Skills Assessment: Why Do One?
29 September 2006
Read by 1804 persons
Want to change jobs or companies? Or just see if you can still improve? You're ready for a skills assessment. An effective way to take a step back from your abilities and aspirations.
Are you fully satisfied with your work? Or do you need to take stock of your career? A skills assessment allows you to analyze your skills and motivations to redefine a project. Whether it's improving in your job, changing jobs, or taking training.
A skills assessment is not only a preliminary step to a conversion imposed by the employer or a downturn. It is never more effective than when it is part of a personal approach, a prelude to a new boost in your career or business project. It's a kind of compass, or even a real GPS system for your future!
First step: reconstruct your career path
The challenge: it's about revisiting your past, in order to identify the potential drivers, springs, levers, blockages or brakes that have determined your professional evolution.
How to analyze your career path
Many factors have been decisive in your professional career. It is first important to take stock of them. This first step may seem superfluous. In fact, it determines the success of the approach.
• "Start with your initial and continuing education," advises Dominique Feder, consultant, director at the Inter-institutional Skills Assessment Center in Montreuil.
• List all the stages of your career path to date (possibly using the table opposite as inspiration). Then reflect on each stage using the questions listed below.
• Identify your way of working. Some people change jobs every three years, others every five years. And you? How and when do you move? Do you notice constants, repetitions, progress, breaks?
• Did you choose or rather undergo your professional evolution?
• Which of your missions were the most successful or rewarding, in which positions and in what context do you think you failed?
• What motivated your career changes? Remuneration, attraction to novelty? What events and people helped you change?
Second step: take stock of your current situation
The challenge: to take a complete inventory of your current job, your motivations, your skills, and your potential frustrations. This will allow you to identify avenues for designing a new professional orientation.
How to analyze your current situation
It is a matter of carrying out a real diagnosis of your situation in the company. And to assess the extent to which it meets your aspirations.
• Identify as completely as possible the elements of satisfaction and dissatisfaction involved in your current position. Function, remuneration, missions, responsibilities, mobility, degree of autonomy, possibilities of evolution, material advantages (bonuses, company car), relational climate, accessibility... Leave nothing to chance. For example, you may find your salary satisfactory, but your position too technical and repetitive. All this will be taken into account during the project development phase.
• Identify the reasons for your desire for change (fleeing a bad relational climate, etc.). This analysis should allow you to prioritize your motivations.
• "Any change has a price," emphasizes Caroline Durand, head of the skills assessment sector at the Association pour l'emploi des cadres (Apec). Be aware of this. Know exactly what you are willing or unwilling to give up."
How to identify your skills
• It is a matter of taking stock of your professional abilities, whether they are used today or not, and of characterizing the level of mastery of your knowledge and know-how. Objective: to see what is transferable or reusable in another profession. List everything you can do. Even distant skills, once updated, can serve your new project. Who knows, with equal CVs, the fact that you speak 100 words of Chinese can influence recruitment.
• Break down each position. Example. Being a salesperson means: creating a prospect file, negotiating a sale, presenting a soporific book attractively...
• "List your knowledge and identify that which is directly operational for the intended profession," recommends Muriel Mounoury, director of the IMPC firm (Institute of Management and Promotion of Executives, subsidiary of the Avendi group). Thus, a research manager in insurance became a commercial inspector without undergoing any particular training. He simply used certain skills acquired during his first experience... For example, he knew how to take out contracts, he had mastery of the regulatory environment (taxation, labor law...)
• "Also think about the extra-professional field," adds Brigitte Cros, advisor at the Office for Information on Professional Guidance of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. You are a football referee on weekends. Do you use your skills (making quick decisions, being impartial...) in your current job?
How to take stock of your personality
This step allows you to become aware of your behavior in a professional context: relationships with your superiors and subordinates, stress resistance, ability to delegate...
• List your strengths and the points you consider weak. "See if the latter can be a hindrance to your project," underlines Virginie Robin, consultant at IMPC. Are you shy? As a management controller, you can be appreciated for your discretion. On the other hand, if you want to hold a position in a sales function, urgently take a public communication training course, or change your project!
• "Compare your opinion with that of your entourage. The differences are often striking," observes Claudine Duvivier, consultant at Taillandier Conseil (Taillandier Group, human resources consulting). Which is sometimes a source of problems. Imagine a marketing director who considers himself an excellent manager, while his teams, on the contrary, believe that he does not delegate anything. The situation can quickly deteriorate!
Third step: build your project
The challenge: to develop a professional project and define a plan of action. You can choose to change jobs or sectors, to completely retrain, to create your business, to take training...
How to define your project
This is the time to cross-reference all the elements you have gathered so far (motivations, skills, strengths...) to identify a common thread. Example: during the tests, you have brought out your desire for independence and your desire to create a new product. You have also highlighted your management talents. These three elements put together give you serious assets to create your business, as you have been thinking about for a long time.
• To define your project, "ask yourself what your most pointed talents are, those that you can sell most easily," recommends Francis Binoche, consultant at Garon Bonvalot, one of the major career reorientation firms.
• To nourish a concrete and realistic approach, "don't hesitate to dream your professional fantasies," adds Francis Binoche. Thus, this executive of a major employer's organization had launched, half jokingly, that he wanted to join the Guide du routard to organize trips. Taken at his word, he worked on this idea during the assessment, and landed an international position in the company where he worked.
How to validate it
• Check that your project is consistent with the job market.
"Your project must be realistic," insists Caroline Durand, from Apec. Then, your project must be feasible. You have a product idea. But will you have customers, will you meet their needs, and what will your competition be?
• Meet professionals in the sector concerned. Call them, explain that you are doing a skills assessment, that you need their expertise to define your project and refine your offer.
- If you work in a large group and want to move internally, "contact the HR department or directly the department that interests you," recommends Claudine Duvivier.
• Document yourself on your product or sector from Apec, chambers of commerce and industry, by going to trade shows, browsing the internet...
• Establish an action plan. Match your objectives with a short, medium and long-term schedule.
L’Entreprise.com
Are you fully satisfied with your work? Or do you need to take stock of your career? A skills assessment allows you to analyze your skills and motivations to redefine a project. Whether it's improving in your job, changing jobs, or taking training.
A skills assessment is not only a preliminary step to a conversion imposed by the employer or a downturn. It is never more effective than when it is part of a personal approach, a prelude to a new boost in your career or business project. It's a kind of compass, or even a real GPS system for your future!
First step: reconstruct your career path
The challenge: it's about revisiting your past, in order to identify the potential drivers, springs, levers, blockages or brakes that have determined your professional evolution.
How to analyze your career path
Many factors have been decisive in your professional career. It is first important to take stock of them. This first step may seem superfluous. In fact, it determines the success of the approach.
• "Start with your initial and continuing education," advises Dominique Feder, consultant, director at the Inter-institutional Skills Assessment Center in Montreuil.
• List all the stages of your career path to date (possibly using the table opposite as inspiration). Then reflect on each stage using the questions listed below.
• Identify your way of working. Some people change jobs every three years, others every five years. And you? How and when do you move? Do you notice constants, repetitions, progress, breaks?
• Did you choose or rather undergo your professional evolution?
• Which of your missions were the most successful or rewarding, in which positions and in what context do you think you failed?
• What motivated your career changes? Remuneration, attraction to novelty? What events and people helped you change?
Second step: take stock of your current situation
The challenge: to take a complete inventory of your current job, your motivations, your skills, and your potential frustrations. This will allow you to identify avenues for designing a new professional orientation.
How to analyze your current situation
It is a matter of carrying out a real diagnosis of your situation in the company. And to assess the extent to which it meets your aspirations.
• Identify as completely as possible the elements of satisfaction and dissatisfaction involved in your current position. Function, remuneration, missions, responsibilities, mobility, degree of autonomy, possibilities of evolution, material advantages (bonuses, company car), relational climate, accessibility... Leave nothing to chance. For example, you may find your salary satisfactory, but your position too technical and repetitive. All this will be taken into account during the project development phase.
