This Key Strengths Offer page is here to help you to define your own key strengths - in other words, the unique things about you as a potential employee, that ultimately convince the employer of your value and get YOU noticed as someone they will want to hire. It is worth taking some time to get this part of your job search campaign right, because it will underpin so many other things you do such as writing your CV or resume and preparing your covering letters.

Individual key strengths fall into many different areas but you should look at the list of ideas I've given you below and think about whether you consider any of these should be in your own list.

The key to getting taken on or hired for a new job lies in your ability to prepare a great self introduction to describe yourself in clear terms, so that the potential new employer knows exactly what they will be getting if they decide to go ahead and employ you.

Removing doubt or uncertainty about your capability is just as important as stating your abilities and is the basis for your own key strengths offer.

Ten Examples Of Key Strengths

In the list below are 10 examples of key strengths that add value to an organization and are therefore of particular interest to a new organization. Most people will have some involvement with these areas of commercial activity; do you see anything that you regard yourself being good at? These statements form an important part of your personal marketing.

1. Commercial performance

   Improve profits through increased sales and better cost control. Can you demonstrate any achievements or ways you have contributed to improving the bottom line?

2. Marketing and selling

   Attract new customers and retain existing ones by ensuring excellent customer service. Have you been involved with customers and brought in new accounts or extended the value of existing customers.

3. Productivity

   Increase productivity by introducing improvements to working methods. If you have improved productivity by doing something faster or more efficiently, your key strengths offer is instantly strengthened.

4. Developing People

   Enhance the performance of your team through development tasks, continuous learning and training. Whether in a formal people management role or as a team leader, or merely someone who has been able to get the best out of others, this skill 'future proofs' your own employability.

5. Financial resources and controls

   Reduce costs by streamlining procedures, keeping better records and cutting back on waste. Good administration and financial management are the dual supporting factors for the viability of commercial organizations and if you can demonstrate how you generated savings through good use of these skills, you immediately become of more interest to the new employer.

6. Intellectual property

   Ensure that patents and copyrights are protected. Identify ways to exploit the potential of new ideas. All businesses need to protect and exploit their own inventions and your successes in this area can protect the future income streams of the organization.

7. Innovation

   Generate or encourage ideas for new products, services and markets through managing a project team. Have you been creative in coming up with new ideas that took off? Have you interpreted clients' requirements in a new way? New ideas and creativity are the lifeblood of many businesses.

8. Human resources

   Motivate staff to perform to high standards. Act as business partner to line management. Without the performance and commitment of their people, organizations fail. Your ability to motivate people to high standards is something that a high value will be placed upon.

9. Social responsibility

   Help make the workplace safe by setting an example for meeting health and safety standards. Compliance with legislation keeps colleagues safe and customers happy. As part of your key strengths offer, don't forget this valuable addition to your skill set.

10. Strategic information

    Manage access to information on all aspects of the organization's activities. Maintain knowledge communication and updating. Knowledge management is becoming ever more important as organizations become more diverse. If you can keep knowledge up to date and disseminated effectively you help the organisation the maintain it's commercial edge.

Your Own Key Strengths Offer

If you can include a number of the above in your own key strengths offer, then you can be confident that the hiring manager will want to know more.

Try to identify 5 or 6 areas that you are active in and good at, then write yourself a short paragraph or two that describes your strength. Write in short descriptive sentences that say what you do and what good results have had that demonstrate this as a key strength.

In your CV, you can use a version of your key strengths offer to illustrate your core competences. This example below, for a senior executive, will show you what I mean:

Core Competencies

• Planning, implementing and spearheading innovative market development strategies and initiatives; developing new routes to market and achieving targets for financial and trading performance.
• Transforming and running substantial commercial operations for highly profitable growth: effectively managing company budgets, P&L and working capital targets. Managing the human capital for peak performance and removing low producers.
• Recruiting, selecting and developing high performing individuals; an inspirational leader who creates an exceptionally strong team ethos and motivates large, multi-disciplinary and technical teams, whilst maintaining and developing organisational culture, values and reputation.
• Identifying changing market trends, product requirements and imperative market sectors for rapid growth and market share. Enabling effective development of highly successful strategic growth plans to ensure current and future sustainability without compromising customer service or product development.
• Providing visionary leadership as a skilful and persuasive communicator with excellent presentation and negotiation skills, liaising effectively at all levels and across different cultures throughout Europe, America, Africa and the Far East.

An example of your key strengths like that will fit very comfortably on your CV and positioned just below your CV summary, gives the reader a very good first impression of your capabilities.

You are here: Key Strengths Offer - now be sure to visit the main Key Strengths page for extra reading and information about defining your own key strengths offer.

You will probably also want to visit UK CV Writing for information about how I can make use of your particular key strengths offer in your CV or continue to Interview Questions for help with using your strengths to answer interview questions.

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Looking for something specific about your job search for professionals or senior executives to help you define your own key strengths offer?

Go to Find A Job for more professional job-search help with links to job search engines.

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