1. Personal skill sets and attributes
2. Professional skill sets and attributes
3. Social skill sets and attributes

Personal skill sets and attributes

This is how you take care of yourself, as a person, as a social being and as an employee. Do you take care of your physical fitness? How you achieve a work/life balance is crucial for keeping you in good mental shape. Do you take care of your professional skill sets and social contacts? Do you relax and engage in recreation regularly so that you can give your best?

Professional skill sets and attributes

This is about your role as the employee and how you take care of that aspect. If other people can see you as being professional, it is easier for them to visualize your blending in with other professionals and systems.

Social skill sets and attributes

This is about how you adjust to other people, their ways of interacting, communicating, working together and being accepted by others.

The following skill sets and attributes are vital for getting a new job or a promotion to a new job.

• Communication skills – You can be very brilliant and have tons of skills, but if you cannot communicate well, your chances of getting employed or promoted decrease significantly. Though this is a part of interpersonal skills, communicating about your job, about yourself and managing results and expectations are specialized areas of interpersonal skills. Countless surveys have shown this. Employers responding to the US National Association of Colleges and Employers or NACE’s Job Outlook 2007 survey specified communication skills as the job seeker’s most important skills and qualities, rated 4,7 on a 1 to 5 scale.
• Motivation – This quality is absolutely vital. Motivation can be recognized in small details or from your attitude. Your motivation shows if you visited the company’s website and did your homework before coming to the job interview or, if you have found out what is required of you and acquired some skills through training to get the promotion you want. Passion for the job/work is a very strong factor in your favour. However, it should be apparent in your deeds and attitude and not in repeating like a parrot “I am passionate about this job”!
• Updating your Skills and Experience – An employee, who constantly evaluates her/his skills set and updates or upgrades them through training or other methods is a gem of an employee. The employer sees immediately the benefit of acquiring an achiever, if there are no other negative factors like arrogance, rudeness, meanness that erode this confidence.
• Resourcefulness – How do you cope when things go wrong? This is an important quality for many jobs though problem solving on your own may not be part of the job picture.
• Work Ethics - Honesty and integrity are very valued qualities. Employers look for dependability. If the employer can picture your being consistently able to deliver as agreed, you have got the job. Sometimes personal values may conflict with company values. How you resolve this conflict is an important factor deciding your employability or promotion.
• Diligence and Professionalism – No employer wants a lazy employee. So you need to prove that you are diligent. Professionalism varies across professions, but underlying it all is a desire to give your best in a recognizably competent fashion. You can be very lazy at times, recharging your batteries but overall you should come out as a diligent person. Having balanced and reasonable expectations about your employer is also a part of professionalism.
• Compatibility with the Job – In addition to the matching of skill sets and experience, you also need to be able to work with other people and other systems. Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, experience etc are illegal but your employability suffers greatly if the employer can detect a mismatch between your personal qualities and job skills and those required on the job. Some of these could be personality issues like communication style, management style, professional qualifications or simply lack of experience in the industry.
• Know-how about the industry and the job - This is what you are going to be hired for. Not only should you have evidence of your ability to do your job, but also that you see how your job fits the bigger picture in the organization or industry. Qualifications whether they are certificates, diplomas, degrees, or job experience all count as know-how and should be presented.
• Personality and Cultural Compatibility – Your potential employer or boss would definitely evaluate your personality on the job. How do you manage with other types of personalities? How would the company’s customers or clients react to you? Evidence of your coping skills with different personalities would affect the decision of your potential employer or superior.
• Management Style and Interpersonal Skills – How you manage other people, how you motivate others, convince others, and align people’s interests with those of the organization so that individuals can devote themselves and make even sacrifices for the greater good – this is the core of your management and interpersonal skills. It is beneficial for you to evaluate yourself if you fit in with the organization’s management systems.
• Blame Handling – Employers take special note of how you handle blame. Be careful not to speak ill of your previous boss or employer. The interviewer would then think “She will speak of me like this some day”!
• Interpersonal Skills – How you manage with other people from outside your immediate circle at work and make contacts, do you have hobbies, how you can convince others to help and to trust you – these are socialising skills that help you adapt to your social environment. If you cannot adapt successfully to your social environment, chances are that high that you will not succeed professionally.
• Faith - The last but not the least quality is faith, faith in yourself, and faith in your values. Optimism is very contagious and if you are optimistic (in a balanced manner though), you stand a much better chance of being employed or getting the promotion.

