Here's a quick way to compare your own job experience and qualifications with those that your prospective employer is looking for in a specific job position. Make an “Interview Preparation List". When you prepare for a job interview, it's good to have a quick reference of your past work experience that you can study ahead of time to help prepare you for the specific job you're interviewing for.

Grab a sheet of paper and make three columns.

Column A will be 'Position Requirements'; Column B will be 'Your Qualifications and Experience'; and

Column C will list 'Your Stories'. For this exercise, you'll be using the actual job description from the employer.

So, in Column A (Position Requirements) you'll take one piece of the job description and write for example: 'Ability to work well with others.' Ok. Now you'll have to think about your own experiences while working well with others. What specific examples do you have that demonstrates this ability?

Great. You've thought of something. In this example, we'll write under Column B (Your Qualifications and Experience) 'Worked on the XYZ project team.'

Now you need to break it down even further and list a specific action-oriented example of 'working well with others' on the XYZ project team.

In Column C (Your Stories) you write something like this: 'Coordinated winning marketing campaign which resulted in a successful launch of new product.' Wow. See how successful that makes you look?

Keep going until you've listed something for every part of the job description. Use your list when preparing for a job interview or even to prepare your resume.