A 3-Dimensional Look at Skills - Why It's Good to Know Your Skills, Anytime, Anywhere

Whether you're new to the job search scene or a veteran who is actively contemplating a shift, it never hurts to keep a running inventory of your skills. Why and when it's helpful to know your skills: Knowing your skills makes it easier to respond to job postings and speak to recruiters. Every job description or ad has at least a cursory list of "required" and "preferred" skills that will help you tailor your resume and cover letter and prepare for an interview. Having these clear in your mind when you're researching jobs will help you figure out pretty fast how you stack up, and potential employers will want to know soon after "hello" what you have to offer them. By defining your skills, you will be better prepared to approach networking contacts. When you're networking for work, you need to take the lead in marketing yourself with information your contact can use - such as your skills and experience - for effectively referring you to other people who may know of a relevant job. "Chance favors the prepared mind." -- Louis Pasteur You never know when a great job could appear in an unforeseen context, when and where you'd least expect it. If a dream job should suddenly appear on the horizon with a tight window to apply or you should meet someone who happens to be hiring right at that very moment, you'll be able to respond quickly and effectively. Hopefully you're convinced of the value of keeping track of your skills. Now, what kinds of skills are we talking about? Skills can be sorted into three categories: Category Definition Answers this question Examples Transferable Actions that can be carried out in any number of different settings What can you do? write, coordinate, analyze, present, delegate Personal quality How you approach tasks; traits that contribute to how you perform work How do you go about doing what you do? diplomatic, results oriented, independent, imaginative, conscientious Knowledge based Subject matter, procedures or information that you know about; learned through education, job experience, hobbies or other activities What do you know (about)? Adobe Photoshop, Egyptian art, social science research methods, accounting principles Here's how you can mine your experience for these kinds of skills: Think back on your life and make a list of positive experiences that were important to you, that you take pride in, had fun doing, and in which you felt some degree of success. Write a story describing each experience as fully as you can, with as much detail as you can remember. As you do so, think about: What you did - what transferable skills did you demonstrate? How you handled the situation - what outstanding personal qualities did you exhibit? Was there anything unique about your approach? It may help to think about positive feedback you received from professors, classmates, workplace supervisors, or coworkers. What subject matter you had under your belt that enabled you to accomplish the task - what knowledge based skills did you use? You might also try working on this exercise with a friend or in a small group, taking turns reading your stories to each other and brainstorming responses to the questions above. However you go about cataloguing your skills, it's never too early to start. Even if you don't use the information right away, you will benefit immediately from seeing the many skills you have!