Are you confident in your professional life that you have a lot to offer your employer? Are you confident that your real skills, knowledge and experience will be of value as you do your job?
Everyone has areas where they feel insecure and stressed. That is particularly true when someone is looking for a new job, or currently having issues at their current job.
Dictionary.com defines COMPETENCE as the “quality or state of having sufficient knowledge, judgment, skill, or strength for a particular duty.”
No one denies her competence as a leader.
Dictionary.com defines CONFIDENCE as “having strong belief or full assurance; sure of oneself; having no uncertainty about one’s own abilities, correctness, successfulness.”
He described the situation with such confidence that the audience believed him completely.
So, what is the difference between these two words?
We can only be confident if we are competent. There are things you can do to improve your competence in the context of looking for a job:
- Review a job description in detail to identify areas of competence required to be successful in that particular role. What do you need to know? What do you need to be able to do?
- Rank yourself on a scale of 1 > 5 on your level of competence for each of the job’s specific requirements.
- Can you put words to your confidence in both your resume and in an interview? What are you good at, and what do you like to do that is relevant for this job? You need to be able to tell stories about these things.
- If there are areas where you know you are not competent, what can you do about it? Do you need professional training? Do you need more on-the-job training? It is your responsibility to identify these things and do something about them. If you can, you will be surprised at how much your confidence grows.
One of the things I like about writing resumes is that it gives people a chance to think about what they are good at, what they know, and what they can do. For 20 years, I have had people tell me they have more confidence in themselves after working with me. It’s a pretty great feeling (and gives me confidence in myself and my abilities as a resume writer)!
If you want to gain more confidence about your job and career, please schedule a call to discuss ways that I can help. There is no charge for your initial consultation!