• Identify the reasons for your desire for change (fleeing a bad relational climate, etc.). This analysis should allow you to prioritize your motivations.
• "Any change has a price," emphasizes Caroline Durand, head of the skills assessment sector at the Association pour l'emploi des cadres (Apec). Be aware of this. Know exactly what you are willing or unwilling to give up."
How to identify your skills
• It is a matter of taking stock of your professional abilities, whether they are used today or not, and of characterizing the level of mastery of your knowledge and know-how. Objective: to see what is transferable or reusable in another profession. List everything you can do. Even distant skills, once updated, can serve your new project. Who knows, with equal CVs, the fact that you speak 100 words of Chinese can influence recruitment.
• Break down each position. Example. Being a salesperson means: creating a prospect file, negotiating a sale, presenting a soporific book attractively...
• "List your knowledge and identify that which is directly operational for the intended profession," recommends Muriel Mounoury, director of the IMPC firm (Institute of Management and Promotion of Executives, subsidiary of the Avendi group). Thus, a research manager in insurance became a commercial inspector without undergoing any particular training. He simply used certain skills acquired during his first experience... For example, he knew how to take out contracts, he had mastery of the regulatory environment (taxation, labor law...)
• "Also think about the extra-professional field," adds Brigitte Cros, advisor at the Office for Information on Professional Guidance of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry. You are a football referee on weekends. Do you use your skills (making quick decisions, being impartial...) in your current job?
How to take stock of your personality
This step allows you to become aware of your behavior in a professional context: relationships with your superiors and subordinates, stress resistance, ability to delegate...
• List your strengths and the points you consider weak. "See if the latter can be a hindrance to your project," underlines Virginie Robin, consultant at IMPC. Are you shy? As a management controller, you can be appreciated for your discretion. On the other hand, if you want to hold a position in a sales function, urgently take a public communication training course, or change your project!
• "Compare your opinion with that of your entourage. The differences are often striking," observes Claudine Duvivier, consultant at Taillandier Conseil (Taillandier Group, human resources consulting). Which is sometimes a source of problems. Imagine a marketing director who considers himself an excellent manager, while his teams, on the contrary, believe that he does not delegate anything. The situation can quickly deteriorate!
Third step: build your project
The challenge: to develop a professional project and define a plan of action. You can choose to change jobs or sectors, to completely retrain, to create your business, to take training...
How to define your project
This is the time to cross-reference all the elements you have gathered so far (motivations, skills, strengths...) to identify a common thread. Example: during the tests, you have brought out your desire for independence and your desire to create a new product. You have also highlighted your management talents. These three elements put together give you serious assets to create your business, as you have been thinking about for a long time.
• To define your project, "ask yourself what your most pointed talents are, those that you can sell most easily," recommends Francis Binoche, consultant at Garon Bonvalot, one of the major career reorientation firms.
• To nourish a concrete and realistic approach, "don't hesitate to dream your professional fantasies," adds Francis Binoche. Thus, this executive of a major employer's organization had launched, half jokingly, that he wanted to join the Guide du routard to organize trips. Taken at his word, he worked on this idea during the assessment, and landed an international position in the company where he worked.
How to validate it
• Check that your project is consistent with the job market.
"Your project must be realistic," insists Caroline Durand, from Apec. Then, your project must be feasible. You have a product idea. But will you have customers, will you meet their needs, and what will your competition be?
• Meet professionals in the sector concerned. Call them, explain that you are doing a skills assessment, that you need their expertise to define your project and refine your offer.
- If you work in a large group and want to move internally, "contact the HR department or directly the department that interests you," recommends Claudine Duvivier.
• Document yourself on your product or sector from Apec, chambers of commerce and industry, by going to trade shows, browsing the internet...
• Establish an action plan. Match your objectives with a short, medium and long-term schedule.
L’Entreprise.com
