Mapping Out the Job Skills You Need to Move Up
written by Dominick Frasso

Success in your career depends largely on motivation. If you’re motivated to get ahead, eventually you’re going to get recognized and get a chance to advance. Motivation alone, however, won’t move you up the ladder. You need to be able to identify and develop the right job skills so that, when the time comes, you’re really the best candidate for the job.

There are several ways you can go about mapping out the job skills you’re going to need to get ahead in your career:

• Start with self-assessment. Identify your skills from day one. Know what you’re good at. You also need to identify those skills that you need in the immediate future to do your current job. It may be that you need to shore up some of your current capabilities before you go discussing other possible skills to learn. That self-assessment will allow you to generate a list of skills you need to learn. As you go through each of the subsequent steps, you’ll be adding specific skills and tasks to that list.
• Look carefully at the stated job requirements. Now, before you go any further, realize that the stated requirements of any job are often very different from the real-world, day-to-day duties. Still, stated job requirements are a good jumping-off point. Regularly review the specific job requirements for your position. Consider asking your Human Resources department for a copy of other jobs in your organization, especially those that are higher up the chain. Be tactful about this, of course; asking your boss for his job description probably isn’t going to score you any points.
• Learn to observe your peers. Some of your peers are just as interested as you are in moving forward in their career. Others aren’t. Get a good idea of what others in your department do on a daily basis. Identify those employees who seem likely to get ahead, and then start listing the specific skills they use on a daily basis. When one of your peers does get promoted, go back and identify the specific kinds of things that they did which got them noticed, and helped them close the deal.
• Observe your superiors, too. Figure out what your boss actually does on any given day. Most of her duties might be wrapped up in people management. Some managers spend a lot of time dealing with vendors, or working with those above them in the organization. Make a list of the specific kinds of tasks that your supervisor or manager does, and put those on your lists to study.
• Consider more education. Experts will tell you that most of the skills you need for any given job will come by actually working, rather than by sitting in a classroom. They’re right, but only to a point. Without a solid base of knowledge from which to operate, learning some of those workplace skills will be arduous at best, and impossible in other cases. Look at the job that you want to eventually land, and identify the educational and other credentials held by most of the people doing that job. Those should be your educational goals.
• Identify industry certification and training opportunities. It isn’t just academic education that will help prepare you for advancement. Industry certification programs can give you a significant knowledge base, as well. In some cases, they’ll also help identify the skills you need to advance, and train you in how to develop those skills. A good example of this might be a project management certification, or perhaps a technological certification. Often, your employer will pay for you to take some of these kinds of training programs, as well. Avail yourself of them whenever possible.
• Take advantage of cross-training programs. Some workplaces offer the opportunity to cross-train, learning skills from a parallel position. This allows you to back-fill for someone during a time when they can’t be in the office, or when there’s a gap in the position. Cross training gives you greater exposure to both the industry in which you work and your company in particular. If you intend on moving into a management position in the future, having fluency in as many job functions as possible will be a huge asset.

Getting ahead in your career isn’t all about luck or favoritism. If you’re highly-skilled at what you do, employers are going to recognize that. The more you hone the skills required to advance, the more valuable an asset you become to a company. Even if it means jumping ship to a company that recognizes your skills, you’ll find a way to advance.

Author Bio

Dominick Frasso is the SEO/SEM Specialist at Vistage International, an executive coaching organization that helps CEO members build better companies through unique executive development opportunities. In order to provide a powerful learning environment for members, Vistage identifies qualified mentors seeking CEO jobs and positions them as leaders of CEO peer groups. Dominick leverages his experience in multiple marketing roles, including advertising, media buys, direct mail, email, marketing analytics, and SEO / SEM to help Vistage acquire qualified Chairs and recruit members with a high potential for success in the program.

IMAGE CREDIT: Photo on Flickr by WalkingGeek