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Skills to Competencies

Course video 10 of 28

In this module, you'll learn how to develop and apply an important strategy used in the English-language world to communicate core competencies to a prospective employer.

Interview Research and Preparation

Universidad de Maryland en College Park

Curso 1 de 5 en Interviewing and Resume Writing in English Programa Especializado

This course, the first in the "Interviewing and Resume Writing in English" specialization, guides you to discover the interests, talents and competencies that you can use to find and do work that leverages your strengths, passions and who you are as a person, so you can start doing work that matters to you and to the world. Whether you already have a career and are looking to move forward, whether you’re looking to change careers, whether you’re starting out in the world of work, whether you’re coming back into the world of work after some time away – this course will help you see your path more clearly and will teach you how to communicate your value to an employer in a way that he or she can immediately recognize. After completing this course, you will be able to 1) use your individual cognitive, social and emotional traits, together with areas of interest, to discover how to find the future jobs that can give you the greatest satisfaction; 2) identify transferable skills of greatest value to the employers who have the jobs you’re interested in; 3) apply a simple strategy for presenting your skills to an employer in an effective and convincing fashion.

Impartido por:

Charles Duquette
Lecturer/Marketing Coordinator

Transcripción

[MUSIC]

You learned in the last lesson the top ten skills that most employers seek.

Included in that list are the technical skills or

the specific sought in the job you're interested in.

In this lesson you will learn to identify specific competencies that

transform these skills into the predictors of success that top companies look for.

Those predictors of success that you will want to demonstrate.

What are competencies?

In simple terms, competency refers to a set of actions that you must

be able to carry out in order to perform well in some aspect of a job.

Now most top companies today use some form of competency based interview

questions to assess how effectively you can perform the job you're interested in.

Your answers to these questions must focus

on the competencies desired by the hiring manager.

As you'll learn in the next course, a major part of researching a position at

a company is identifying the competencies needed for that position.

At this point, I want you to think further on what you have done

that demonstrates expertise or experience.

The next lesson will focus on the tools you can use to prepare you for

this kind of competency based interviewing.

But first, I want to make sure you can distinguish competencies from skills.

Now competencies are not qualitatively different from skills,

but they are richer in content and more specific in detail.

You can think of a competency as a skill plus the knowledge of how to apply that

skill to meet the requirements of a job.

For example, you may have the ability to create a spreadsheet to tabulate data.

That's a computer skill, a Microsoft Excel skill.

But competency for say, a position as a financial analyst,

might be your experience in building spreadsheets that use the capital

asset pricing model to determine the cost of equity for a publicly traded firm.

You might have a programming skill, say, in Objective-C.

That's a skill, but competency for a game developer might be having built

an award-winning game platform with thousands of users around the world.

[MUSIC]

The concept of competency can also help you better understand the communication

skills you need for success in an English language environment.

Let's look in detail at the top four competencies associated with communication

skills.

[MUSIC]

As a competent communicator, you pay attention to communication.

It's a demonstrated priority in your work.

You ensure that others involved in a project are kept informed about plans and

developments.

You share ideas and information with others who might find them useful.

You keep your manager informed about progress and problems.

You avoid surprises.

You ensure that regular,

consistent communication takes place between all members of your team.

[MUSIC]

I hope you see that this fundamental competency of paying attention to

communication, has less to do with your language skills, and

much more to do with your attitude towards communication.

[MUSIC]

Let's look at oral communication.

As a competent oral communicator, you speak clearly and can be understood.

In the next two modules, you will learn activities that you can practice

that will help you improve your ability to be understood in English.

You continue your attention to communication here as well,

considering the expectations of your audience and your purpose for speaking.

You maintain eye contact in conversation.

Do you summarize your understanding of what others have said to prevent

communication breakdowns?

You also use reasonably correct grammar and vocabulary.

But even if your grammar and vocabulary are at a high level,

if you don't use English patterns in the way you organize your ideas,

your oral competency will suffer.

You will learn more about how English speakers

organize their speech in the next course.

There you will also learn that if you use the English patterns of organization,

you can be effective as an oral communicator even with less than

perfect grammar and vocabulary.

[MUSIC]

Now what about written communication?

As a competent written communicator, you express your ideas effectively in writing.

As with effective oral communication, it is important to

organize your written ideas clearly, and signal that organization to the reader.

You use appropriate business writing style.

And you adjust your communication to your audience and to your purpose for writing.

You'll learn more about this in the course on writing resumes and cover letters.

Now finally, what about persuasive communication?

To demonstrate persuasive communication competency, you present your ideas so

that you consider other people's concerns and issues.

You look for win-win solutions.

You involve others in a process or decision to ensure their support.

You identify and

propose solutions that benefit all parties involved in the situation.

You seek out and build relationships with others who can provide information,

intelligence and support.

You build collaborative relationships with co-workers, management and clients.

I hope you can recognize that this competency, again,

has less to do with your specific language skills and

more to do with your attitude towards communication.

You've seen with this example how competencies define behaviors

that an employer can observe.

For you, that means behaviors that you can demonstrate.

Specific behaviors that you can demonstrate through concrete evidence.

That is what you need going into an English language interview.

And it follows that you can demonstrate competency at different levels.

An entry level employee might need to demonstrate

level one oral communication skills.

While an executive will need to demonstrate skills at say,

level four or five.

I use a proficiency scale of one to five because that is common in many industries.

Now that you've learned about communication competencies, you'll have

an opportunity to rate your competencies on a one to five proficiency scale.

Using such a scale let's you chart a path for your own progress and development.

[MUSIC]

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