Conducting  a Career  Skills Assessment and  Career Tune-Up

Before starting any job search, it is important to conduct a career skills assessment and career tune-up.  Do you have the skills? Find out by conducting a career skills assessment and career tune-up.

Evaluate basic work skills, communication and interaction skills, computer skills, analytical skills, management and leadership, and knowledge skills. This will help you determine what skills you have, what skills need some tune-up, and what you need to do to be well prepared to move ahead in the workplace.

Review the list of skills below.  Ask yourself whether you have the skill listed. Be honest! You are best served by identifying your strengths and weaknesses so that you can improve areas you need to before entering the job market.

Take a few minutes to conduct your career skills assessment.  As you do, you will be able to identify your strong points, areas where improvement is needed, and determine what you need to do to tune-up to find your preferred job.  If you need to brush up your skills, review some options to do this which are listed under the skill.

Once you have completed the assessment, consider ways to highlight your strengths on your resume.  Look for ways to “tune-up” your skills and add to your resume and abilities.  Often an added skill can make a big difference in landing that job!

Basic Work Skills

• Punctuality

  • Never Be Late Again, 7 Cures for the Punctually Challenged

• Time Management

  • Time Management from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of your Schedule- and your life
  • 10 Minute Time Management: The Stress-Free Guide to Getting Stuff Done

• Task Completion

  • Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

• Meeting Deadlines

  • Deadline! From News to Newspaper

• Hard Work

  • Work on your Work: 10 Simple Ideas on How to Work Smarter not harder

• Organization

  • Getting Organized at Work: 24  Lessons to Set Goals, Establish Priorities and Manage your Time
  • Get Your Act Together: A 7 Day Get-Organized Program for the Overworked, Overbooked, and Overwhelmed
  • Get Organized Today: Top experts share strategies that work

• Achieving Goals

  • Goals!: How to Get Everything you Want – Faster than you ever thought possible
  • Goals Setting: 21 Days to Achieving Life Changing Goals and Being Happy Happy Happy
  • Goal Setting: 13 Secrets of World Class Achievers

• Verbal Communication

  • Keys to Effective Communication
  • The Art of Communicating
  • Everyone Communicates, Few Connect: What the most effective people do differently

• Basic Math

  • Math Refresher
  • Singapore Math: Number Sense and Computational Strategies
  • All the Math you’ll ever need: A Self-Teaching Guide

• The ability to follow directions

• The ability to get along with others

  • Working Relationships: Using Emotional Intelligence to Enhance your Effectiveness with Others

• Positive Attitude

  • Attitude is Everything: Change your Attitude… Change your Life!
  • The Power of Positive Thinking: 10 Traits for Maximum Results
  • Success through a Positive Mental Attitude

Communication

• Customer Service Skills

  • Customer Service Training 101: Quick and Easy Techniques that get great results
  • The Customer Service Survival Kit: What to Say to Defuse Even the Worst Customer Situations
  • Customer Service Skills for Success

• Listening

  • Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting through to absolutely anyone
  • Lost Art of Listening, Second Edition: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships
  • Power Listening: Mastering the Most Critical Business Skill of All

• The ability to work with teams

  • Self-Directed Work Teams
  • Teams at Work: 7 Keys to Success
  • Team Work and Group Dynamics

• Communication

  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Keys to Effective Communication
  • Essentials of Business Communication

• Writing

  • Writing Essentials
  • Effective Business Writing
  • Writing Tools: 50 essential strategies for every writer

• Public Speaking

  • Mastering Public Speaking
  • Mastering Public Speaking: The Handbook (2^nd ed)
  • Present like a pro: The field guide to mastering the art of business, professional, and public speaking

Computer Skills

• General Computer Skills

  • Computer Skills for the Workplace
  • Keyboarding
  • Teach yourself basic computer skills

• Business Applications

  • Introduction to Microsoft Word 2013
  • Introduction to Microsoft Powerpoint 2013
  • Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2013
  • Introduction to Microsoft Outlook 2013
  • Introduction to Adobe Acrobat X

• Data Base Management

  • Introduction to Microsoft Access 2013
  • Introduction to Networking
  • Disruptive Possibilities: How big data changes everything
  • Data Mining for Dummies

• Computer Software

  • Introduction to Photoshop CC
  • Introduction to Adobe Edge Animate
  • Mastering Excel Macros: Introduction (Book 1)

• Computer Programming

  • Introduction to Programming
  • Mac, iPhone and iPad programming
  • Beginning Programming All-in-one desk reference for dummies

• Internet and Web Design

  • Understanding the Cloud
  • Creating Web Pages
  • Designing Effective Websites

Analytical Skills

• Fact Finding and Investigation

  • Finding Facts Fast

• Research

  • Research Methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners
  • Research Strategies: Finding your way through the information fog 

• Evaluation

  • Evaluation: A Systematic Approach
  • Evaluation Essentials: From A to Z
  • Evaluation in Organizations: A Systematic Approach to Enhancing Learning, Performance, and Change

• Problem Solving

  • Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People
  • Problem Solving: 33 Ways to boost your brain’s natural creative ability!
  • The Thinker’s Toolkit: 14 powerful techniques for problem solving

• Decision Making

  • Skills for Making Great Decisions
  • Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions
  • The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking

• Process Improvement

  • The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
  • Strategic Continuous Process Improvement
  • Improving Business Processes (Pocket Mentor)

Management and Leadership Skills

• Planning

  • Creating a Successful Business Plan
  • 10 Steps to Strategic Planning
  • Planning your project like a pro: 7 things to do before starting a project

• Goal Setting

  • Goal setting 101: How to set and achieve a goal
  • Goal Setting: A Motivational Technique that works!
  • Getting organized at work: 24 lessons for setting goals, establishing priorities, and managing your time

• Project Management

  • High Speed Project Management
  • Strategic Management Made Simple: Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams
  • Making things happen: Mastering Project Management

• Budgeting

  • Accounting Fundamentals
  • Keys to Successful Money Management

• Financial Analysis

  • Business Finance for Non-Finance Personnel
  • Budgeting for Managers

• Scheduling

  • Scheduling Spreadsheets for 100 employees

• Supervision and Delegation

  • Fundamentals of Supervision and Management
  • Supervision: Concepts and Skill-Building

• Follow-up

• Motivation

  • Drive: The Surprising Truth about what motivates us

• Working with Employees

  • Understanding the Human Resources Function
  • Employment Law Fundamentals

• Team Building

  • Building Teams that Work
  • Leading Self-Directed Work Teams
  • Taming of the Team: How Great Teams Work Together

• Ask Questions

  • Leading with Questions: How Leaders find the right solutions by knowing what to ask
  • Power Questions: Build relationships, win new business, and influence others
  • The Art of Asking: Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers

• Leadership

  • Leadership
  • Leadership 101: What every leader needs to know
  • The 5 levels of leadership: proven steps to maximize your potential

• Marketing

  • Marketing your Business on the Internet
  • Professional Sales Skills
  • Small Business Marketing on a Shoestring

• Quality Improvement

  • Total Quality Fundamentals
  • Six Sigma: Total Quality Applications

Knowledge

• Job Functions

  • The Job Description Handbook

• Current knowledge in your field

• Industry standards

• Company values, goals, and mission

• Economic trends and indicators

  • The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to future economic trends and investment opportunities (3^rd ed)

• Global interactions

  • The Global Economy
  • Big Picture Economics: How to Navigate the New Global Economy skills

• Degree, license or certification needed