Identifying Your Skills

Looking At Skills in More Detail

Once you have found the areas where you feel you have skills, you will need to generate a more detailed list of the skills, knowledge and experience you have acquired. Think of things you have done in your current job, your previous jobs, projects and assignments and outside activities, and try to answer the following questions to identify the specific skills you have used.

1. People

Did you work with people in any of your previous work? If so, in what way? Teaching or training them? Communicating with them? Persuading them or selling something to them? Was leadership involved?

2. Things

Did you work with things in any of your previous work? What sort of things? Machines or tools? Were physical skills, like hand-eye coordination important?

3. Data

Did you work with data in any of your previous work? How? Did you have to organise or administer it? Was attention to detail important? Were you collating information or figures? Were financial skills involved? Were IT skills used?

4. Ideas

Did you work with ideas in any of your previous work? Did this include designing something? Were you creating something? Researching or finding out about it? How did you plan this work?

Highlighting Knowledge and Experience

Next, list the knowledge that you used when carrying out the activities in each job or role. Did you need specific educational, academic or professional qualifications? Did you gain any knowledge from performing in this job?

Finally, list the experience you gained from taking part in this activity. What did you like or dislike about it? Did you work as part of a team or on your own? What special experience do you associate with this job?