It can be difficult to search for a job. You need to understand your strengths and weaknesses. You need to know how to promote yourself. You can significantly increase your chances of finding and keeping a job.
The following guide will help you to promote yourself and your skills to an employer.
Prepare-know yourself, your skills and limitations
You need to know your skills, interests, abilities, limitations and job goals to promote yourself to employer. You should also decide whether to disclose your disability to an employer and when you might do this:
Be clear about any special requirements or workplace adjustments that an employer will need to know about, including ways to meet these requirements. You should ensure that you can communicate these clearly to an employer. For example, when the requirements for a job are discussed, identify simple adjustments that will help you to perform the job tasks. You can also point your employer to sources of expert advice about adjustments.
Consider using the Employment Assistance Fund. The Employment Assistance Fund helps people with disability. It provides financial assistance to purchase a range of work-related modifications and services:
Gain a full understanding of your skills, interests and abilities. Make a list of jobs that interest you. Identify the tasks involved in these jobs. Make sure you can safely perform all or most of these tasks.
Disability Employment Services and Job Services Australia providers can help work through these steps. For details on locating an employment service provider in your local area, visit:
It is a good idea to know about the financial help and wage information available to employers so that you can discuss them with the employer if needed:
Talking to employers
It can be a challenge to talk positively about your disability to employers. It’s easier to explain your skills and circumstances at face to face meetings with employer.
When talking to employers:
- keep discussions brief and to the point
- provide solutions to address any restrictions you may have or , workplace adjustments you may need
- use positive words, for example 'I am able to….'
- highlight your skills and abilities
- don’t dwell on your disability
- think positively
The following guides will help you with phoning or writing to an employer:
Be aware of and pre-empt employer concerns
Employers may be concerned about employing a person with disability. For common concerns employers usually raise, together with common sense solutions for dealing with them, visit: