Focus on Skills

As many of our GIC trainees are finding out, at the upper rungs of the management and executive ladders, your old chronological CV must change drastically from the one you last used if you really want to get a job …

As your career progresses, your experience lengthens, your knowledge deepens and your achievements grow. Great when you stay in the same career, company, industry or environment. But what if you have to find a new job? How can you communicate that wealth of ability to a new situation, a new industry and a new boss?

Many of our candidates find that their track record of employment can actually scare a potential employer: they’re perceived as too experienced; too used to being the boss; and probably too expensive – all of which can be threatening to the manger or boss interviewing you who hasn’t got the same level of experience. So what to do?

Focus on your successful skills!

Remember, the first thing an employer needs to know is that you have the skills and ability to do the job. They also want to know that you achieve success in what you do, so your CV needs to demonstrate how you actively and successfully accomplish tasks.

In effect you need to demonstrate that your skills are transferable. For example, almost every job requires good ‘communications skills’. Your CV will probably not highlight them assuming that the reader will figure that out. Not necessarily! If communicating is something you’re really good at and it has made a difference to your work, you need to tell them that. Make sure your CV shows your strengths and abilities in using communication skills to good effect. Clearly presented, the reader will be able to see how those skills could work for him/her.

Skills Self-Assessment

But, you will argue, everyone has ‘communication skills’ on their CV, how can I make mine different from rest? Remember that self-assessment exercise I made you do at the beginning of the course? Try it again, only this time tease out your best skills (your key ‘assets’). Ask yourself if you are really good at negotiation or is it facilitation? Try to recognise your true strengths. How good are you? Can you demonstrate that? Can you describe the way you used that skill to achieve success?

Think about re-organising your CV to highlight 3- 5 of these skills and let your reader know that you get the job done well. As your career lengthens, it won’t be where you worked that’s going to sell you to a new employer, its how you worked and what they think you can do for them

The proof is alsways in the pudding, and as Andrew Carneige once said, As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.