Testing your Career Competenciesk from Job Trak
To assess your job search readiness (what you know and can do and what knowledge and skills you need to improve), rate your response to the statements below. Scale: 1 = Strongly Agree; 2 = Agree; 3 = Maybe, Not Certain; 4 = Disagree; 5 = Strongly Disagree

1. I know what motivates me to excel at work.
2. I can identify my strongest abilities and skills.
3. I have seven major achievements that clarify a pattern of interests and abilities that are relevant to my job and career.
4. I know what I both like and dislike in work.
5. I know what I want to do during the next ten years.
6. I have a well-defined career objective that focuses my job search on particular organizations and employers.
7. I know what skills I can offer employers in different occupations.
8. I know what skills most employers seek in candidates.
9. I can clearly explain to employers what I do well and enjoy doing.
10. I can specify why an employer should hire me.
11. I can gain support of family and friends for making a job or career change.
12. I can find 10 to 20 hours of time each week to conduct a part-time job search.
13. I have the financial ability to sustain a three-month job search.
14. I can conduct library and interview research on different occupations, employers, organizations, and communities.
15. I can write different types of effective resumes, job search letters, and thank-you notes.
16. I can produce and distribute resumes and letters to the right people.
17. I can list my major accomplishments in action terms.
18. I can identify and target employers I want to interview.
19. I can develop a job referral network.
20. I can prospect for job leads.
21. I can use the telephone to develop prospects and get referrals and interviews.
22. I can plan and implement an effective direct-mail job search campaign.
23. I can generate one job interview for every ten job search contacts I make.
24. I can follow up on job interviews.
25. I can negotiate a salary 10-20% above what an employer initially offers.
26. I can persuade an employer to renegotiate my salary after six months on the job.
27. I can create a position for myself in an organization.

Add the numbers you've choosen for a total composite

score. If you score under 50 points, you are highly skilled and prepared to start your search. You may now want to meet with a career consultant to design and implement your job search plan. If your total score is more than 51 points, you need to work on developing your job hunting skills. To assist you, the Career Center schedules several workshops on letter and resume writing, effective interviewing, the job search, and self-assessment each month. Consul t the schedule on page 19.

Reprinted from Change Your Job, Change Your Life by Dr. Ronald L. Krannich, T 1995, Impact Publications.

Two recent overseas surveys posed questions to employers to find out what they want from their graduate recruits. The consensus is that employers want intelligent and enthusiastic individuals who can organise and plan their work and interact with others effectively. Some of these skills are already honed in the university or college, but others will need to be developed outside your studies. Your applications will be more convincing if you can point to a range of situations in which you developed the skills the employers seek and make yourself more employable. Here then are the highlights of the surveys.

University of Central England’s Employer Satisfaction survey
Recruiters were asked to rank 60 skills in order of importance. The top 12 listed as most important were:

• Willingness to learn
• Commitment
• Dependability/reliability
• Self-motivation
• Team work
• Communication skills (oral)
• Co-operation
• Communication skills (written)
• Drive/energy
• Self-management
• Desire to achieve/motivation
• Problem-solving ability

Another research conducted by the Association of Graduate Recruiters gave the picture of a complete graduate as requiring the following skills, which are rather similar to the UCE survey:

• Self-awareness. Able to identify your skills, values, interests and core strengths clearly, and provide evidence of these abilities. Actively willing to seek feedback from others. Able to identify areas for personal, academic and professional growth.
  
  

• Self-promotion. Able to define and promote own agenda. Can identify 'customer needs' (academic/community/employer) and promote own strengths in a convincing way.
  
  

• Exploring opportunities. Able to identify, create, investigate and seize opportunities. Possess research skills to identify possible sources of information, help and support.
  
  

• Action planning. Able to plan an effective course of action, such as implementing an action plan, organising time effectively and preparing contingency plans. Able to monitor and evaluate progress against specific objectives.
  
  

• Networking. Aware of the need to develop networks of contacts. Able to define, develop and maintain a support network for advice and information.
  
  

• Matching and decision-making. Understands personal priorities and constraints which includes the need for a sustainable balance of work and home life. Able to match opportunities to core skills, knowledge, values, interests etc. Able to make an informed decision based on the available opportunities.
  
  

• Negotiation. Able to negotiate from a position of powerlessness. Able to reach 'win/win' agreements.
  
  

• Political awareness. Understands the hidden tensions and power struggles within organisations. Aware of the location of power and influence within organisations.
  
  

• Coping with uncertainty. Able to adapt goals in the light of changing circumstances. Able to take a myriad of tiny risks.
  
  

• Development focus. Committed to lifelong learning. Understands preferred method and style of learning. Reflects on learning from experiences, good and bad. Able to learn from the mistakes of others.
  
  

• Transfer skills. Able to apply skills to new contexts - a higher level skill in itself.
  
  

• Self-confidence. Has an underlying confidence in abilities, based on past successes. Also has a personal sense of self-worth, not dependent on performance.