noticed, to do self-marketing?

Here are the steps:

1. Think as if you were the entrepreneur of yourself: everyone who wants to do business must learn to analyze, evaluate, plan, and act in full cognition of the facts.

2. Analyze and spread: which experiences that you have had to give you the skills you have got and how to use them for the X,Y,Z field and the available jobs in that field? Do you lack some skills that you can learn in a training course to specialize yourself or re-qualify? What kind of market do you want to address?

3. Planning: every entrepreneur who wants to start (start-up) has to make a business plan that takes into account different variables. In your case you need to plan your career path taking into account your profile and the market (which opportunities? Is there an alternative to what I need or want?).

4. Act: once you have your business plan, you have to formulate a plan of action and determine three things:

• strategies for finding work and how and where to look for it
• a plan for using the most effective tools (other than HP with specific targets)
• a procedure to stay updated (training, reading books, following tips from experienced people, informing yourself, keeping posted about chances and opportunities, etc.

5. Self-Marketing: and exactly:

♦ Brochure-CV

♦ Jist cards

♦ Elevator pitch

♦ Mini-profile

These strategies could help you to promote yourself to get hired and pursue your dream in the job market.

What are you waiting for? Make a good project out of yourself!

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