Why understanding job analysis and descriptions lead to better comfortability in roles and suitability of positions.
Experiences
At this point in my college career, I have reviewed more internship and job descriptions than I can count. After looking through to see what I believe would best suit me, I do the process of going through and seeing what skills are required to fulfill the roles.
This whole process, while very lengthy, can teach a person a lot about the fields they want to go in. Job descriptions are necessary parts of understanding what will be asked of you in any given positions. KSAO’s are a key part of the job that people must have in order to carry out the roles assigned in a job.
KSAO’s, or Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other Characteristics are all ways to specify what an employee should be able to do. Using some of these, I have been able to help discover jobs, and even help write job descriptions for organizations I’ve worked at.
Overcoming Challenges
Some of the best ways to navigate job descriptions are to understand what base level skills are needed for any given task. My job is in a kitchen. At any given time there were a lot of things that I was in charge of, but to start I listed out all the base level tasks. I was on my feet a good portion of the time so I had to let people know that this is a very physically demanding job. I was in charge of equipment and food and having an Oregon Food Handler’s Card was a requirement. From there, it was easier to narrow down what was essential parts of the job. We did catering with students so safety and sanitation was a priority. After that, branching out to what exactly we needed the employees to do got a lot easier.
