It is easy to stop developing your skills once you land a job. However, if you want to improve your career prospects, it's crucial that you continue to acquire a variety of skills and keep developing them. Whether you’re seeking a promotion or looking for a job that will advance your career, developing the following skills will allow you to be in a better position for success.
1. Effective communication
Your ability to communicate clearly and listen to others is important. It is crucial for employers to see how well you build rapport, persuade, and negotiate.
Speaking, listening, and writing are all forms of communication. Clarity and effectiveness are key factors employers look for in job applicants and promotions. You can become a good listener by understanding others' emotions, building strong relationships and resolving conflicts. Provide specific examples of where you've used these skills in your CV or application form. You can also create a report to show your employer these achievements if you’re seeking an internal promotion.
2. Management of time and deadlines
With the progression of your career, chances your responsibilities will grow as well. Therefore, you should hone in on your time management and deadline management skills as your workload increases. In order to increase productivity in the workplace, time management skills are essential.
3. Research and planning skills
Depending on the work you need to accomplish, you will need a strategy and action plan. It may be necessary to gather information from a variety of sources in order to accomplish this. In this case, what matters is how you analyse, interpret and report the findings. Research and planning skills are vital if you want to improve your career prospects, as developing them will enable you to get better insights into your industry as well.
4. Being able to learn from criticism
Receiving feedback can be intimidating, especially when you're just starting out. The most important thing is learning how to take criticism on board to improve your career prospects. Consider all criticism as opportunities to improve. Don't shy away from them; show people that you are happy to work on things and are taking their feedback to make improvements. You can also demonstrate this at an interview by offering examples from your previous experience.
5. Work ethic and professionalism
This point goes hand in hand with the previously made one. It is important for employers to see that you are personally accountable for your actions and work habits. You should arrive on time, work productively with others, and understand the impact of non-verbal communication. Show integrity and ethical behaviour by taking responsibility and learning from your mistakes.
6. Collaboration
There is not a single job that does not require you to work effectively and respectfully with other people, whether they are your co-workers or clients. Employers want someone who can motivate others and bring out their best.
7. Adaptability
Employers want to know that their employees can adapt to new situations and learn new skills in the workplace. Additionally, employers will recognise that you are a good leader who can handle challenges well by possessing this skill. If you are already employed, make sure to highlight this whenever new issues arise. If you want to demonstrate this in your CV, you can use examples of when you learned new skills or processes at your previous job.