Identifying and assessing your skills before beginning your apprenticeship job search is an essential step that can greatly enhance your chances of success. You may think you have nothing worth saying, but by doing this thorough groundwork, you will learn more about yourself and be able to strengthen your career plans.
Get the Most Out of This Chapter
Whatever your background, you have all kinds of skills, spanning from phone etiquette and report writing to public speaking, and you have your own unique way of behaving in social and professional situations.
Identifying and formalizing your skills will help you gain confidence in yourself and facilitate your search for an employer. You will find that contacting employers or recruitment agencies and pitching during an interview will become much easier.
Distinguish Your Skills From Your Qualities
Being able to talk about your skills and qualities is a necessary step to persuade the recruiter that you are the best candidate for the job. It involves having to answer the following question:
What qualities and skills define the kind of professional I am?
So, let’s start here.
Identify your qualities
We’re all familiar with that famous interview question: ‘Tell me about your qualities and your flaws.’ Why would a recruiter be interested in knowing this?
A recruiter knows that the better you know yourself, the more likely you are to find a situation that suits you. Your qualities affect your style of operating in the workplace and the way you respond to situations. They are looking for someone who will be happy in their working environment.
Qualities generally come naturally to you and constitute part of your personality. They are our innate strengths, our values, and how we see the world, and they shape our interactions, reactions, and decisions. Your personal qualities will often determine how well you fit into the company, how you work within a team, and how you handle tasks and challenges.
For example, adaptability, resilience, and integrity are qualities that would contribute to creating a positive work environment.
Although qualities are a part of you, they are not enough to show what you can do. When you tell a potential employer that you are motivated, it gives them a clue as to your personality but says nothing about what you are capable of achieving.
How do I know which qualities my employer wants?
Here are some methods you can use to determine which qualities an employer prefers in a candidate:
Company websites : Visit the official website of the company you are interested in. Locate the section on the website titled "About Us," "Our Company." You will be able to read the mission statement and analyze the language used. Look for keywords and phrases that reflect the company's core values, goals, and aspirations.
Job description: Carefully identify and review the key qualities and skills sought by the employer in the job description. Note specific keywords or phrases related to desired qualities such as teamwork, problem-solving, communication, leadership, etc.
Research External Sources: Use online resources such as company reviews on Glassdoor, LinkedIn company pages, or industry news articles to gather more information about the company's corporate qualities. Pay attention to feedback from current or former employees regarding the company culture and values.
Do their qualities align with yours? Hopefully, you now feel very motivated to apply for an apprenticeship with them!
You can now see how understanding your qualities is important. However, being able to demonstrate your skills is even more important to attract a recruiter. Let’s delve into what these skills are.
Identify Your Skills
Put simply, a skill demonstrates your capabilities and the proficiency with which you execute tasks. This involves utilizing:
Knowledge: what you have acquired over the course of your educational and professional background and experiences
Expertise or know-how: the implementation of practical knowledge
Social skills: your ability to adapt to different contexts by drawing on the right qualities at the right time
What is the Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills?
Hard skills
Here are some of the hard skills that would help you to increase your chances of convincing an employer to hire you. Of course, you do not need to have all these skills, but having some basic knowledge would definitely be an advantage.
Soft skills
Qualities and soft skills are related concepts, but they have distinct differences. Soft skills are specific abilities and capabilities related to interpersonal interactions and professional behavior that can be developed and improved over time. Qualities, on the other hand, are inherent or innate characteristics that individuals possess, which may also contribute to their overall effectiveness but are not explicitly skills that can be learned or trained.
By being aware of your soft skills, you will learn how to connect with managers and co-workers, express your ideas, receive feedback, and negotiate. All of these skills are important in the workplace. Here are some examples of soft skills used in the tech workplace.
Learn How Best to Describe Your Skills
Well done! Now you know what hard skills and soft skills are!
How can you describe your skills in such a way that they can be easily understood and attractive to potential employers? Continue reading below to find out more.
The following straightforward approach is designed to capture the attention of potential employers and highlight your qualifications effectively:
Begin with a Modal Verb : Express your competence by starting your sentence with a modal verb that conveys what you are capable of doing, such as "I can" or "I am able to..."
Include an Action Verb: Incorporate an action verb that represents the specific skill you possess, such as create, implement, analyze etc.
Specify the Object: Provide clarity by mentioning the object or task associated with the skill, such as creating a spreadsheet, coding in HTML, understanding customer needs etc.
Offer Descriptive Evidence: Strengthen your description by providing an example or evidence that demonstrates your proficiency in that skill. This tangible example serves as proof of your capabilities. Examples include being nominated employee of the month, providing a copy of your high school diploma or communicating the link to an Internet site you created yourself. You can also use your OpenClassrooms projects to showcase what you have learned.
Samantha
Your Turn!
Now it is your turn to identify your skills in order to bolster your profile. Such an activity will also allow you to identify your shortcomings in terms of skill sets and help you establish a plan of action in order to improve these.
We suggest you follow the method below, step-by-step, and stack the odds in your favor!
1. Identify your qualities
Here is a list of qualities.
Select 4 qualities that resemble you the most.
Think of a situation that depicts each quality (this could be the feedback you have received from teachers, parents, friends, or employers).
Write down why these qualities are important to you.
2. List your hard skills
Go through the subjects and courses you studied and take note of what you enjoyed, what you are good at, and what you can use as a professional skill.
You can also list the skills you have acquired during any work experience or volunteer work.
3. List your soft skills
Look at all the soft skills you have acquired throughout your life. You can use this list of soft skills to help you.
How do you use these skills to communicate with others?
Why are these skills useful in the workplace?
4. List your professional experiences
Now, think back on all of your previous professional experiences. These have allowed you to learn more about a particular area of activity and to develop your skills.
Here are some examples of experiences you may have had:
Student jobs
Summer jobs
Internships
Volunteer work
Experiences linked to student life (collective projects, tutoring work, etc.)
Travel, leisure and cultural activities, etc.
In order to determine which skills you have developed, you should work in the following way:
Begin your sentence with "I am able to" + verb + object + context.
Here is a list of action verbs you can use.
Let’s Recap!
Qualities help you define who you are.
Skills help you define what you can do.
Concrete examples of your hard and soft skills are necessary to back up your statements.
Showcasing your hard and soft skills effectively will help to convince an employer of your proficiency.
In the next chapter, you will learn how you can use your skill set to start preparing your resume.
