Are you on the hunt for a new job? Don’t know exactly what skills are required beyond “past experience”? Having a strong command of basic life skills is a good place to start.
During personnel recruitment, recruiters are on the look-out for the right candidate. Honing these abilities is a prerequisite to any position that you will have in your entire lifetime, whether you’re looking at becoming a waitress, or an accountant.
Buffing up your resume with these basic, but very important, skills can help.
Being organised can help you save time.
By having a system in place for where you file certain documents, and where you store particular items, you will know exactly where everything is, freeing up time that you would normally spend on searching for them.
Being such a basic skill, it is expected that you will be able to organise your own work so that, if someone needs your assistance, you can access whatever aids are required straight away.
Working in an organised environment will also help with stress levels. Having an organised system, and an organised work space, means that you have your current workload managed, so that when new tasks come your way, you are able to deal with them as fast as possible.
Tips for staying organised:
Closely associated with organisation, time management skills are another requirement to getting hired.
Being able to effectively manage your time is necessary to succeed in the workforce. Having multitudes of tasks on your to-do list, and only a short amount of time to do them, you will need to decide how long to spend on each task in order to complete them all by their due dates.
Managing your time at work will help you feel less stressed as you will have a time available for all of your tasks. Having set this time aside, you will be able to focus on the task at hand.
How to manage your time effectively:
See our pages: Time Management and Avoiding Procrastination for more tips.
You will be required in any position to listen, and remember, a fair amount of information.
This could be passwords for the computers, confidentiality agreements that limit what you can share outside of the workplace, or even just the schedule for when to empty the rubbish bins. These things are easily forgotten amongst the other large amounts of information that we take in on a daily basis.
Remembering all of the information that is required for a job can be stressful and overwhelming, so it is important to recognise whether you are able to memorise this information and, if not, finding ways of retaining it.
Tips for remembering important information:
Learn more about Listening Skills and Memory Skills
Self-motivation is probably one of the most tricky skills to master - it is hard to stay motivated sometimes, due to being tired, sick, or just a genuine lack of enthusiasm (this does happen!)
However, it is important to try to maintain self-motivation in order to keep yourself happy and productive.
At the end of the day, you are there to work, so motivation is paramount to succeeding. If you aren’t motivated enough to do your job, then you probably shouldn’t be in that position to begin with.
Quick tips to keep yourself motivated:
See our page: Self Motivation for more information.
And last, but not least, self-confidence. Having self confidence in your job is a very important skill to maintain. When you think about it, why would someone hire you if you don’t even have confidence in your abilities?
When projecting self-confidence to an employer, it is important that you do it with respect and humility as sometimes confidence can come off as arrogance, which can be viewed as a negative personality trait. However, having confidence will not only give your employer confidence in you, but it will also give you faith in the work that you produce, often resulting in a more impressive end product.
How to keep yourself confident:
See our page on Building Confidence for more information.
When looking for a new job, remembering to have these basic skills honed and evident will show that you are workplace ready, and focusing on improving yourself in these areas is important to furthering yourself in your chosen career.
You will notice, as you start job hunting, that a mixture of these skills will be in every job advertisement, so make sure that you address your abilities when writing your cover letter and in the interview. Show off your amazing skills at your next job interview and watch the offers come pouring in!
Skills You Need Guide to Getting a Job" />
Further Reading from Skills You Need
Develop the skills you need to get that job.
This eBook is essential reading for potential job-seekers. Not only does it cover identifying your skills but also the mechanics of applying for a job, writing a CV or resume and attending interviews.
About the Author
Wayne Fleming specialises in recruitment and HR consulting at Flexi Personnel. His passion for aiding business’ to find the right staff is what drives him. He also hopes to help job hunters find the right position for themselves through his wealth of knowledge and advice.