Identifying your skills impartially and realistically is fundamental in building a solid career plan if you want to navigate the job market with ease!
The idea here is to help you with this groundwork by showing you a simple and well-structured approach to describing your skills and strengths and thereby showcase your profile.
The Step-by-Step Method:
Start by listing your professional and personal experiences. If you already have a résumé, you can use it to help trace your career path. (Take the Develop Your Personal Job Search Strategy course to create or improve your résumé!)
Next, you will pinpoint which skills you have used: knowledge, expertise and/or social skills.
Assess your level of proficiency based on your accomplishments and goals achieved.
You could also set skill development goals, so you can expand your skill portfolio and be a good fit for the type of profile companies look for in your profession.
We suggest you follow the method below, step-by-step, if you want to stack all the odds in your favor! (We’ll go into more detail on steps 3 and 4 in the next chapter.)
Take Stock of Your Skills
List Your Professional and Personal Experiences
Even if you’re only 20 years old, you’ve already had many experiences in life: studies, travel, internships, people you’ve met, the list goes on!. You may have participated in athletic or artistic challenges, or contributed to or run charity or humanitarian projects. You have certainly had experiences that have forged aspects of your character, like bravery, tenacity and helpfulness. In some cases, simply studying away from home or taking a gap year has helped develop your independence and a sense of responsibility.
Think about all of your previous professional and personal experiences, because they are all of interest! They have helped you learn more about a particular sector, profession, working method, product, etc. and develop your skills. You’ve been able to forge social skills in practical circumstances that can be applied in a professional environment.
As well as purely professional experiences, here are some examples of other experiences you can include in your research.
Student and summer jobs
Short/long internships
Volunteer work
Experiences linked to student life (collective projects, tutoring work, etc.)
Travel, leisure and cultural activities
The table below gives examples of various experiences you might have had.
Category | Experiences |
Job(s) | Administrative assistant at City Hall
|
Internship(s) | 1-month practical internship (during 1st year of college): Salesperson in a bakery 4-month internship: Project assistant at an SMB |
Volunteer work | First aid provider with the Red Cross After school program tutor |
Student activities | Group project: Creating an organization to help people with disabilities find and keep work |
Travel | 3-month trip to Spain 2-month trip to Russia |
Cultural activities | Studied piano for 10+ years |
Exercise |
Use the example above as a model and fill out the chart with your own experiences and examples. |
Identify Experience-Based Skills
You’ve listed your experiences. Now, let’s work on expressing them as skills!
You’ve had the opportunity to work on or complete various projects, convince clients or prospects, design a website, prepare an advertising campaign, etc.
In each case, you’ve drawn on qualities and used your knowledge, expertise, social skills, etc.
But which ones? 😅
Some of you may find an intermediate step useful if you have trouble identifying your skills directly. For each experience, list the projects and tasks you were entrusted with, the responsibilities you assumed, the results obtained and the goals you achieved.
In order to determine which skills you have developed, let's adapt the skill formula that we used in the previous chapter.
Begin your sentence with, “After completing this experience, I am able to/I have learned to…”
Then, add an action verb.
Next, add the object of the action.
Follow the object with the context in which the action took place, e.g., the location, circumstances, time period, etc.
Lastly, add evidence of the skill: “because I had to do/I did…”
To be as comprehensive as possible, it's useful to also try this process backwards.
Look carefully at what you have created and achieved. In other words, start with your output.
Pinpoint the skill(s) you have used and therefore proved!
For example:
“I created the schedule for the regional basketball tournament…” ⤵️
“...therefore, I am capable of planning and organizing a large sports event with up to 20 different teams.”
It’s your turn now! 😁
Exercise |
|
Experiences | Skills developed | Output/concrete proof of these skills |
Administrative assistant at City Hall (summer job) | “Thanks to this experience, I am capable of...” ...creating Excel charts showing the change in demand for subsidized housing. | The Excel charts produced
|
1-month practical internship (during first year of college): Salesperson in a bakery
| “Thanks to this experience, I am capable of...” ...ensuring customers receive good quality service during peak periods. | A reference letter from the bakery owner
|
First aid provider with the Red Cross
| “Thanks to this experience, I am capable of...” ...rapidly identifying emergency situations. ...coming to the assistance of injured persons. | First Aid Certificate
|
You can keep this table up-to-date throughout your career. Never forget to build and manage your skills portfolio.
Let's Recap!
Analyzing your skills is essential in building a plan that is both coherent and sound. It will help you develop your career plan and make real choices based on what you do well and what you enjoy doing! Use a four-step method to pinpoint your skills.
List all your experiences, whether professional or personal, including internships, volunteer work, travel, etc.
Pinpoint the skills you have used or developed for each experience. Remember to prove the skill: What result can I show or explain?
Head to the next chapter for steps 3 and 4!
