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Home > Articles > Professional Development > Preparing to Apply for a New Job

Preparing to Apply for a New Job

Posted: March 3rd, 2010 @ 11:08am

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How to Identify Your Job Skills and Experience

Are you considering a job change this year?

Whether you plan to apply for a promotion at your current workplace, look for a new job, or break into a different career, taking inventory of your jobs skills and experience can help you make it happen.

Before going after a new job, we recommend you do something we call the "Where You've Been Inventory." In this inventory you will review your past experiences in the areas of:

Work
Volunteer activities
Education
Life in general

The inventory serves a dual purpose:

It gives you a list of all your skills and experiences to choose from when selling yourself to an employer.
It helps you identify what you love doing.

To create your Where You've Been Inventory, start by setting aside an hour or so when you can focus on writing without interruptions. You'll need some note paper and a pen, or you can use a computer to take notes.

If you have paperwork such as resumes or files with information about your activities, keep them nearby in case you them need to trigger your memory.

If you have a lot of experiences, it will take longer than an hour to inventory them all, so feel free to continue past the hour if you want to. But don't feel like you have to finish your inventory in one session.

It's okay to add items to your inventory as you remember them over the next few days, weeks, or months. Plus, your inventory will continue to grow as you have new experiences.

Work Experiences

Chances are your resume includes work experience, so this can be a good place to start with your inventory. In this part of your inventory you will begin by preparing a "master resume" of everything you have ever done that might in any way interest an employer. By keeping such a record you'll ensure that you won't forget anything relevant when you're applying for a job in future.

TIP: Your master resume isn't meant to be sent to employers. You'll use it to select the most relevant items to include on the resumes you prepare for employers.

For this part of your inventory, list every job you've ever held, going as far back as you can remember. Perhaps your first job involved delivering newspapers, babysitting, or asking, "Do you want fries with that?" Even those early experiences may provide valuable experience and give you insights into what you want - or want to avoid - in future jobs. You can also include any unpaid work experiences, such as internships or apprenticeships.

For each job that you've held, these are some of the things you can include about the job itself. Don't worry if you can't remember all the details from jobs you held years ago. Just include as much as you can recall.

Job title
Company name and location
Dates of employment
Responsibilities (what did you do?)
Skills and knowledge acquired (what did you learn?)
Results (what did you achieve?)
Recognition (how were your achievements recognized?)

Wherever possible, your responsibilities, results, and recognition should be quantifiable, for example: supervised 3 people, made 50 phone calls a day, cut costs by 5%, etc. Instead of saying "I sold a lot of widgets" say "I increased widget sales by 10%."

For the recognition category include any awards, promotions, raises, letters of praise, etc. that you received.

As mentioned, this information will be invaluable when you are selling yourself to future employers. However, to get the most from this inventory, you should ask yourself some additional questions about the job to help you identify what you want in future jobs.

What did you enjoy most about this job?
What did you dislike about this job?
If you could have changed anything about this job what would it be?
Are there any parts of this job that you want to have in your next job?
Are there any parts of this job that you want to avoid in your next job?

Volunteer Experiences

Just like your work experience, an inventory of your volunteer experience can be used to build your resume and identify what you want in a dream job. Your volunteer experience is any involvement you've had with an organized group or activity, such as:

Business organizations
Campus activities
Charitable organizations
Community groups
Cultural organizations
Ethnic groups
Membership associations
Political parties
Professional associations
Religious organizations
School activities
Service clubs
Sports associations

Gathering the information for this part of your inventory will probably take more time than preparing the inventory of your work experience, because if you are like most people, you haven't kept track of every volunteer activity you have been involved with throughout your life.

However, tasks such as serving on a committee, being a team captain, or canvassing door-to-door can not only help you develop job skills, they can also help you identify what you enjoy doing.

The information you gather about your volunteer experiences can be similar to what you will have for work experiences, such as:

Organization name and location
Dates of involvement
Level of involvement (did you hold an elected or appointed position?)
Responsibilities (what did you do?)
Skills and knowledge acquired (what did you learn?)
Results (what did you achieve?)
Recognition (how were your achievements recognized?)

In addition, ask yourself what you enjoyed, disliked, would have changed, or anything else you learned about the types of activities you would like to have or avoid in your dream career.

Educational Experiences

In this part of your inventory you will list every formal educational experience you have had, from high school to the present day.

This might include:

Degree programs
Certificate programs
Continuing education classes
Seminars or workshops you have attended
Personal growth courses
Tutoring

Note the specifics of each educational experience such as:

Name of program
Educational institution and location
Dates
Courses completed
Degree, diploma, or certificate earned
Skills and knowledge acquired
Achievements (e.g. scholarships and other awards, Grade Point Average, ranking in class, etc.)

As with your work and volunteer experiences, go beyond the factual information. Ask yourself which courses you enjoyed most and which you enjoyed least, and why.

In addition to your work, volunteer, and educational experiences, you may have other "life experiences" which can help you identify what you enjoy doing. This is particularly valuable information for career changers, so make sure you also take stock of your life experiences if you are considering a career change.

Most job-hunters know that it's a good idea to have a record of their work experience and education, but did you know that a record of your "life experiences" can be a valuable career tool?

By life experiences we mean every significant experience that doesn't fit into the categories of work experience or formal education.

For example, if you did missionary work, joined an expedition, or ran away with the circus - but didn't do it "officially" - that qualifies as a life experience. Your own life experiences might be related to:

Family
Hobbies
Recreation
Travel
Self-study
Social activities

It isn't possible to describe every human experience on this page, so we'll list just a few to get you started. For example, your family experiences might include:

Child care
Closet organizing
Cooking
Decorating
Elder care
Event organizing (e.g. a family reunion)
Hiring contractors
Hosting guests
Household finances
Housekeeping
Pet care
Planning parties
Selling your home
Shopping
Vacation planning

Your life experiences have given you a wealth of information about what you love doing. Tapping into this resource can help you identify your dream career.

Using a note paper and pen or a computer, start recording your life experiences. Instead of listing everything you have done, you can focus on the activities you found most impactful, either in a positive or negative way. Questions you can ask include:

How do you feel when you do this activity? (anxious, bored, frustrated, joyful, peaceful, proud, etc.)

Which activities do you care about doing well?

Which activities are "want to" and which are "have to"?

Which activities do you find most rewarding?

Which activities do you wish you didn't have to do?

Which activities are you most passionate about?

Which activities do you enjoy so much you would pay to do them?

If money were no object, which activities would you prefer to pay someone to do for you?

As you work through this inventory and recall your experiences, you will probably start to notice patterns in the types of activities you have found most rewarding.

For example, you may discover that the experiences you loved most have involved working with people, or let you express your creativity, or challenged your intellect. Likewise, you will probably find patterns in the activities you have found to be most frustrating.

By taking stock of your past experiences, you can lay the foundation for your future dream job.

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