This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. As someone that studied I/O Psychology and spent 6 years as a Learning & Development Manager, I find this to be an important topic.

Let’s start with what is a skills gap. When applying this to your career we can simply define it as the space between your existing skills and the skills that you need to secure your intended career choice. These gaps can occur for several reason, including changes in technology, industry or workforce trends that we are unaware of. It can also occur because we simply choose to change our career path.

The next question is how do we fill these in? Well the first step is identifying them. Our time is finite, so it is extremely important that we determine what we want to do going forward first. Understanding where we want to go will allow us to come up with a plan on how to get there. Our recommendations are the following:

1. Start reaching out to your network to get a sense of the market and what opportunities are out there.
2. Conduct a job search. See what positions look most interesting to you and what the skills required are. Then assess your skills and see where the disconnect is (if any).
3. Connect with your former managers or peers to see what skills they place the most value on.

The next order of business is to figure out just how to acquire theses skills. We recommend the following for doing this:

1. Look at profiles on LinkedIn or other platforms to see what designations people hold in a specific field.
2. Assess the job descriptions for technology gaps and either take courses on sites like Coursera or watch some tutorials on YouTube. Most offer free trials, so try taking advantage of them when possible.
3. Conduct research on Google to see what learning platforms are both affordable and accessible.
4. Reach out to a Career Coach or Career Advisor (Shameless plug, I know).

There is never a bad time to reskill or upskill, so make sure that you are continually doing so!

As always, we would be glad to help you in this endeavor. Please learn more about us personally and professionally at https://www.fivestarresume.com/#team

Follow us on LinkedIn @ https://www.linkedin.com/company/five-star-resume

Regards,

John Greenblatt, CEO, Five Star Resume LLC.