Skills you might not know you have

You may have been working as a food server for the last five years and you are good at it but your feet need a rest. You want... no, you need a different job if you want to save your feet and maybe even your mind, but you do not have the experience or the schooling for any kind of other work. Or maybe, with all the paperwork that comes over your desk you can't see past it to a promotion and it burns you out. Or the factory you are working in doesn't appreciate your mechanical ability and you are frustrated.

Did you know that a good server learns by hands on experience, salesmanship and a bit of accounting? A good clerk acquires an eye for detail, and a good memory. A factory worker who wants his or her job to be easier, implements time management to do it more efficiently.

All of these attributes, if worded correctly, could open doors to better paying jobs or totally different careers.

With the right keywords and good examples of your skills, skills that you may have been taking for granted, an honest, professional-quality resume and cover letter is your key to other career doors.

List your skills

Get a notebook and a pen; sit at a table in a quiet room; get comfortable. Since your career choices are on your mind, list some jobs you think you might like to do; be reasonable; do not write brain surgeon if you only have a high school education unless you plan on going back to school for the next seven years. Next to each of them, list what you think that job entails, the duties, the physical and mental requirements, and the benefits, including pay, insurance and perks. Now list what your present or last job entails. Think objectively not bitterly.

That exercise roughly lists what you can do and what you are willing to do and I would bet there is more than one skill common to your job and the wish jobs you have listed.

Sometimes the difference is merely a matter of jargon or scale, and that difference can be noted in your cover letter. In fact, I used a comparison in a cover letter of my own. I applied for the position of service planner in a trucking firm that requires knowledge of shipping and trucking, and a college degree, neither of which I have. But by stressing my organizational skills as a banquet director and willingness to learn their jargon, I am in favorable contention for the job, a job that pays fifteen thousand dollars more than my present job.

So, the skills you possess can easily be translated into another, more satisfying career.