Pen Freak

Before starting your job hunt or writing your resume, you need to
identify the type of job you are going after. The reason for this
first step is so that you may identify both your strengths and
weaknesses that are applicable to the skill set you will need to
not only do the job well, but get the interview.

So how do you
identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can land the job
you want?

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the type of
job you are searching for will help you immensely in landing the
job.

By knowing these things ahead of time, you can design your
resume and your answers in the interview, to focus on your strengths
that would apply to the position, while minimizing any weaknesses
that you may have.

First, you need to identify your skills. Your job skills are your
ticket to getting the interview via your resume and then getting
the job offer through the job interview.

In order to showcase
your skills, you need to know what they are. You don't want to
come off as arrogant but it's extremely important for you to sell
your abilities to your potential employer, first via your resume
and then in the job interview.

Your skills can be broken down into two different types - hard skills
and soft skills. Your hard skills are the things that you can actually
do in a job - software programs you know how to use, how many words
per minute you can type, machinery that you can operate, etc.

Soft skills are your personal qualities such as being a good team player,
the ability to work independently on projects, being organized, good
time management skills, the ability to lead, etc.

You can start developing your skill set for writing your resume by making
a list of your previous jobs and experience you acquired. Make a list of
each of your previous jobs and under those jobs write down the duties you
performed and skills you used.

Now you can do two things with your lists of skills. If you have a certain
job that you want to pursue, you can pull out the skills that match the job
and be sure to emphasize those skills in your resume and your job interviews.

The other option, if you are not sure what type of job you want is to begin
researching jobs and make note of those jobs that match the skills you've
already obtained in your previous experiences.

By breaking down your experience into a specific skill set, you'll be on your
way to writing a resume that gets results.