THE IMPORTANCE OF HARD SKILLS IN YOUR JOB SEARCH

​When it comes to finding a new job (or perhaps more accurately, a better job), the specific skills that you can offer to a prospective employer play a key role in whether or not you receive an offer of employment.
Yes, that’s not exactly a surprise. However, it’s also important to categorize your skills, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and formulate a plan for illustrating how you can use your skills to bring value to an organization.
There are two main types of skills in the employment marketplace: hard skills and soft skills. In this blog post, we’re going to address hard skills.
First, let’s start with a definition. Hard skills possess the following two characteristics:
They are teachable skills. That is, you can learn them. You can either teach yourself, other people can teach you, or both.
They are quantifiable. This basically means that you can be graded and/or evaluated for your ability with the skill.
Now that we know what hard skills are, what are some of the different types of hard skills? With the two above criteria in mind, below are some examples of these skills:
The ability to operate machinery
Proficiency in a foreign language
Familiarity with phone systems
Familiarity with technical language
Dictation
Computer programming
Proficiency with computer software programs
Mathematical ability
So what does this mean for your job search (and for your career, for that matter)? It means there are three things that you must do:
Identify all of the hard skills that are important within your line of work.
Assess your level of ability with those particular skills. This should be easier since one of the defining characteristics of hard skills is that they can be quantified.
Take steps to increase your proficiency (i.e., become better) with these skills.
The bottom line is that organizations want employees who are extremely knowledgeable regarding the hard skills necessary to make those organizations more productive and profitable. They also want employees who have additional skills that will make them more valuable to the company in some capacity. (An example would be the ability to speak a second language . . . or three.)
Do you need help with hard skills? Guidance during your job search? Then contact Time Staffing!