How To Effectively Showcase Your Self-Taught Skills to Employers

Did you know that employers tend to hire candidates with self-taught skills in today’s job market? Your self-taught skills show enthusiasm and commitment, traits that guarantee best paying jobs in Kenya. Recruiters consider you “self-taught” if you independently study and practice to acquire new skills. Committing to self-education sets you apart in a competitive job market, boosting your chances of landing high-paying careers in Kenya. Hence, job candidates must learn to effectively showcase their self-taught skills by creating an online presence and emphasizing their abilities in job application and interview processes.

Part I: Create an Online Presence for Best Paying Jobs

A.    Create a Portfolio

A portfolio is a vital personal branding tool that enables you to get lucrative job opportunities in Kenya. It’s evidence showcasing skill development through certificates, projects, and client testimonials. Your portfolio gives you a professional identity and allows potential employers to learn about your work history and verify your skills. You can format your portfolio as a blog, document, video, or website using tools like Canva, WordPress, PortfolioBox, and Weebly.

A portfolio is an excellent way to showcase your self-taught skills and completed projects. Showcasing your achievements on accessible platforms highlights your professional brand and value to recruiters and potential contacts.

B.     Leverage Social Media

Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter are powerful tools that allow you to showcase your competencies and achievements to your networks. You can use them to share your self-taught skills, the learning resources that helped you acquire them, and the successes and challenges you have experienced when implementing self-taught competencies in your work.

A social media presence centred on self-taught skills connects you with experts in your field. It also allows you to demonstrate how your self-taught skills have influenced and defined your personal brand, attracting mentorship, employment, and collaboration opportunities. Showcasing self-taught skills on social media could land you the best-paying jobs in Kenya.

Part II: Emphasize Your Self-Taught Skills in Your Application Documents and Interview

A.    Highlight Your Self-Taught Skills

The most direct way to call potential employers’ attention to your self-taught skills is to highlight them in your CV. A resume summarizes an applicant’s education, experience, skills, and achievements. You can showcase your self-taught skills in any of the stated sections of your CV. Don’t just list them. Instead, find ways to demonstrate what those skills have helped you accomplish.

For example, if you add self-taught skills to your resume’s “skills” section, use action verbs to demonstrate how you apply the competencies in your work. Alternatively, you can showcase your self-taught skills in the “experience” section of your CV by highlighting how they helped you complete work-related projects successfully. Moreover, only include position-relevant self-taught skills on your resume and show proficiency. Doing this could impress employers who may offer you the best-paying jobs in Kenya.

B.     Emphasize the Benefits of Being Self-Taught

Apart from your CV, your cover letter is another job application document that can help you communicate the value of your self-taught skills to potential employers. Your cover letter expands on work experience, education, skills, and accomplishments, offering insights into your personal brand.

Here, you can emphasize the benefits of being a self-taught professional. You can explain that your self-education has enhanced professional development through self-management, critical thinking, discipline and initiative. Employers value such employee competencies, and emphasizing them can help you land the best-paying jobs in Kenya.

C.    Emphasize Your Practical Experience

When writing your CV and cover letter, emphasize the practical experience you have gained by applying your self-taught skills. You can list and explain the voluntary services you have offered and the freelance projects you have completed after acquiring your self-taught skills. Doing so will showcase your competencies to potential employers who appreciate job candidates who express the value they bring to an organization.

D.    Use the STAR model to Answer Interview Questions

STAR is an acronym that stands for situation, task, action, and result. Using the STAR model to prepare for and respond to interview questions enables you to showcase your self-taught skills effectively. When responding to situational and behavioural interview questions, you should start by sharing the context of your story (situation). Next, discuss your role in the situation you are explaining and highlight your goal (task). Then, explain the actions you took to facilitate goal realization or challenge aversion (action). Lastly, outline the results you achieved. During this phase of the STAR model, you can state how your self-taught skills helped you effectively resolve a problem or complete a task. This communicates competencies’ value to potential employers and demonstrates practical skills, improving your job prospects.

Conclusion

Your self-taught skills are highly valuable in today’s competitive job market. Employers want candidates who add value to their organizations and demonstrate initiative. Thus, effectively showcasing your self-taught skills to potential employers can be the push you need to land your dream job. As Jim Rohn put it, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune!”