Taking your awesomeness to the next level

Unless you’re Barney Stinson from TV’s “How I Met Your Mother,” you need a lot more than awesomeness to find a job these days.

One of the things we’re constantly coaching job seekers on is identifying transferrable (and awesome) skills. These days, it’s especially important as more people need to find out how to match their abilities to the fewer jobs that are available. True story. In fact, CareerBuilder research found that 71 percent of workers who were laid off from full-time jobs and have not found new positions are looking beyond their areas of expertise and considering new areas of employment.

CareerBuilder just launched two tools to make this process easier for job seekers. Both tools work to identify jobs outside of a candidate’s current field: Jobs by Salary and Job Discovery Wizard. Here’s how they work:

Jobs by Salary
Job seekers use Jobs by Salary on CBsalary.com by entering in their preferred annual salary range and location. The free tool then generates a list of positions in a wide variety of industries that fall within those parameters. To help job seekers determine how they could transfer their skill into these positions, Jobs by Salary also provides the required training and education, full job description and long-term growth outlook through 2016.

For example, a job seeker who enters in a salary range of $65,000 to $69,999 in New York City, N.Y. can select “marketing communications manager” from the hundreds of different positions that are generated. The tool then offers the full job description for the position, that a bachelor’s degree is required and that the profession is forecasted to grow 14 percent by 2016.  It also provides links to area colleges and universities if the job seeker is interested in further education.

Job Discovery Wizard
The Job Discovery Wizard on CareerPath.com allows job seekers to explore new areas of employment based on the strength of their current skills and education. Job seekers start by selecting their current strengths from two wide ranging lists; one on skills categories that includes selections such as writing or critical thinking, and one on knowledge categories, with entries such as chemistry and psychology.

From there, job seekers rate their proficiencies on each skill and knowledge selection. With the push of a button, a detailed list of jobs that match those criteria is generated. Each position includes a detailed visual chart of the skills and knowledge a job seeker currently has, and more importantly, a list of what skills and certifications they still need. A basic job description, training requirements and employment outlook are also featured.

Check these out and start showing off your newfound awesomeness!