Importance of Skills Emphasis on Job Interviews

Skill emphasis during the interview is important to show the employer what makes you different from all the other job candidates. In this competitive world, companies search for the most qualified employees by weighing skills of the candidates and determining how they would benefit the company.

Majority of the top companies search for employers who stands out based from their expertise, ability to give new developments, and pleasing personalities that would enhance the organization.

Skills are grouped into three kinds – knowledge-based, transferable, and personal traits.



1) Knowledge-based skills are those learned from experiences. These may include educational attainment, additional training, seminars attended, and other practices that you have studied to enhance your expertise.

Knowledge-based skills include computer and communication skills, marketing or managerial knowledge, product development, and many more. These skills vary depending on the field of industry of each job candidate.



2) Transferable or portable skills are those you bring to a specific job. This is the reason why interviewers ask, “What could you offer the company?” Transferable skills are important because companies strive to look for quality employees that would improve the development of the workforce.

Portable skills include problem solving, team leader potential, organized, writing and communication skills, customer service oriented, time and project management, and good with numbers and budget. This kind of skills varies depending on the experience and versatility of each job candidate.



3) Personal traits determine who you are. In a job interview, one of the most common things an employer says is “Tell me something about yourself.” Your response is vital because it would set the tone for the rest of the interview.

Personal traits include good judgment, well organized, analytical, goal oriented, flexible, creative and many more. Try to sell yourself in as modest as possible within a limited time.

* Self-assessment. In order to provide an impressive presentation, examine your resume and list all the skills you have used for each past job experience. Make a comprehensive list of your skills and strengths including personal traits, knowledge-based and transferable skills. This would be the basis for your personal commercial.

* Once you have completed your script, you are now ready to face the interviewer. Remember that employers are interested in your accomplishments. Use words that are concise, direct and clear.

Although many companies require a unique set of skills, you should still highlight your technical skills in the interview. These skills, which top companies usually seek, include leadership, communication, confidence, flexibility, problem solving and energy.

Emphasizing all of your strengths and skills on job interviews would increase your chances of landing the desired job.

Job Search Tips for Sales Professionals

Each specific industry has a variety of requirements that an employee has to meet. In searching for jobs as sales professionals, how do you prepare for a competitive environment?

Here are useful tips you could perform in searching the appropriate job and acing the interview.



1) Research: In order to be prepared on your interview, you should learn important facts about the company beforehand.

* The internet is one of the best ways to search for information and most companies provide their own websites. Study the content of the company’s website; know their background, goals, and information about the top executives.

* By using search engines on the Internet, you could also obtain news and additional information about the progress of the company, past projects and issues, and organizations where the company belongs.

* Review the stock market chart of the company. Since majority of shares are publicly traded, you could examine the recent stock price and learn the difficulties of its market over the past years. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the company will help you in the interview.

* Learn as many information as possible about its competitors. When you read articles about the market space, you will find out who leads the market and you can find out the company’s competitors. Having this knowledge could help you during the interview since you could be able to justify how the company is better than its present competitors are.



2) Attitude: Having the right attitude towards the interview and the job itself would ensure the position is yours.

* Majority of successful sales professionals have a unique energy that you can feel. They command a presence and hold the attention of everyone. Be energetic about the job and interview.

* Be enthusiastic. Since you have done your research about the company and its competitors, the interviewers will appreciate your enthusiasm and interest about the position.



3) Preparation: The position you desire could be yours as long as you show up prepared.

* Create a presentation by researching the products and services of the company. Be prepared to speak directly and intelligently about the company’s field.

* Provide statistics and industry related facts in your presentation. This goes to show that not only are you enthusiastic about the job, you are also aware of the condition of the industry.

* The fact about sales is its all about numbers. If you are asked about your numbers, simply provide them with production reports, past employment lists or a W-2 form of your yearly earnings.

By successfully performing these basic steps, your sales job could be yours in just a handshake away.

