For many of us, education opened all the doors for us. You may be first in family to earn a degree, and the first to work in corporate spaces. So, when an opportunity you really want to pursue comes, the first inclination you may have is to get a certification or a degree to prove your suitability for the role. In many instances however, this is not necessary.
Here are some tips for you to get started on using your current skillsets to open new doors:
Take inventory of all your talents, skills and abilities:
What do I do better than anyone else?
What have I accomplished that can be viewed as exemplary / extraordinary?
What's the word on the street? What is my brand/ what am I known for?
What degrees or certifications do I currently hold, including any online certificates, etc.,
What do the people who are currently in this job do?
You're not going to learn this from a job description. You're going to learn from connecting with individuals currently in the role. Use your linkedin to identify individuals or even set up virtual coffee chats with individuals in your company currently in the role.
Ask lots of questions, including:
Tell me about a typical day for you
What do the very best people in this role do that the average person won't?
What is required for this role that isn't on the job description?
What is a key skill that is needed to be successful in this position?
Asking a lot of questions will help you to understand how to position your current skillset and communicate a deeper understanding of the role requirements.
In addition, this helps you to build relationships across your organization and increase your visibility and interest for the team or for future roles.
If you're missing key skills, think about how you can still demonstrate your ability
You may not have formal sales experience, but you may have experience increasing revenue or partnering with teams across the organization to support key metrics. You may not have a degree formally in Analytics, but have you made decisions based on trends and data? How can you demonstrate that you can accomplish or perform the duties in the role, while learning and increasing your knowledge?
Work with someone experienced to help you reframe your narrative
Work with an experienced career coach or professional to review your resume. This individual will help you to determine whether the current accomplishments that you have listed achieve the intended purpose of proving your capability to perform the task.
At Island Advantage we help candidates secure local, regional and international opportunities, leveraging their current skillset and showing that there's more than one way to grow.
