26 | LOOKING FOR A JOB | COMPETENCE ASSESSMENT AND RESEARCH Identify your competences – what can you do and what do you want to do? We talk about them all the time. Competences. You have heard the word competences over and over again: while you were studying, at your unemployment insurance fund, at companies, and when you meet with a career consultant at IDA? And you do so because competences are your product – the goods that you need to sell. What can you do and what do you want to do? In order to land a job, you need to know the answer to those questions – but those questions aren’t always easy to answer. Matching what you have learned during your studies, through voluntary work, a student job or something else with what companies are looking for can be challenging, especially for new graduates. If you’re not sure about what you can do and what you want to do, you won’t be able to present it clearly to potential employers who place great emphasis on YOU being able to tell them about what competences you have that are relevant to the specific job. It’s therefore necessary that you clarify what your competences are before you begin writing a CV and cover letter. Competence assessment is the foundation of your job search. The three types of competences We distinguish between personal, social and professional competences: All three types of competences are equally important to succeed in a job. But it’s important to highlight your professional competences in your job search material, because these are the competences companies screen for before a possible job interview. Professional competences cover the specialist knowledge you have from your studies and work experience within natural science, technology or IT. Your personal competences are curiosity, power of observation and creativity, for example. Your social competences are collaboration, communication and coordination, for example. You won’t be called in for an interview because you »think creatively«, children can do that too. You’ll be called in for an interview because you clearly presented the professional competences that the company needs. Focus is therefore on professional competences in the job search material. In our experience, those are the competences that IDA members have the most difficulty highlighting.
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