There comes a time when it’s not good to cry over what you don’t have, and I am glad at least I know this far ahead what other obstacles I’m looking at. They aren’t pretty, either.

After being directed to the Peace Corps website for information on tailoring myself for Jordanian service, I started to realize I honestly don’t have the skill sets they are looking for. For instance, one component is working with kids in recreational and fitness programs. I don’t have that sort of experience or physical stamina yet, but I could tailor myself to meet that need. I’d have to look at university programs for Physical Education majors and piece it together with the other liberal arts classes I completed. I’d also have to look at programs or day seminars that deal with children’s’ issues in order to help me be effective.

One option I have been mulling over is becoming a certified personal trainer after I finish my own transformation. I don’t know how long that would take, but it would certainly add some weight to my resume in this area.

Jordan is on the edge of a health care crisis that mirrors what the United States is starting to undergo. When I was there back in 2004, it was not uncommon to see 50-kilo bags of sugar kept in the kitchen. I can remember using about 4 cups of sugar in a small teapot, which is a huge amount! I had to stop drinking tea and switch to water because the excessive sugar bothered my teeth. As you might guess based on their sweet tooth, they of course have a diabetic problem, and right behind it is heart disease. They are obese, too – a report came out stating Jordan’s the 38th fattest country in the world. Our exported dietary behaviors have been exported and are now shaping up to kill their population.

It doesn’t help that next door in Saudi Arabia, 60% of all the women are considered obese, and the religious police harass women who try and walk for exercise. It is considered shameful to get healthy, and some ultra-religious people are saying it will emancipate women and contribute to moral decline. The ultra-religious seem to be ignorant of a simple fact: you sit, you die. What good is a society plagued with preventable diseases? Where’s the obligation to take care of what God has given you – i.e., your body? Christians believe the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and if it’s riddled with disease, what kind of home are you honoring God with? Isn’t there an obligation to live long enough to raise your children to adulthood? If you’re sick, you can’t raise anyone, much less yourself out of bed.

I wonder how the idea of exercise in Jordan will play out – if the ultra-conservatives will win, or if the secular portion of society will see the benefits and ignore the crazy assumptions girls seeing each other changing in locker rooms will turn them into lesbians. If the government is smart, they will realize the nonsense of such baseless arguments. They must realize with half the population being under the age of 30, if this generation does not learn to move and exercise, the health care costs of inactivity will bankrupt the country. Who will pay into the tax base if half the country’s elderly, and the other half are sick with preventable diseases? Even worse, how many of that 50% will be medically classified as unable to work? They’ve got a crisis that must be addressed – and soon!

Perhaps I’ll have to take some classes on nutrition and holistic medicine. I’m not talking about chanting a past life liver problem away while burning incense for the benefit of a misaligned charka, I’m thinking more down to earth with vitamins and other supplements. Anything that could help improve the dietary habits of those at risk should be welcomed with open arms, but that’s theory.

I’m wondering if I’ll have to take up some child psychology classes to make things look good, too. People are too big on stroking kids’ egos these days to make them feel great for having done absolutely nothing. A report that came out today said the kids in college have been tagged the “Me” generation and believe the world revolves around them. I think I need to tread lightly around this area or else I could end up in trouble, culturally speaking.

It’s a given I’ll have to learn to teach English as a foreign language and become certified in that area, too. At first I thought, “how hard can this be?” but I soon learned it’s not as easy as it would appear. I grew up having to learn the parts of speech and diagram sentences, and I was so glad when I got out of seventh grade because I knew I’d never have to do it again. Well, that’s one of the many lies I accidentally told myself along life’s little journey, and I do need to relearn all the stuff I’ve forgotten. Ouch!

