You may be saying, "fine, I'm a manager with good organizational skills, but there's a lot more to my job than that!" You're right. You have very specific knowledge and expertise that you use in your particular vocation and at the moment in your employment job search. Job-specific skills are those abilities that you need to succeed in your particular job in your particular company in your particular industry. These are the abilities that another person who has the same job title as yours would have to have to meet the job's basic requirements or even before in the interview or even prior to this - when job searching.
Scan the lines below for some examples of job-specific skills for different occupations before conducting a job search. You may not see your occupation listed, but you'll get an idea of the difference between these skills and the general skills we talked about before. Your job specific skills are usually listed on your resume, but remember the key to interviewing: It's not enough just to possess a skill or even have it written on your resume. You have to be able to verbally express it.
Please take a look at the following list of some job-specific skills areas in which proficiency is necessary in these selected occupations. I think you'll see how they differ from general skills:
Occupation - Selected Job-Specific Skills
Accountant - Accounts payable Accounts receivable Payroll
Marketing specialist - Press release writing Trade-show coordinating Forecasting
financial advisor - Series 7 license, Knowledge of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Knowledge of retirement planning and living trusts
Football player - Understanding football strategy, Staying in shape off season, Playing the position (quarterback, linebacker, tight end)
Environmental planner - Knowledge of geology and biology, Knowledge of causes and treatments for pollutants, Knowledge of the ecology of a given geographic area
Semiconductor assembler - Component parts of a wafer, Clean-room and safety procedures, Superior fine-motor control
Psychotherapist - Diagnosis of a client's health Knowledge of nonverbal behavior Cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques
Publisher - Exceptional literacy, The publishing process from "pitching" to marketing, How to evaluate books for publication
Computer programmer - Computer languages, Computer platforms, C, SQL, Perl, Java, JavaScript
Surgeon - Knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, How to make a diagnosis and prognosis, Ability to perform surgery
Office manager - Order office supplies within a budget Microsoft Office, Lotus, Peachtree software Operation of multi-line phone system
Now I'd like you to try your hand at identifying some of the job-specific skills you possess.
Job-Specific Skills Inventory
List 6 to 10 of your job-specific skills here. What abilities must you possess to start career job search and then get a job in your chosen industry? It's helpful if the skills you include are those in the job description for the new position you're interviewing for. When the employer asks you the inevitable questions, "What are your strengths?" and "What are your skills?" you will have the best of your skills for that job right at your fingertips.