Before you begin to market yourself successfully with potential employers, it is essential that you have a clear understanding of the product you are selling - YOU

Only then can you prepare an effective marketing strategy that will sell your job skills and abilities for your targeted position. This means accurately identifying your marketable skills and those sectors of the market to which they add most value.

Your marketing strategy will be most effective if it is targeted and focused toward a particular job market i.e. Computer Programmer, Sales Representative etc.

It is essential, therefore, that you first conduct a detailed assessment of your professional skills, personal strengths and past achievements in order to focus on a particular job market in which these are required.

The Aim of skills Assessment

Skills Assessment is a means of defining your strengths and weaknesses. It will help you:

Highlight your transferable job skills, personal strengths and past achievements.
Focus your career and target suitable positions.
Prepare a targeted and focused CV that will improve your chances of getting to the interview table.

It identifies:

Your best marketable skills.
Your best personal attributes and qualities that potential employers look for in job applicants.
Past job-related achievements which will sell your skills.

All of these combined will:

Enable you to define your job target(s) and plan an effective marketing strategy.
Form the basis for a targeted and effective CV and successful interview preparation.
Your Job Skills

Some Examples of Job Skills:

Leadership & Organisational Ability
Project Planning & Scheduling
Sales & Marketing / Public Relations / Customer Service
Computer Programming / Systems Analysis / LAN Administration
Financial Accounting / Budgeting / Cost Control
Communication / Languages / Telephone Skills
Production Operations/Scheduling / Process Control
Stock Control / Purchasing / Negotiating Skills
Staff Recruitment/Training/Development

Your Personal Strengths

Some Examples of Personal Strengths:

Good Listener / Analytical Ability /Problem Solver
Self Starter / Initiative / Work to General Instructions
Highly Motivated / Motivate Others
High Achiever / Get Results / Meet Targets
Organised / Time Management
Work well in a Team / Interpersonal Skills
Creative / Innovative
Disciplined / Procedure Oriented
Determined / Goal Oriented
Excellent Health / Good Attendance Record
Before you begin targeting organisations, it is important to define your work values i.e. those things about a job which are important to you.
If you enjoyed working in a new company in the past in which you were given broad responsibilities and freedom of action, you may be happier working for a start-up company rather than a large established organisation with less freedom and more rigid lines of responsibility.
If your circumstances require that you work flexible hours, then a position involving shift working may be more appropriate than a 9 to 5 job.

If you are challenged by creating and devising new systems and procedures, there is no point targeting jobs which require routine operating tasks all day long.

Your work values

If you are to be successful in your next job, you must be allowed use your best skills and personal strengths and it must fulfil those work values that are important to you. Without all these ingredients, you will not achieve job satisfaction.

Your achievements demonstrate the things you have actually done during your career and serve to make you stand out from the other job candidates.
Achievements should ideally, but not necessarily, be job related. They represent evidence of some impact you’ve made as a result of solving a particular problem or introducing a new procedure or contributing to important decision-making.

Your achievements should show clearly what have done for your present and/or past employer(s) in order to:

Reduce Operating Costs
Increase Revenue
Improve Operational Efficiency

Some examples of Job-Related Achievements:

Increased turnover by 20% in first year
Increased monthly sales by £100,000 over a 6-month period
Introduced more efficient system for materials distribution, thereby reducing costs by £25,000 per annum
Reduced absenteeism by 8%, thereby providing a saving of £17,000 per annum
Reduced unplanned downtime on critical production machines by 15% through introducing and implementing preventative maintenance procedures.
Achieved sales/operations budget targets consistently over a 5-year period

To further probe your achievements, ask yourself whether you:

Prepared an original report or document used for management decision-making?
Identified a particular problem area and took the initiative to find a solution?
Identified a need for a new procedure or practice in the workplace?
Participated in decision making related to organisational changes in the company i.e. staff structures, job descriptions, salary scales, new projects etc.?
Achieved the same results with fewer resources than in previous year?
Achieved better results (i.e. production throughput) than previously with the same resources?
Improved operational efficiency through creating and implementing better systems and procedures?
Resolved a serious problem or panic situation within your company?

Your Achievements

List your achievements in respect of each employment, assigning quantities and values where possible.

Now try linking your skills and strengths to each achievement by asking yourself the question “In order to complete that particular task or project, what skills and/or personal strengths was I required to utilise?”

This process may help identify additional skills and will enable you to give credibility to your claims on having particular job skills.

Once you have clearly defined your job skills, personal strengths and achievements, you are in a strong position to begin drafting an effective and targeted CV.

Debbie O’Hallaran, Career Columnist
www.irishjobs.ie