Reviewing Employment Postings

Analyzing a job posting starts with being honest with yourself. If you want to fly a commercial airliner as a career job, but you don’t have your private pilot’s license yet, you are wasting your time trying to get a job you are not qualified to do.

While this example may seem like an exaggeration, it isn’t. While it is admirable to have lofty goals and something to work toward, for now, you have to stick with what you are qualified to do.

So the first step in figuring out what you are qualified to do, you have to do a job skills self-assessment. Look at such things as:

* your strong points
* your weak points
* the things you are good at doing at work
* what you are skilled or trained to do
* your education level; if a college graduate, your major
* if you plan to stay in the same line of work, or looking at a career change
* if looking at a career change, your qualifications in a new career field
* hobbies or other interests that could provide some expertise in a current or new career field
* past internships or volunteer work that could add to your expertise

Answers to these questions will give you a good idea of where you should be looking. Also evaluate any “soft” skills you may have that are almost universally transferable across the job market, such as supervision, management, communication, organization and team leading/building. Companies look for these skills as they take years (and cost money) to build if they hire someone not already having these skills.

Now look at how to analyze a job posting. First, read through it. What are they really looking for? Pick out the skills they want for this job and match them up against the skills you have. Do you have most of what they are looking for? If so, they job may be a good match and one you should apply for. If not, you should most likely move to a different posting and repeat the same exercise.

Once you find a good match, start writing a good resume and cover letter targeting the skills they want and how you can fill those skills. If you are not good at writing about yourself, consider hiring a professional resume writer to write your resume.

Don’t think about is as boasting about yourself – think self-promotion. Back to the selling aspect. Those people in sales know to promote a product or service, you have to show how your service or product will fill a prospective client’s need. You do the same thing when writing a resume – show the prospective employer how you will fill their need.

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