How to Improve Your Job Search Skills: Job Search Skills Development Versus a Job Search

Improving your job search skills will make a difference when you are seeking a job, particularly during a period of high unemployment and a receding economy. Understanding the difference between developing your job search skills and doing a job search is important.

What are job search skills?

Dictionary.com suggests that the word skill refers to “the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well.” It also has to do with “competent excellence in performance” or “expertness” which may require “special training”. 

In other words, improving your job search skills will increase your ability to obtain a job, even during a difficult period of high unemployment. Know that there are jobs out there, so optimism on your part is important.

Business dictionary.com suggests that a job search is “the act of searching for employment.”

How can you improve your job search skills?

Learning basic computer skills will enable you to submit a resume electronically, rather than having to send it in the mail. The Internet submission of resumes is becoming the only way you can send a resumes to many employers. It is also faster. Computer training is likely to be a prerequisite for a job.    

Online models with guidelines about how to write a resume appropriate for the kind of employment you are seeking are available on many websites. On the Internet, there is a multiplicity of free template options available to you. A well-constructed resume specifying your job related skills and the level of complexity you have achieved is important in the construction of your resume.

Developing new and different job skills or improving the ones that you have, will lead to a higher level of competency, as well as increase the likelihood of obtaining appropriate employment. You may need higher academic career development skills. For example, is college or university education a prerequisite for the job that you want? If so, research the requirements for possible enrollment. 

Developing your job search tools and expanding your online resources is different from doing a job search, but ideally, these go hand in hand. Developing specific employment skills will make a huge difference in your job search.    

Expanding your employment horizon may prove beneficial because as you improve your job search skills, you will see that research is an ongoing learning process. There may be unique jobs that you were not aware of and further research may bring them to light.  

Learning a word a day will improve your job search skills, and increase your literacy level as well as the likelihood of obtaining employment. Improving your job search skills will happen automatically as your do job searches in various categories. Be positive and constructive and stay motivated, knowing you will succeed.