Arabic lessons will also be in my future – if I can demonstrate a certain amount of proficiency, then chances are good I’ll be sent to Jordan. The other country in the region that’s a possibility is Morocco, but they speak more French than Arabic, which is mainly used as the language of the Qu’ran. I suspect in this day and age, it has been translated into a North African French dialect and is commonly read in their native tongue. It seems the only ones who read the Qu’ran in Arabic are the native Arabic speakers, and in the case of non-Arabic native speakers, Qu’ranic students and scholars.

I’m also seeing volunteering amongst the Arab populations in the area for a good reference. If you have some experience with blending into the population you want to serve, to me it seems like volunteering is a great way to learn first hand. Who knows if I’ll be accepted as my experience has been the Arab community in Dallas are quite closed to outsiders. This is strange considering when I was in Jordan, everyone was very friendly to me.

There are several directions I can go in to make myself more attractive to receive an invitation from Jordanian officials, and as the picture clears, I will know what I need to do. If you’re looking at the Peace Corps and you want to pick a specific country, make sure you tailor your skills to it before you start the process. If you turn down an invitation from another country, the Peace Corps will not extend to you a second invitation. You’ve got one chance – make it count!

If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the appropriate site.

I signed in to the meeting and chatted with a nameless recruiter only to be known as “from Peace Corps to All Participants”, which instantly gave me a sense of great warmth and intimacy with the moderator. I soon realized after a moment or two I was the only one in this meeting, which was a bit unsettling at first, but I decided to make the most of the opportunity presented to me and started asking questions knowing I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of others.

The Deployment

One thing I looked everywhere on the Peace Corps website was about the deployment process, but it’s not there. It’s kind of important to know how long you have between the invitation and the actual deployment – you need to shut down your American lifestyle quickly. There are things like your bank account, your apartment lease, your car, and your household items that need to be quickly liquidated and settled.

So, how long do you have? Well, according to the recruiter, it’s about an eight week period, BUT there’s a catch: the invitation you accepted could be changed or filled by another PC volunteer in the meantime. This means you could have accepted and packed for Bolivia, and by the time you hit the plane, you could be sent to the Artic circle, which could stink if you’ve got shorts and need North Face gear. There’s no guarantees you’ll be sent to the country you accepted an invitation to by the end of the 8 week period, and keep in mind it might be sooner than 8 weeks. Nothing’s written in stone with the government.

The Invitation

You cannot request the country you want to serve in, but you can request the region. It doesn’t mean you will be stationed in that country, either. In order to get into the country of your choice, you need to develop the necessary skill sets before you apply. That still doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be in the country of your choice – it just increases your odds of a positive outcome when it comes to placements. Ok, so how do you figure out what skill sets you need for a specific country or region? Start here and read between the lines and then paste your future together the best you can.

One aspect I did manage to worm out of the recruiter was confirmation that the invitation does tell you what country is asking you to come. That’s important for a variety of reasons – you need to know where you’re going to be stationed, you need to know how to pack, and you need to learn the language (or start learning to).

Declining an Invitation

This is something crucial for me – I wanted to find out what happens when you turn down an invitation. Turns out you’re all but toast in the eyes of the Peace Corps. Here’s the exact wording from the meeting:

“If you are declining an invitation because you are holding out for a specific country, you will likely not get another invitation. If you have a reasonable cause for declining, medical or other, you may get another invitation. Peace Corps is looking for motivated and committed individuals to do a job in a community that needs their particular skill set.”

To me, this is pretty amazing on multiple levels. First, if you’re bold enough to request an area to serve, then you’re committed to meeting that community’s needs. If you’ve also made it through the “meat grinder” process the Peace Corps puts you through (all you have to do is read a few sites to see this is the norm, not the exception to the rule), you must be committed to serving or else you wouldn’t have put yourself through the hell in the first place.

