30 Mar How to Talk About Your Professional Skills

Despite the economic downturn brought on by COVID-19, the real estate job market has skyrocketed as a result of the booming housing market. And that has meant plenty of vacancies for Leasing Consultants, Property Managers and Buyers Agents amongst others.

The fact that many of these roles can be delivered without exhaustive qualifications means it’s an industry ripe for job seekers possessing transferable skills such as sales, customer service and negotiation.

But how do you get your foot in the door and prove to hiring managers that you can get the job done? In this article, we look at how you can present your existing skillset and snap up that new job in real estate.

1. Conduct a Self-Assessment

Before you start preparing for your job application or interview, sit down and take a good hard look at yourself. It can sometimes be difficult to think about all of your accomplishments or rattle off what you think you’re good at. A good way to start is looking back at your resume to see what jumps out and to think about previous discussions with managers as part of performance reviews.

If you’re still stuck, ask your friends to give their honest opinion about your strengths and examples of times you’ve shared job successes with them. Are you persuasive and able to spin a good story? Or maybe you’re highly organised and possess great time management skills? Perhaps you’re an excellent team leader and have experience mentoring and coaching staff?

2. Consider the Employer

Job descriptions will often list out the skills and attributes employers are looking for as part of the recruitment process. This can be a great exercise in matching your existing skillset with what they’ve advertised. Don’t be daunted if you don’t exactly match every single point on the list – quite often there are skills that are essential, and others that are just nice to have.

You can also use these skills as keywords in your job application and interview. If the job is for a Leasing Agent who has strong negotiation skills and knowledge of the industry, you can weave those keywords and phrases into your cover letter and build interview answers around them.

3. Think About Point, Evidence, Explain

A handy tip when thinking about explaining your accomplishments is Point, Evidence, Explain – or PEE for short. The idea is that you shouldn’t try to sell a skill without having some evidence to back it up.

You can tell a hiring manager that you are good with conflict resolution but it will be the example you talk through as evidence to back up your claim that will truly demonstrate your capabilities. So make your point, provide the evidence to back it up and then explain how your evidence supports your point.

This is similar to the STAR methodology used when answering interview questions, which stands for

It’s worth preparing a few examples before you go into any interview so you’re not caught off guard and unable to answer. As with the point above, look at the key skills included in the job description and think of some scenarios from your previous roles that demonstrate you can deliver.

Summary

Competition for talent is fierce across all industries, and now more than ever employers are looking for people with transferable skills who can be trained on the job.
If you are looking to get into the real estate industry and seeking advice on the best way to position your existing skillset, get in touch with our real estate recruitment specialists today.