Skills That Can Dramatically Shorten Your Job Search

The hunt for a new job is not a battle that you want to draw out. The longer it takes to find a new job, the more unstable your financial situation is going to become. You can shorten your job search by implementing skills that will make you more valuable to a potential employer. Many of these skills can be broken down into three broad categories.

Interpersonal Skills

An employee isn’t isolated from their company. A good employee has to work well with others and communicate effectively. Learning and demonstrating effective communication in an interview is an essential skill for impressing potential employers. The first step to effective communication is learning to listen. You need to learn to discern not only what people are saying, but what is the intent behind what they are saying. You can do this by paying attention to tone and body language. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t assign too much certainty to your inference of another person’s intentions. You could always be wrong. However, the awareness of a possible deeper intent can help you ask clarifying questions that can enhance your communication.

Technical Skills

Having technical skills outside of your occupation’s normal area of expertise can make you stand out from other job applicants. For example, you can add value to growing startups with development languages like Python. If you don’t know how to code, it’s very easy to learn. You can start off with something simple like how to implement simple sheet formulas like on google or excel. You can then move to a more advanced coding language like Java, Python or C++. When choosing which language to learn, you should investigate which language is more commonly used in your field of work.

Preparatory Skills

Preparatory skills are often overlooked, but extremely valuable. Knowing how to prepare and having the work ethic to prepare is something that doesn’t come easily to most people. You can demonstrate to an employer your preparation skills in the way that you prepare for an interview. The first step is to have a well formatted resume. Then you should come prepared with letters of recommendation. You can further show preparation by thoroughly researching the company and the individuals that will be conducting the interview. You should spend some time reading the company website, company reviews, and browsing the social media pages of its leaders.

You don’t need to be a “well-rounded” person to be an excellent candidate for a job. You need to be a “well-rounded” employee. The key difference is that a well-rounded person is likely to have many different hobbies in a variety of interest areas. A well-rounded employee is one that is well equipped to cover a multiplicity of different aspects of a job.

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