Skills To Learn While In Between Jobs

Recruiting Daily welcomes once again our good friend and guest blogger this week – Ken Sundheim

The main reason why job seekers who are out of work fail to accomplish or obtain the positions that they set out to is mainly due to what they learn and the skills the acquire in between their jobs. The #1 issue is that job seekers focus too much on finding employment and not enough time on self-growth that, subsequently leads to professional advancement, more demand and higher pay for their services on the open market.

Below, you will find some skills that are helpful for any job seeker to learn while unemployed and that can greatly assist in your job search and, subsequently heighten your various compensation offerings upon finding the right job. Keep in mind that just because you are learning these skills does not mean that you have to go into a position that solely focuses on them, but consider these learned traits to be the “cherry on top.”

Any Technology Skills – Programming Is Always A Start 
Small to mid-size companies typically have to outsource all of their programming. Consistently, this proves to be a huge cost to these firms as most programmers overcharge. Learning basic.php or .html looks great on your resume and will catch the eye of any firm currently being charged hundreds of dollars per hour every time they wish to make a tweak to their website.

Search Engine Optimization and Effective PPC Implementation 
All companies want to rank highly in the Google ranking or “SERPs” as they’re most commonly referred to. Conversely, some wish to implement an easier, timelier solution that comes in the form of PPC, an acronym for pay per click. PPC is the bidding on Google search terms so a company can, in the most cost effective manner possible, appear on the Google ads section of a potential client search.

Truly becoming accustomed and becoming an expert at these two marketing forms will make employers feel as if they are hiring someone important who can wear multiple hats at the organization. These are two key points of knowledge and, once learned and on your resume, you ought to see a greater demand for your services. Again, this does not translate to you having to be in marketing. It’s just icing on the cake.

Consultative Selling, Persuasion and Negotiation Techniques 
In life, we are constantly selling ourselves. The same is true in interviews. Even though you may have a strong distaste for sales, learning basic consultative selling techniques, persuasion techniques and negotiation techniques are a feather in your resume’s cap.

Not only do these look good on your resume, but they will help you land more offers, obtain a higher salary and will help you better deal with the different personalities at the office.

Even better, your initial contact into these companies as well as your follow-ups, will be more effective than the others applying who did not do this work. The question you must ask yourself is, “If I am selling myself during interviews as well as life, should I become better at it?” Out of the other skills mentioned thus far, I believe these three to be the most important.

About the Author: Ken Sundheim runs KAS Executive Recruiters a New York executive sales and marketing recruiting firm. KAS helps both U.S. and International mid to large size firms form sales teams from hiring the executive level sales manager to helping recent college graduates transition to a business development role. On his free time, Ken is a public speaker and likes to read non-fiction.

[Image Source: Renjith Krishnan]

By Tim Spagnola