Matching Your Skills to Find Appropriate Jobs

Skills refer to the things you do well. The key to finding the most appropriate jobs in the industry is recognizing your own skills and communicating the significance written and verbally to a probable employer.


Majority of the most viable skills are those that are used in a variety of work settings. What are these skills? Would matching your skills to find the right job be successful?

* Determine your skills. This would help you in becoming the lead candidate of landing the job. A skill does not necessarily mean it was adapted in a work environment. If this would be your first job hunt and you have no job experience to date, you still have a chance in the industry.

Majority of skills, including knowledge-based and transferable, could be absorbed and developed as a volunteer, a student, a homemaker, or in your other personal activities. The skills you have used for these activities can still be applied to your desired jobs.

Organizing and listing your personal skills could help you easily fill out job applications, provide useful information for job interviews, and prepare quality resumes.

First, you should categorize the skills by separating your interests and aptitudes from your work experience.



1) Aptitudes and interest. These include all of your hobbies, activities you have been involved in the past, and all the things that interest you. By listing all of these down, you could examine the skills it takes to achieve each item.

Skills from aptitude and interest may be homemaking, playing basketball, fixing cars and many more. All of these items could determine if you are capable of working with a team, able to handle multiple tasks, have viable knowledge of human development, knowledge of electronics and ability to diagnose mechanical and numerical problems. The list goes on, but make sure to consider the skills that would be beneficial for a working environment.



2) Work history. This includes volunteer, part-time, freelance, summer and full time jobs. Once you have listed all your past employment, examine the skills you do work each work duty.

* Ask for help. As soon as you have your list ready, you could now go to job services that could help you acquire your desired job. You could also search job yourself. However, always remember to match your skills and abilities in your list to the needed skills and abilities of various jobs.

In most cases, people who seek jobs are threatened with job titles. This should not be the case. As long as your skills and abilities could meet the requirements of the workload and job title, your possibility of acquiring your desired job increases.

Tips for a Successful Local Job Search

If you are seriously searching for a local job, but you have no idea where to look, you may be just one of the thousands of unemployed people in the country. However, finding a job is easy when you know where to search.

Where can you find employers? How can you find your desired local job?

Before anything else, you should determine your skills and abilities, update your resume and be ready to face the employment process. There are several options on where to find employment.

1) Job Center: Job centers provide numerous vacancies for different kinds of work. Majority of job centers update their employment board frequently.

Originally, these career centers cater to young jobseekers up to 21 years old. They arrange for appropriate job interviews, which they believe, would match your skills and abilities. Some job centers also process training vacancies and apprenticeships to young people. Today, these centers also cater adults’ need of employment.

2) Newspapers: Local and national newspapers, non-profit papers and job hunting newspapers provide advertisements on current job vacancies. You could find all the existing newspapers in libraries and check all the recent job postings.

Majority of newspapers today have their content available online. You could browse through them one by one and list all the jobs you prefer.

3) Journals and magazines: Every industry has their own periodicals, magazines or journals. Most employers go to these publications for employing professionals. Some could be bought in magazine stands and others come by subscription. Therefore, if you are hoping to establish your career based on your finished field of study, you could subscribe to a professional magazine and increase your local job prospects.

4) Agencies: Employment agencies handle most of vacant local work. Covering all kinds of work for various industries, these agencies are listed in local directories and Yellow pages.

5) Employer grounds: Many companies have job vacancies on their premises. Since these companies such as food retailers make use of internal notice boards, they do not advertise in newspapers and agencies. You could walk into these companies and ask the front desk for employment vacancies.

6) Internet: The most cost-effective way in finding local jobs is through the internet. Majority of employment agencies, newspapers, top companies, magazines and job centers have their own website. You could save time by searching through them one by one and apply for the job you prefer the most.

Making use of all these options could save you a lot of time searching for your desired local job. You could use all of these methods simultaneously to increase your chances of employment.