5 Hard Skills That Will Help You Land More Job Opportunities

5 Hard Skills That Will Help You Land More Job Opportunities

By Michelle Wanjiku

You have been applying for hundreds of jobs but never hear back from the employer or you were passed over for that promotion again when you know you deserve it. But why, why weren’t you hired or why didn’t you get the promotion?

The answer might be very simple; you don’t have the hard skills employers are looking for. The importance of soft skills when it comes to job hunting has been discussed quite a lot; however, you need to know that hard skills are equally as important.

Employers are always complaining about how graduates don’t have the practical skills needed to do the job, so if you want to get a job you need to acquire these skills.

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Here are some hard skills that will help you get a job or a promotion

1. Data Management

No matter what industry or profession you are in, data management is probably on your responsibilities list.

This means that having the knowledge and skills needed to work with data management software such as Excel will not only make your work easier but will also give you an advantage over other job seekers.

Take, for example, you are applying for a job that has data management as an important responsibility. If you are able to show the employer that you possess the necessary skills to do data management task, you will have a better chance of getting the job as opposed to someone else who doesn’t have these skills.

2. Financial Skills

These are especially important when looking to grow in your career. The more leadership roles you get, the more you’ll have to deal with things like accounting, budgeting, financial planning, and cash flow management etc.

While you don’t necessarily need to be an expert at all of these, you should have a good grasp of some of them. This is where taking a few practical accounting skills classes is a good idea.

You don’t need to become an expert, but brushing up on these skills will help you a great deal.

Also, as someone working in accounting or finance, having practical skills such as filing taxes and using QuickBooks will greatly improve your chances of getting a job.

3. Sales & Marketing Skills

In most organizations, especially SMEs, employees are involved in sales in one way or another.

Some organizations require their administration officer or receptionist has some basic sales knowledge and will be able to sell the company’s services when someone walks in. So in order for you to actually get the job, you need to demonstrate that you have sales and marketing skills.

The same applies to people in the sales profession, employers want to hire people who already have the practical skills as opposed to training new staff, so even though you don’t have work experience, showing that you have the practical knowledge to do the job will give you an advantage.

This is why Corporate Staffing Services launched a free sales training program that is meant to give job seekers the skills that companies are looking for when hiring.

Click here to find out more about the training

4. Communication Skills

You may think that this doesn’t fall under hard skills, but being able to communicate effectively can really help boost your employability.

Communication skills don’t just involve being able to speak eloquently, it also involves language and with more and more companies looking to go global or international, knowing another language can be a great asset.

Most NGOs will choose to hire someone who can speak multiple languages over someone who just speaks English.If you want to work for an organization like the United Nations, learning a new language is important.

It’s not only in the NGO sector, knowing multiple languages can help boost your employability in hospitality related job as well as any customer service related job.

5. Customer Service Skills

Having customer service skills can greatly help you especially if you are looking for jobs in administration or sales.

Employers are looking to hire people they won’t necessarily have to train so showing them that you already have the skills needed to do the job well will boost your chances of getting hired.

This is why you need to take advantage of free customer service training programs available that focus on impacting job seekers with practical customer service skills.

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In Conclusion,

The days when just having a degree was enough to get you a job are long gone; employers are now looking at what skills you possess. Companies don’t want to spend money on training for their employees so they would rather hire someone who already has the skills needed.

If you are looking to find a job or advance in your career, it’s up to you to make it happen. All you have to do is find out which skills are important in your chosen line of work and ensure you acquire them.

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