Modern businesses are able to locate their ideal staff with pinpoint precision, largely down to the technology and techniques available to them. Increasingly innovative search methods and new software allows employers to scout out prospective employees on a narrow set of criteria, and still find the person for the role.

If you’re looking to further your career, you could be doing yourself a huge favor by expanding your skillset and fine-tuning your résumé to make yourself attractive to modern employers. While preparing for tricky interviews and getting the job is a matter of practice and quick thinking, these skills will get you into that interview room in the first place.

Demonstrating Your Specialization

Many businesses – and especially smaller ones – are run by jack-of-all-trades who are talented in having a go at every aspect of the business. However, increasingly, as Global Resources, LLC suggested in July 2017, small businesses are taking advantage of specialized professionals to gather bespoke advice. This is largely due to the way the internet has made it easy for professionals of all kinds to find business and build their reputation, independent of a host service.

To take advantage of this, make sure that your online presence and résumé reflect your specialization. Make a conscious effort to keep your skills up-to-date and well-trained. If you already work for a business as a specialist, you can benefit yourself and your company by requesting time or money for fresh training.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

More than ever, employers are rating critical thinking as one of the very top skills sought in their prospective hires. Critical thinking is the hallmark of universities, usually, and you don’t see it focused on in the workplace. Especially not in vocational workplaces. However, technology is shaping every workplace like never before, with disruptive technology reducing the headcounts for many companies and transforming ways of working. Being able to demonstrate a commitment to critical thinking, through techniques such as continuous improvement, will demonstrate your adaptability to your employer.

Coming hand in hand with critical thinking is problem solving. The same ideas for the value of problem solving come into play here, just on a shorter term basis.

Soft-Skills

So called ‘soft skills’, like communication, organization and teamwork, are at the core of every business. However, there are a shortage of workers with soft skills. They are often seen as the flipside to the hard skills – like critical thinking  – gained through education.

In order to get yourself seen by prospective employers and create your own personal portfolio of skills, you must develop your soft-skills. Communication can be simple; make sure you’re well versed in how to address people from a range of angles, and are able to clearly articulate your message in simple, plain writing. There are now plenty of apps for communication skills at hand with your smartphone or other device to help you with this.

Organization can be expressed through your online presence and resume – is it well organized? Is it fully up to date? Teamwork, of course, can only be built with other people. You might find it worthwhile to suggest team-building exercises with your employer if you feel lacking, and put these onto your resume.

Modern employers have the skills to pluck the finest candidates out of the pool. For that reason, the modern candidate needs a lot – drive, specialization and all-round life skills. If you’re looking to further your career, you’ll give yourself a big boost by paying attention to these tips.