How To Showcase Your Skills To Forward Your Career

If you want to succeed in your career and stand out when you’re interviewing for a new job, you need to be able to show off your skills. Employers want a mix of hard and soft skills, but just having these skills is not enough. You need to be able to show that you have them in the right way too.

Give Examples

Don’t just say that you can do something. Back it up with evidence. Think of a time you used a skill needed for the job that you’re applying for, and what the results of your actions were. For example, rather than saying, “I’m good with customers,” tell the interviewer about the time that you revamped how your last company handled customer complaints and reduced the number of complaints that you get. If you want to learn some new ways to speak to customers that you can show off about, click here to learn about video chat options that will impress. 

Even if you can’t share results, try to give specific examples of using your skills. For example, instead of saying you have strong verbal communication skills, talk about the presentation you gave to management.

Share Your Expertise On Social Media

Most recruiters have at least a skim through the social media accounts of the people they’re considering hiring, so you can use this as another place to show off some of your skills and achievements. 

For example, if you were invited to speak on a professional panel, post about how proud you were to be asked. It’s not showing off, but it will show that you’re skilled and are making use of those skills. 

If you’re on LinkedIn, ask your connections to endorse you for your listed skills, or write you a recommendation that highlights those skills. 

Show How You Could Value

As well as showcasing your soft skills, think about what value you could be bringing to a new company if they hired you. This will help you to stand out from other applicants. Perhaps you have a strong network of contacts in the industry that would be valuable to the business. Perhaps you’re well-versed in a new piece of software or legislation that is relevant to your industry. Anything that might be able to give you a step up above other candidates can be enough to help you secure that new job. 

Use Action Verbs

One of the easiest ways to put your skills into context, whether they’re hard or soft skills, is to use action verbs to describe them. Action verbs put the results you achieved at the centre of what you’re saying, letting you prove your skills, rather than just listing them. 

For example, instead of just saying that you have strong critical thinking skills, use action verbs like ‘analysed’ or ‘devised’. For example, you could say, “I analysed customer complaints and used them to design a new training session for our team. After a year, customer complaints decreased by 20%.”