Employers Want Skills
Posted on June 5, 2008
Filed Under Articles, Career |
When you get a job, the employer isn’t just hiring you, they are really after your skills. Sure, there’s the whole package thing, but the core of the hiring decision is the depth of your skills. It all boils down to a simple question: “Can this person do what we need them to do?”
Can you do it? Perhaps that question is a bit too ambiguous. What I really should be asking you is this: “Do you have the skills to compete in today’s job market?” Do you?
One thing that I have learned over the course of my career so far is that specialization is they key to getting job offers. I’m a software engineer by trade, and I started that career right after the internet bubble burst and all those tech companies lost that money around the turn of the century. Times were tough, and so was finding a livable wage.
My problem, I soon discovered, is that I had too broad of a skill set. I knew a little bit about a lot of things. That didn’t impress many HR resume screeners, so I didn’t get many interviews. Once I figured this out, I started to specialize my skills. And guess what happened? I started getting interviews.
If you want to improve your job / career, get some specialized skills. Sometimes, those specialized skills can be had with books from the local library, or free online courses and tutorials. But other times, you need more directed training. I’m not going to even pretend that I know what is right for you, but I’m sure you can figure it out.
Whatever you decide to do — train yourself, or have someone else train you — be sure to actually do it. Get that training, and have a set of specialized skills. Then your prospects will start to turn around.
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