Taking Stock of Your Pantry and Your Skills

In today's crazy world of bombings, gas attacks, and natural disasters we should all take a few minutes to look at our pantries to see if we could last a couple of days with no outside contact. Here in Indiana there are many advertisements for "stockpiling" food, tornado shelters, etc.  Since I have been canning like a crazy lady I have quite a bit of food stored and I have some bottled water. I will check to make sure that I have batteries and matches as recommended.  This seems to be the norm here.  

But how many of us take stock of our personal and business skill sets?  Not many I imagine; which makes it difficult to tell someone what your skills are off the cuff when looking for a new position.  I mentioned  LinkedIn previously and this is a great place to start to take stock of your skills.  You can also just start an Excel spreadsheet, below I show how I have mine set up.  I started by just adding what I use and what I do on a daily basis, then I added the level I felt I was at, and lastly calculated how long I have been using it (this will help you determine the level you are at).

Type	Skill	Level	Yrs Used
Professional	Excel	Advanced	17
Professional	Word	Advanced	17
Professional	Internet	Advanced	17
Professional	Supply chain	Expert	22
Professional	SC Operations	Expert	22

I also have my personal skills included.  You would be surprised how your personal skills can be transferred to professional jobs.  As an example, if you are an artist and love to create things at home, say paintings and crafty things,  you would be a great candidate for a creative design job.  You can take pictures of what you have done, invitations, paintings, etc to use as part of a job application. Having it all down on paper or in excel makes it easy to see the transfer of skills.  

Another example could be that you are a great party planner, so good that other people ask for your help in planning parties.  Why not get paid for that skill? There are corporate event planners at most large companies and you can use your personal skill to help you land a professional position.  

Documenting your skills also shows you where you have a gap or weakness.  It can also boost your morale!  Most people have skills that they don't even think of as a skill and most are transferable.  Ask your friends what skills they think you have and include them on your list. You can then compare your skill set with job opportunities to see if you qualify for a position. 

Finding the right job is a job in and of itself, but if you take the time to do the work you will find you are more qualified for  positions than you think.  I am also  learning that it is more important to find the right fit with a company from culture to vision and values than it is to just find a job.  I am on a search for the best "last" job of my career, and it takes a lot of work to find the right company to fit into  my goals and values the same things I do.

I am off to write labels for the 19 quarts of tomato sauce I canned yesterday.