Go Out and Get It

At the American Chemical Society's Careers blog, Consultant Lisa Balbes says that it's up to job candidates to "take charge of your training." Balbes says that "it used to be that companies would hire capable, accomplished people and then train them on how to do the job." However, ACS Career Consultant John Borchardt said at a recent meeting that "companies are much less willing to tolerate employees' learning curves." To that end, it's up to job candidates "to determine what important skills are missing from your personal experience, or which ones you need to get better at, then find ways to get training and experience in those skills," Balbes says. She suggests volunteer opportunities, lunch-hour webinars, and community college courses as low-cost training options, should an employer not offer financial assistance. For the most part, she says, employers expect that "if there are parts of the job you are less familiar with, you ... learn how to do those on your own time, at your own expense."