How to Leverage Strengths in a Job Search
Discovering and leveraging personal strengths can be a game-changer in today's competitive job market. This article delves into expert-backed strategies for identifying and showcasing your unique talents throughout the job search process. From reframing soft skills to uncovering hidden abilities, these insights will empower job seekers to present their most compelling selves to potential employers.
- Reframe Soft Skills as Strategic Assets
- Uncover Hidden Talents Through Deep Assessment
- Transform Diverse Background into Unique Value
- Craft Compelling Personal Brand from Experience
- Leverage CliftonStrengths for Career Confidence
- Turn Everyday Actions into Standout Qualities
Reframe Soft Skills as Strategic Assets
I work with Fortune 500 and above senior leaders through C-Suite mainly in Insurance, Healthcare, and Tech sectors. What I find is that some of my clients tend to work in silos.
I am currently working with a senior leader who perfectly matches this scenario. During our job search/landing coaching sessions and preparation of her career branding documents, I discovered that she has a unique talent for creating processes and systems to get results by leveraging her natural strategic mindset. She initially saw herself as only "good with people," but I found that her way of being good with people yielded business results. I coached her to reframe how she saw herself and develop a new mindset to see herself as a strategist who happens to use people and processes to achieve the type of business results she was able to accomplish. She was astonished, as she had never thought of herself as a strategist.
Often, women leaders use "soft" competencies to describe themselves. I work to help them see themselves as "intrapreneurs" within organizations so they understand they are there to help run a business and increase the bottom line - not just be friendly with people. The latter is just a bonus.
Most of my clients leave with a new sense of self and even a framework they can "sell" to the highest bidder by way of salary negotiation.
I coached the client on how to brand herself as a strategist both on paper and verbally when interviewing. I even had her looking for more jobs that play to her strength as a strategist, as those roles pay more than what she was originally seeking. She now has a new sense of who she really is and is looking for roles that align with her strength, with the salary to match.
Uncover Hidden Talents Through Deep Assessment
I once worked with a client who felt stuck in their job search. They had a diverse background but struggled to articulate their unique value to potential employers. My approach involved a deep-dive assessment of their experiences, not just focusing on job titles and responsibilities, but also exploring projects they were most proud of and tasks they genuinely enjoyed. Through targeted questioning, we identified recurring themes and skills that consistently led to positive outcomes for them.
One key strength that emerged was their exceptional ability to build rapport and foster strong relationships, even in challenging situations. While their resume listed roles in customer service and account management, it didn't truly highlight this interpersonal prowess. To leverage this, we reframed their experiences in their resume and practiced storytelling techniques for interviews, emphasizing specific instances where their relationship-building skills directly resulted in successful outcomes, such as retaining key clients or resolving complex issues. This shift in focus, highlighting their inherent strength rather than just their job history, significantly increased their confidence and helped them stand out to hiring managers. They ultimately landed a role that heavily relied on their ability to cultivate and maintain client relationships, a position where their unique strength became a significant asset.
Transform Diverse Background into Unique Value
A church clergy member enrolled in an MBA program and sought to pivot to product management. We worked on developing their value proposition based on their clergy-based persuasion, influence, and leadership skills, as well as their newly developed technical and business skills. The goal was to deliver a message of value-added and impact attributes in both individual and team-based situations.
We used my Wheel, Hub & Spoke methodology to develop their value proposition, making it agnostic to their prior career roles. This positioned them to the client, Amazon, in a manner different from typical MBA students, and enabled the company to judge them on their impact-potential rather than their prior roles and tasks. They were initially hired for an internship and subsequently transitioned to a full-time product management role.
Craft Compelling Personal Brand from Experience
One client came to me thinking she had to start over because her background was "too random." I helped her reframe her experience—showing her how her skills in operations, hiring, and project management made her the perfect candidate for a remote tech role.
We mapped her strengths into a clear personal brand, optimized her LinkedIn profile, and used targeted networking to bypass online applications. She landed a $45K salary increase without needing another degree or certification—just the right strategy.
Leverage CliftonStrengths for Career Confidence
I use the CliftonStrengths assessment to help clients identify, articulate, and intentionally utilize their strengths to be more effective in their career as well as personal life. The assessment is a trusted tool that has been honed over decades of research. My recent client is a lawyer who used to try to be good at everything and get frustrated often. Once he figured out his top 5 strengths using this assessment, he felt calmer and more confident that he could lean into his unique strengths, and manage his weaknesses rather than waste so much energy working on them just to improve them a little.
Turn Everyday Actions into Standout Qualities
I recall working with an individual who felt invisible in their job search, convinced that their experience was too ordinary to stand out. During our conversation, I noticed how effortlessly they connected stories from different jobs, weaving together details in a way that made everything seem clear and engaging.
It was evident to me that they possessed a genuine gift for communication, even if they did not recognize it themselves.
Instead of immediately rewriting their resume, I asked them to recount times at work when they felt proud. They described helping a new team member settle in and how they managed to defuse a tense situation between coworkers.
We discussed how these moments demonstrated leadership and empathy, not just routine job skills. Together, we shaped their applications to highlight these qualities. Observing them realize that their everyday actions were actually valuable strengths was rewarding.
