Great Occupations

I've addressed this topic of skills versus talents before in the Daily Career Blog, but yesterday one of my clients emailed me asking for additional clarification. It's a critical to know who you are and what you bring to the table, so I want to give you this important piece of information. Yes, it's a fact. Prospective employers do care about your skills when you apply for their positions. However, you will encounter a lot of competition in the job market for those same skills. You have x skills and so does the other candidate who's vying for the same job. What could set you apart though is your... Read the rest of this entry »

The first step in cultivating your individual brand is to analyze and inventory your career assets. In other words, you need to be able to sum up what you bring to the table. Career assets include your skills, knowledge, traits and natural talents. Determining your skills might be the easiest place to start. Skills are those things you can do that very likely required some sort of training – they are the application of the training. Learning to read, learning to type, learning to use a software program on a computer... these are all learned, applied skills. Natural talents are on the other end of the assessing spectrum for most people. If you’re like most people, it’s hard to step back and look at yourself from an objective point of view and determine what your natural talents are. Why? Because your natural talents... Read the rest of this entry »