Chapter 13: Employment Skills

Learning Objectives

Target icon

 

    • Represent skills, knowledge, and experience realistically for employment purposes
    • Identify and assess individual skills, strengths, and experiences to identify career and professional development goals
    • Research the job market to identify career opportunities and requirements
    • Prepare a targeted and persuasive cover letter and resume

Introduction

A hiring competition involves a written and oral exam. You must pass the written component (the cover letter and résumé) before you move on to the oral (the interview), and you must out-perform the competition in the oral to get the job. The oral component proves that you can carry a conversation, represent the company in face-to-face interactions with customers, and see eye-to-eye with managers and co-workers while conducting day-to-day operations in a personable manner. Representing you in your physical absence, your cover letter and résumé mainly assure employers that you have the experience and skills required to be successful in the job. They also prove whether you are literate and conscientious enough to represent the company’s respectability when writing on their behalf to customers and other stakeholders.

This chapter focuses on the written component of the hiring process, saving the oral for below. At this point, it’s worth saying that the advice given here represents a fairly broad consensus of employer expectations, but it can’t apply to all because each employer is unique in what they’re seeking from applicants.  It’s like dating: everyone has a unique laundry list of preferences formed by genes and experience narrowing down who they’re attracted to. If someone falls within the range of what you’re looking for and you fall within their range, then it might work out. The only way to know for sure that you’re both what the other is looking for is by flirting, which means, in the world of job hunting, networking. After examining strategies for job hunting, we’ll cover the résumé and cover letter-writing process with the goal of producing job application materials that will considerably increase your chances of getting an interview and getting your dream job.

 

Note: Employers indicate the information they consider most important in a job application package. (Hadicke, 2016)

 

References

Hadicke, G. (2016). What employers want in your application. Graduateland. Retrieved from https://graduateland.com/article/what-employers-want-application

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Communication@Work Copyright © 2019 by Jordan Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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