Identifying Skills for a Better Paying Job

The next step to take toward finding a better paying job is to compare the skills you already have to the skills required for other jobs. Today’s CareerForce assessment is intended to help you compare skills in your current job to skills required for other jobs; jobs that are in demand, jobs that best align with your current job’s required skillset, and comparing your current job skillset to a career of interest, if you have one in mind already.

After considering this, it’s also important to consider other skills you have beyond what you use in your current job or have used in previous jobs. Any skills you possess could have potential value in paid work and identifying every skill you have could help you to find the best fitting better paying job available. You’ll want to get yourself a copy of an enduring job hunting classic, the book What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles, to guide you through this exercise. This book is commonly available to borrow for free from local libraries.

Instead of trying to jump straight into your ultimate dream job, focus on identifying a better paying job of some interest to you that you already have the skillset to pursue today, that will act as a steppingstone to help you qualify for that dream job in the future.

-            Compare your current job (or most recent one if you’re not working right now) to in-demand careers, what matches your current role, and what you might be interested in next

-            On your own paper or computer, make a list of all the skills you have, both in and outside of paid work – expect to spend a bit of time and effort on doing this well

-            Use this search for a better paying job to plan how to get to your ultimate dream job, helping you identify better paying jobs you can pursue now to help you get there

Comparing your current job to others

Visit the job seeker website for your state to perform a manual comparison to specific occupations as shown below:

Compare your experience to other in-demand jobs. Replace Procurement Clerks with the name of your current job.

Compare your experience to other jobs with closely matching skill requirements.

Compare Procurement Clerks and Purchasing Managers as an example. Click on the Purchasing Managers job title above to see the picture below.

Clicking on Purchasing Managers in the previous picture leads to information about the career like detailed job descriptions, job outlook, and average wages.

If the database for the site you're using doesn’t have an exact match for your job, try searching by key words related to your job to find the closest match available. That can still be useful for identifying other jobs that are in-demand, match closely with your current role, or seem interesting to you.

Identifying and documenting all skills you have

You have more skills than you think you have. By taking the time to sit down and identify the full depth and breadth of your skills, you give yourself the best opportunity to identify and land yourself a better paying job that you’ll at least somewhat like and do decently well. The parachute book has a few chapters that guide you through this exercise in detail, but you can simply start by brainstorming with a sheet of paper (physical or digital) and start your list. Give some thought to how to best organize your list of skills into categories so it’s easier to work with when you write your resume or tell others in conversation what you have to offer. How to do this is completely up to you, and you can change how to organize your list whenever you need to (either writing each skill on its own sticky note or digitally documenting your skills might make this easier). Once you’ve listed as many skills as you possibly can, go to your support person (and maybe a few others) and ask them if they can identify any skills they’ve observed in you that aren’t listed.

Planning your next job as part of a larger career

While the basic goal of this post and the whole Job Seeker series is to help you get a better paying job soon, it makes sense to try to land one that is a steppingstone to other jobs beyond. It’s natural for people to want to continue growing over time, and just as you want to move up from your current job, a few years from now you’ll probably want to move up again, continuing to earn more money and advance in a career.

Again, the parachute book comes in handy for this section. It includes a guide for how to not only identify transferrable skills, but also how to gain skills in steppingstone jobs that help you be fully prepared for your dream job further down the road. If you’re not sure what your dream job is yet, that’s okay. Then it might make more sense to just focus on getting a higher paying job. That said, keep this concept and the book in mind for when you do decide on what your dream job is, and then start planning out your path to that job through other ones that will give you the requisite skills and experience.

Conclusion

Assess how prepared you are to move up to a higher paying job today. There are tools available for you to compare skills between your current (or most recent) job and other jobs out there. Take a full inventory of all skills you think you have, then check with at least one other person to make sure you didn’t miss anything. After you’ve done those things, consider how your next job will not only pay better but also help you get to future jobs that pay even better, and eventually help you land your dream job as the pinnacle of your career. Doing all these things will help further illuminate all the possibilities within your career landscape!

Log into your job seeker account and complete your Compare Skills assessment right away!

The next step on the roadmap: Assessing Your Interests