Make yourself more marketable

No doubt about it, the job market is a tough place to be right now. While that is enough to get you down, don’t let it derail your goals of landing a great job or getting yourself a promotion. No matter what you do for a living, chances are that with a small amount of effort, you can take the education, skills and work experience you already have and make yourself even more marketable. It’s time to make yourself stand out from the crowd and make your boss or potential future employers take notice of you!

Continuous upgrade of knowledge and skills

Learning does not stop after you finish school/college. If you view learning as a life-long process, you will in the long run be more marketable than those who do not. Strive to find ways to upgrade yourself. Seize opportunities to learn new skills.

Classes and courses can be especially helpful if it teaches you a skill that you don’t already have. But learning can be as simple as taking on a new project at work, or reading an article about a new development in your industry.

Become technologically savvy

The rapid advancements in IT affect almost every profession, some more so than others. Whether you’re planning a career in health care, law, engineering, sales, marketing, HR or financial services, it is essential that you understand how technology influences your line of work. Technologically savvy employees can more easily comprehend how advances in technology enable them to perform their job duties more efficiently.

To accomplish this, make sure you have fundamental knowledge of computer operations, e-commerce, and software applications that relate to your field. Even one or two computer and internet-related classes can significantly add to your knowledge base.

Develop skills that are transferable

Transferable skills are not specific to a single role. These can be adapted to use in any job such as communications skills, leadership and management skills, planning and research skills, teamwork and interpersonal skills and self-management skills.

The best way to gain transferable skills is through experience so put yourself into situations where you can build on these skills. By doing something as simple as volunteering to be chairperson of your local sports club for example, you will be improving your leadership and communication skills as you take charge and chair committee meetings.

Promote yourself through social networking sites

Us Irish have never been the best for blowing our own trumpet but social networks are a great opportunity to do just so and get yourself noticed. As we’ve mentioned before social networks are being used more and more frequently by recruiters and HR managers alike so just make sure you’ve cleaned up all your online profiles. Also try to widen your network of contacts which will give you a greater chance to be noticed by potential employers.

Volunteer for assignments

Be bold! Seek out special projects at work even if it falls outside the boundaries of your job description. New projects can be a great learning opportunity (that you can add to your CV) and it will really impress your boss that you’ve taken the initiative to get involved in the project. The work and time invested in the assignment will pay off later, whether in the form of a performance-based bonus, a glowing recommendation, or a new position.

Stand out during interviews

Do not take job interviews lightly, whatever your years of experience might be. In fact, the higher the position, the higher the expectations. Be prepared to be asked about ideas and improvements you can bring to the table. Most of the time, candidates that succeed are the ones that impress the interviewers with ideas that can be executed right away as though they are already part of the organization. Any time you apply for a job, make sure you can tell a story about your career that shows why you would be the best person for the job.