Think about all the expensive tests not covered by health insurance, or if you’re lucky, 50% dental coverage – all that money you have to shell out to make sure you’re exceptionally healthy so you don’t cost the government, and when you turn down one invite, you are considered uncommitted and most likely, unreliable in their eyes!

Invitation Alternatives

I started to worry about the invitation situation a bit and then understood there might be a way around it. If God has taught me one thing, it’s “if you can’t go through the front door, go to the back and I’ll let you in.” If nothing’s impossible for God, then in theory there should be some flexibility with the Peace Corps, so I decided to use the back door approach.

“Assuming I take a posting that puts me in another country other than Jordan…if I re-enlist after the 27 months, will I have a better shot at being placed in the region, or are my odds the same as a new PCV?”

“If your skills are needed in the area that you preference, you may have a good chance of going there to begin with, however if they are not, sending you to Jordan would be less about the Peace Corps and more about your personal goals. Your chances remain the same, even if you are re-enlisting.”

It’s rather ironic that my goals should strictly be about the Peace Corps and have nothing personally to do with me. After all, I’m the one that has to sit there for 27 months of my life, I’m the one committed to the program, but I have to leave “me” at the door.

“I would not encourage you to focus on a country though, as this can be construed as you wanting to serve in Jordan, and not in Peace Corps.”

I understand, but at the same time, I don’t. It’s typical governmental double-speak. You don’t want someone who’s going to shoot off their mouth and create a mess in the community – there has to be some level of conformity for cultural and safety reasons. I don’t understand what’s the difference between serving in Jordan and serving in the Peace Corps – the commitment, the job, the service is all the same.

Roadblocks In My Future

If there’s anything that scares me most about the Peace Corps process, it’s the bankruptcy that’s hanging over my head. It’s important to know how that’s going to be viewed for a legal clearance. I hated to ask, but I knew I had to.

“If you are able to adequately cover your costs while serving in the Peace Corps, it should not be a problem. If you are trying to leave debt, financial, and legal obligations, behind, then you would not be able to successfully do so with the Peace Corps.”

The recruiter said the Peace Corps does not put any weight against a past financial history, but they do want to make sure your current situation is in order. This is good news for me – many who try to apply for governmental jobs are turned down if there’s a bankruptcy in their past. I can understand the motivation because they’re afraid the person in question could be easily compromised with a financial incentive. Then again, what’s the purpose of bribing a broke person who’s stationed out in a mud puddle – there’s no place to spend it!

The Proverbial Forgotten Questions

I had a couple of questions on my mind that I forgot to ask was about the readjustment salary of approximately $6,000 and re-enlistments. I wanted to know if you choose not to re-enlist at the end of your 27 month tour, if you use the readjustment salary to buy your own ticket home, or if you get to pocket the cash. I’ve read some conflicting information regarding it, and I still don’t know the answer.

The other question I had was if you re-enlist for a second tour of service, at the end of your 54 month period, do you receive $6,000 or $12,000, or do they tax your $6,000 and issue you the remaining amount while you’re still stationed?

Speaking of taxes and how you deal with it because you’re drawing a stipend, I did ask this through email awhile ago to another recruiter, and here is her answer:

“Peace Corps volunteers do not pay taxes to the host country because you are getting the “salary” from the US government. The IRS does not tax you on your stipend, however there is other monies that you will be taxed on. On our website it tells you that you will receive $6075 at the end of service. This is basically $225 for every month you serve. You will be taxed on this income. There is also “walk around money” for conferences and official visits to the Peace Corps office/other parts of the country. This amount will differ from country to country, but it was about $10/day in Romania. This is in addition to your stipend. Just taking into consideration Peace Corps service, your taxes will be very small. In fact you probably will not make more than $6000.”

Above it says the IRS does not tax you, but it doesn’t say you do not have to file your income tax report. Maybe the Peace Corps does this for you, or perhaps they send you the W2 in your email or to the nearest local PC office where you’re stationed. I guess this requires a follow up with more details to avoid a big mess later on down the road.

If you don’t like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the appropriate site.